USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN TEACHING BY ACADEMIC STAFF OF FEDERAL POLYTECHNICS IN SOUTH WEST AND NORTH CENTRAL NIGERIA

Abstract

Social media are becoming the most important tools for interaction among people, where everybody can share, exchange, comment, discuss and create information and knowledge in a collaborative way. Based on a representative sample of teaching staff from six chosen federal polytechnics, the study investigated their level of awareness, participation, adoption and utilisation of social media as new forms of public academic sphere and their experiences in the use of social media. To achieve this objective, this study was carried out using the quantitative method of survey. The population of this study was the academic staff of chosen Federal Polytechnics in Southwest and North central, Nigeria. A multi-stage sampling technique was adopted in the choosing of samples. First, the population of study was stratified into the various faculties/Schools in the chosen six federal polytechnics after which the simple random sampling technique was used to distribute the questionnaire to the 420 chosen respondents. Data collected using the questionnaire was statistically analyzed and presented using tables, frequencies and percentages.  Findings from the study revealed that awareness was not an issue, lecturers are very aware of social media. The study showed that lecturers are much more willing to embrace social media in their personal than they are to use it for their professional or teaching purposes. The level of personal use of social media among lecturers mirrors that of the general population.  The study concludes by making recommendations on how teachers in higher education institutions in Nigeria can adopt, utilize, appreciate and appropriate online social media for teaching, learning, research, outreach, professional development and publishing.