Utilization Of Web 2.0 Technologies By Agricultural Lecturers In South- South Tertiary Institutions Nigeria

ABSTRACT 

The study examined the utilization of web 2.0 technologies by Agricultural Lecturers in South -South tertiary institutions in Nigeria, precisely; UNICAL, UNIUYO and UNIPORT. The specific objectives were to; describes the personal characteristics of the respondents; ascertain respondents perceived benefit of the use of web 2.0 technologies in the study area; determine the effectiveness of web 2.0 technology for delivering web-based instruction in the study area; ascertain the level of web 2.0 technologies utilization by the respondents in the study area; and examine constraints affecting the utilization of web 2.0 technologies by the respondents. Purposive and proportionate sampling techniques were used to select 168 Agricultural lecturers who had undergone training on web 2.0 technology in the study area. Primary data were collected with a well-structured questionnaire. Primary data were analyzed using descriptive statistics such as frequency counts; means scores, percentages (%) and inferential statistics such as t-test of significance at 5% level. The studies revealed that, majority of the respondents were within the age bracket of 45 years old (37.5%) while the 2.4% of respondents were between 55 years. Majority (64.9%) of the respondents were males while 35.1% were females. Majority (84.5%) of the respondents were married while 11.3% were single. A good proportion (50.0%) of respondents earned N200,000 as their salary while few earned N400,000 (2.4%) per month. More than half of the sampled population of the (28.6%) respondents attained the rank of Assistant Lecturer while few (1.2%) attained the rank of professor. The finding of the result also found that, web 2.0 tools on the perceived benefits (indicators) help to improve skills in using web 2.0 Technology ( =3.1); helps me keep updated in my research field ( facilitates collaborative learning ( 2.9)  Wikipedia ( =4.1), You Tube ( =4.0), Blog ( =3.7) etc were very effective web 2.0 tools for delivery of web-based instruction in the study area, while few respondents fairly utilized Dropbox ( =2.7), Skype ( =2.5) and Podcast ( =2.0) among others were  fairly effectively use to argument academic activities rather as a social networking platform. More so, relatively high number of respondents utilize Wikipedia ( =4.1), Goggle Apps ( =3.9) and You Tube ( =3.9) among others regularly while Whatsapp ( =2.6), Flickr ( = 2.4) Facebook ( =2.3), were irregularly used in the study area. Majority of respondent strongly that agreed skill and knowledge to use of such technologies ( =4.4), high cost of computer ( =4.1), unstable power supply ( =3.7), poor internet bandwidth ( =3.6) influence the integration and utilization of web tools ineffectively. For hypothesis one, the study found no significant relationship between perceptions of web 2.0 technologies and the use of web 2.0 technologies at 5% level of significance. The t-cal (1.895) was higher than t-tab (1.96) on the perceived benefit; null hypothesis was accepted and alternative rejected. For hypothesis two, the study found significant relationship between effectiveness of web 2.o technologies and the utilization at 5% level of significance. The t-cal (166.244) was much higher than t-tab (1.96) on the effectiveness. The null hypothesis was rejected, and the alternative hypothesis accepted. The correlation coefficients of the hypotheses were further subjected to t-test of significance of relationship. The study concluded that there was low level of utilization of web 2.0 technologies by the respondents in the study area. The study recommended that each tertiary institution should provide adequate incentive for in-service training on Web 2.0 tools, reliable power supply and fast internet bandwidth to enable the lecturers to use the technologies fluently