In a bid to build the ICT capacities of the academic staff especially in the use of multi-media technologies for teaching and learning, the Federal University Ndufu-Alike Ikwo (FUNAI), Ebonyi State, recently organized a hands-on training to prepare and usher them into the first semester of the 2017/2018 academic session.
Declaring the week-long event open, the Vice Chancellor, Professor Chinedum Nwajiuba stressed the importance of ICT in the 21st century knowledge-based economy, adding that the training would enhance the teaching, learning and research activities of the institution, helping it attain its aspiration of becoming a world class University.
The Vice Chancellor who was represented at the occasion by the Deputy Vice Chancellor, Professor Sunday Elom, urged the lecturers to: “Take the opportunity seriously considering the importance of PowerPoint presentation in the teaching profession in this 21st century”, noting that the problem with the Nigerian education sector was mostly lack of proper management and capacity.
He further stated that attendance to the training was compulsory, adding that it would also form one of the criteria for the payment of staff salary.
Earlier in his opening remarks, the Director of the Centre for Human Resource Development under whose auspices the workshop was organized, Professor Olufemi Adeyeye said: “Considering our today’s contemporary society, there is a paradigm shift from chalkboard to PowerPoint”; saying that “we have to be technologically equipped so as to meet the prevailing needs of the 21st century.” He maintained that power point presentation was very important in the everyday teaching and learning activities.
Speaking on the imperativeness of PowerPoint Presentation in today’s education, Handel Emezue emphasized its relevance to include easy connection between students and lecturers; increase in visual arts and design, and easy storage and retrieval of information.
Matthew Eze in his presentation maintained that PowerPoint possesses the capacity to formulate charts, tables and objects used for teaching and learning, adding that it helps in analytical expressions, both for verbal and visual comprehension.
Other resource persons that included Chidiebere Eze also enlightened the lecturers on the use for PowerPoint in text and image formatting to create designs.
The training was one of the numerous avenues the University is adopting to make its academic staff ICT-savvy in order to meet the demands of 21stt century teaching and learning experience, all geared towards churning out graduates that possess the relevant functional knowledge and sellable skills to compete favourably in a globalized economy.