ICT Policy Outcomes for National Development: The Place of Knowledge Integration and Management in Nigerian Higher Education

Abstract

The prologues of Information Communication Technology (ICT) usage including its integration and diffusion kicked off a new era in educational processes and has fundamentally changed the conventional methods of teaching and learning in higher education institutions (HEIs) around the world, and have transformed contemporary processes of teaching and learning experiences of both lecturers and students. The debates here are made with reference to (1) the contexts of ICT and knowledge integration (2) the challenges of ICT usage and knowledge integration, and (3) ICT policy outcomes and national development. A qualitative research method was adopted; the use of document and observation were indispensable part of the methods for data gathering. The study found that the lofty hopes, keenness and enthusiasm for ICT and knowledge integration and management are obstructed as the nation is faced with inadequacies in essential ICT infrastructures and services such as telecommunication services, electricity, incompetent ICT personnel, inadequate funding, poor economic situation, poverty, high ICT literacy rate and so on. However, there is an ongoing moves and development to ensure effective ICT knowledge integration and management in education resources in Nigeria and Africa higher education institutions. This novel study recommends that higher education should become expansive, positive and proactive actors in ICT knowledge integration and management in teaching, learning and research for academics, non-academics to foster admirable academic environment aimed at meeting national development. This learned debate has implication for education practitioners, curriculum developers and designers, policy makers, planners and the government.