CHAPTER ONE

1.0 INTRODUCTION

science education, information and communication technology (ICT) are at present becoming one of the most important elements defining the basic competences of students. Information technology integrates medial, informative and computer science education, but also all the educational subjects mentioned in the curriculum basis of general education. In science and biology education there increasingly appear concepts of integrated teaching showing the student the world in a holistic manner. The principle of universal activity of students in cognitive, emotional and motivations well as in practical sphere is preferred. More and more oen attention is paid to the fact that the contemporary problem is not so much lack of information as its surplus, and the crowd of information as well as its unnecessary excess of details may be an eective tool of disinformation. Hence forming students such skills as selection, evaluation and organizing of information (forming its structure) seems justified, so that they can serve drawing conclusions (Wikipedia, 2012). Ability to work with information and communication technologies (ICT) is recognized as one of the key competencies necessary for success in life and competition in the labour market (Levy and Murmane, 2001; Salganic. 2001: Eurydice, 2002) which every citizen should posses (Recommendation of the European parliament and of the council, 2006), and term ‘computer literacy’ was introduced to distinguish between users and non users of ICT (Bawden, 2001). Concerning ICT, two important roles are assigned to schools. The first is to fulfill the expectation of society for demanding ICT skills, and the second is to raise the quality of education in the schools with the support the ICT. Many scholars, teachers and teacher-trainers have recognized the potential of ICT to enhance teaching and learning and as a side eect the number of published articles about the use of ICT in school work is enormous (Bell and Bell, 2003).

However, despite significant investment in training and resources, in reality school are still far below the level of ICT use in science, transport, communication industry, and many other fields (Hawkins 2002; Hepp, Hinostroza, Lawal and Rehbein, 2004; Machin, McNally and Silva, 2007; Eteokleous, 2008). Usage of ICT in schools is so diverse that it is almost impossible to list all possible applications. Taylor (1980, 2003) recognized three roles of computers in a classroom as tutor, tool and tutee. Introduction of ICT in biology lessons can raise not only level of knowledge but students attitudes towards biology as well (Haunsel and Hill, 1989; Kubiatko and Halakovia, 2009). As biology (Science) teachers we additionally have to distinguish between two groups of applications. In the first group are generic application used in all subjects like word-processing, searching for information, communication using emails and multimedia presentations. In this case if a science teacher does not use ICT in a classroom damage to the students is limited because they can achieve missing skills with their work in other subjects, or at home (Kuhlemier and Hemker, 2007).

In the second group are applications adapted or developed to be used in science teaching (MCFarlane and Sakellariou, 2002) like imaging systems in microscopy (McLeans 2000; Fidhe, Bonvin and Bosman, 2006), virtual dissections (O’Byme, Patry, and Cannegie, 2008), simulations (Ramasundaram Grunwald, Mangent Cameford and Bliss, 2005) virtual laboratory (Jenkins, 2004) and real laboratory exercises with data acquisition system ( Sorgo, Hajdinjak and Briski, 2008). The most important difference among these two groups of applications is that if a science teacher does not use such application in teaching students in most cases they would not be able to compensate loss with work in other subjects or at home. The introduction of computers into the teaching and learning in Nigerian secondary schools has followed two general tracks. The first one was the introduction of the compulsory subjects, computer science and or informatics, into the curriculum. The second one involved the use of computers in a rainbow of different of different subjects. The introduction of computer into student work in other subjects is encouraged by the authorities, but the final decision about their use in teaching is le to the discretion of the teachers. The difference between these two paths is that teachers from the first group are trained professionals in computer science and informatics while teachers from the second group are more less enlightened ‘computer amateurs’. Occasionally cooperation between a teacher of informatics and a teacher from some other subject occurs and enhance student work (Sorgo and Logar, 2006).