ELECTRONIC MEDIA AS INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS IN SOCIAL AND BUSINESS STUDIES AND AS INSTRUMENTS OF SOCIAL CHANGE: EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FROM NIGERIA

The study evaluates the roles of electronic media (radio, computers, television, projectors, videos, internet facilities and telecommunication facilities) in teaching effectiveness and social change from the perspective of a developing nation--Nigeria. It surveyed six hundred teachers in various schools in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria using questionnaires. Analysis was done using descriptive statistics, simple and multiple regression and multivariate general linear model (GLM). The GLM procedure enabled us to investigate interactions between factors as well as the effect of individual factors. Among the media studied, radio is revealed as the most potent instructional material in achieving teaching efficiency and generating desired social change. Computers, projectors, and internet facilities are found to have inherent capabilities of aiding teaching effectiveness that could redound to the attainment of desired social change. These results have obvious implication for policy; while the use of radio instructions should be continued, the use of the other media that have more powerful audio-visual effects should be further encouraged. The government must implement a deliberate policy of providing these facilities to needy schools, colleges, and universities. While teaching effectiveness is a very important factor in generating desired social change, the results did not indicate that the attainment of social change would give rise to teaching effectiveness in the area studied. This implies that generating teaching effectiveness is not the end itself as far as the use of instructional materials are concerned, but a means to the end. The actual end includes the attainment of social change and development