BENEFICIAL USE OF THE SOCIAL MEDIA
EARLY CHILD EDUCATION, ICT REVOLUTION AND BENEFICIAL
USE OF THE SOCIAL MEDIA[1]
J N Nmadu[2]
Department of
Agricultural Economics and Farm Management
Federal University of
Technology, Minna
Protocol:
I
am delighted to be invited to participate in the Annual Prize giving Day of
this great institution that has earned reputation over the years. I recall with
sense of fulfilment and nostalgia my days in ‘this School’ from 1972 to 1975
and the enviable position of “The St. John’s School”. Of the primary schools in
Bida at that time, the school was the most populous and most popular to the
extent that parents bring their children from as far away as Badeggi and Farm
Centre along Lemu Road to School every morning. In terms of academic excellence
and other social and extra-curricular activities, the School stood out. And
most particularly, in football, St. John’s School and Sabon-Gida Primary
Schools were the ‘Man U’ and ‘Arsenal’ in Bida at the time. I remember
very well that anytime there was going to be a match between the two ‘Clubs’,
the whole town was charged and the match often end in quarrels and crisis. It
was the belief of the St. John’s School that time that Sabon-Gida was always fetish
and so anytime there was a match, the goal posts were always ‘neutralized’ by
spraying lime juice on the goal lines. Those of us in the Boarding house had
very unique starting point in our career development as it was an all-round
training. We participated in the cooking of meals with the cooks, we were
automatically choir members each time the Harvest Thanksgiving was celebrated
as there was no standing choir in the Church as it is today. People like Mr.
and Mrs. Ajayi (only members of St. John’s Church, they are still alive and
living in Minna presently) then impacted in our lives and teachers like Mr.
Somoji are names that pupils of the school won’t forget in a hurry with his
style of ‘e la yaya wo kpan’ each time he was going to flog a more
senior pupil in the class. It was a wonderful experience. I could also recall
that I wrote my first letter when I was in Primary Two to one of my
uncles who was teaching in one of the Schools elsewhere. It is quite disappointing
that the level of enthusiasm to learn and the mad rush for paper qualification
has reduced the education system to battleground for examination malpractice
and misconduct.
In
my book “Computer appreciation and operation”[3] published in 1999, it was
remarked thus “Recently, the US President told a school gathering that computers would
link all the schools in the US by the year 2000”.
This statement was made at a time when computer and computing were still a
fussy idea and thereafter the revolution that followed and grew rapidly over
the last 20 years is unprecedented. Let me just illustrate this point with the
size of computer hard disk. The first time I had the opportunity of using a
computer was sometime in 1992 and up till that 1999 that I published my book,
the size of a computer hard disk was typically around 50 – 100 MB. I am sure some
of you listening to this speech today have hand held devices with you that
carry memory card of between 4-64 GB[4]. The ICT[5] revolution started when
Windows Operating System (WOS) replaced the more difficult to use Disk
Operating System (DOS) by Microsoft around 1993. With this innovation, the
concept of multimedia was introduced to computing where it was now possible to
play music and watch movies with the computer. Then also came the advent of the
internet[6] which now makes it
possible for computers to be connected to share information. And then the big
one: the advent of the social media[7] starting with Facebook.
Today, we have countless number of social connections like GSM, Twitter,
LinkedIn, WhatsApp, Instagram, Skype, Telegram, YouTube, Google, etc.
The
availability of the computer, the various hand-held devices, the connectivity
and the platforms have made exchange of ideas and information seamlessly easy. Learning
has also been made easy and enhanced, increasing the prospect for doing well in
our career development. It is now possible to learn and understand difficult
subjects and topics as there are countless number of tutorials on the internet.
We can also pose questions on the internet and get answers to them easily. In
my experience, I have also used the internet to study the Bible, and learn to
live better by it. I find it difficult to know if at all there is hardly
anything that we want to do and achieve success today that we cannot find help
and assistance on the internet or social media[8]. So, early child education
has been enhanced by ICT and social media.
However,
this vast resources of help (F1), assistance and opportunity has not been used
by our youth today for learning, rather, it is serving as an agent of
distraction, diversion and destruction. Violence, fraud and cybercrimes are in
common today among our youth who ought to use the opportunity they have for
better learning, skills acquisition and excellency. Murders, fornication and adultery,
hacking and stealing peoples’ information and assets (Yahoo-yahoo), cyberbullying,
fast spreading of false and malicious information, high rate of deceit (someone
could be in Bida and claim to have travelled to Lagos) and addiction are common
place. Today, during Church services, rather than concentrate on the activities
in the Service, youth are found chatting with friends on the social media, some
even watching pornographic movies and sites. Rather than concentrate on
the lesson in the class, some pupils and students chat with friends with smartphones
sneaked into the class and, even though phones are not supposed to be carried
to the school. Those in the Boarding House find means of smuggling phones into
the hostel and instead of attending classes and concentrating in Prep, they are
chatting away their future in the surrounding bush.
While
trying to conclude, they say that the best way to enumerate the advantages of a
system or activities is to try and enumerate the disadvantages. They also say,
a word is enough for the wise. Those of us still remaining in the School, make
proper use of the internet for positive transformation, effective learning,
skills development and most of all, use the internet to get closer to God, after
all, the satellites in space transmitting the signals by which we send and
receive information via the internet are God’s gift to mankind.
Those
of us whose sojourn within this School is over and would find themselves in the
‘world’, stay close to God, use the social media positively, not as Yahoo-yahoo
or any of the negative ways already enumerated. Use it to develop yourself and
be a responsible citizen of Nigeria that this School would always be proud of.
And when things are good with you, remember your Alma Mater.
Thank
you for listening.
Bida.
August
01, 2019.
[1] Being a Keynote Address presented at the Annual Speech and
Prize giving Day of St. John’s School, Bida on 1st August, 2019 held
in the School Premises. The views expressed
in this paper are entirely my ideas and does not in any way represent views of
any other persons or groups.
[2] Professor of Agricultural
Economics whose interest in econometrics modelling has been largely inspired by
his early exposure to computer and computing in 1992 when people still consider
computer with some sort of mystery.
[3] Nmadu
J.N. Computer appreciation and operation. Published by Yekabo Educational Publishers,
Bida in conjunction with Akan Communications, Bida ISBN 978-32573-7-4, 1st
edition 1998 printed 1999, 2nd edition 2001 printed 2002
[4] 1GB is about 1024MB
[5] Stands for "Information and
Communication Technologies." ICT refers to technologies that provide
access to information through telecommunications. It is similar to Information
Technology (IT), but focuses primarily on communication technologies. This
includes the Internet, wireless networks, cell phones, and other communication
mediums.
[6] INTERNET is International
Network, a global computer
network providing a variety of information and communication facilities,
consisting of interconnected networks using standardized communication
protocols.
[7] Websites and applications that enable users to
create and share content or to participate in social networking. For a
list of the various apps see https://makeawebsitehub.com/social-media-sites/
[8] Interestingly, I have discovered
tunes to most hymns in the Church Hymnal through the internet.
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