Teachers Access To And The Use Of Information Technology In Teaching Geography
[A CASE STUDY OF NIGERIA SECONDARY SCHOOLS]

The former curriculum was limited to factual, examination-oriented approach but today, there is greater emphasis on the education and experiential implications for the students. In the past, teachers were much more concerned merely with turning out students who are loaded with facts and terminologies in geography. Today, the curriculum had changed. It has become a matter of investigation, inquiry and experiential. Emphasis now placed on the relevant of geography to life.
The new objectives that now guide the formulation of Geography curriculum are:
    Teaching of Geography should provide a vehicle for the child development, to help him acquire that art of using knowledge or to learn something about his cultural heritage.
    Provide necessary background to citizenship and to intimate the students into a particular mode of thought;
    Offer a unique mean of furthering inquiry and high intellectual growth in students
    To help man to live, place himself in the world and to learn his true position and what his duties are
    To equip the students to understand other people and their environment;
    Develop positive attitudes to race, culture, and to other peoples environments and places.
Technologies and Methods of Teaching Geography
The World Bank (2014) opined that Information Technology should be considered within education for the purpose of reforming curriculum, reinforcing teaching/learning, and to improve learning. We must ensure that information and Technology is used to assist unlock the doors of education, said by the UN Secretary of State when speaking on the role of technology in education in year 2005. As the consequence, Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s) came up with this Policy “to co-operate with private sector, to make available the benefits of new technologies, especially Information to increase educational opportunities and unlock the door of education.
    Consequently, the dissemination of New Technology into educational institution is being made at a rapid rate. Teachers at all levels need not only to be proficient in the technologies alone,  but must also be well versed in the effective integration of their instruction in order to make new technologies to be effective integration into their instruction in order to make new technologies to be effectively utilized. The major area Nigeria could meet this expectation is the teacher’s preparation for the methods class. It is in the class that the use or lack of use of the new technologies may widely affect the students in future as regard whether to use them or not.
    Other associated problem with the new technologies is the preparation of the pre-service teachers and their level of proficiencies in its usage in education. The use of technology in discharging instruction should either be to improve efficiency or to re-conceptualize the curriculum (Bull, Bell, Mason and Garaofalo, 2002).
2.4    Modes of Using Information Technology Resources in Teaching and Learning     Environment
The modes of using Information Technology resources in teaching and learning environment are classified into five. These are discussed below.
•    Support mode
•    Exploration and control mode
•    Tutorial mode
•    Resources mode
•    Link mode
i.    Support mode: Technology is used to increase accuracy and enhance presentation of work through:
a.    Word processing and package: It has been found to develop students writing skill useful and helpful tool for disable students
b.    E-mail: Use of electronic mail can motivate students to communicate through writing.
c.    Computer: Aided drafting and design
d.    Desktop Publishing