INFORMATION MANAGEMENT IN SECONDARY SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION

1. INFORMATION MANAGEMENT IN SECONDARY SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION By Oloruntegbe, K.O. (Ph D) FSTAN Science and Technical Education, Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko.

2. MEANING OF INFORMATION • Information is data that is organized and collected through research, manipulated and processed through computer, can be stored and retrieved, displayed and presented as reports, newsletters, pictures, invoices, or checks for decision making. • Information society (ISO) is the right of individuals, corporate organization, schools and business enterprises to develop and transact businesses more efficiently and effectively in this age of globalization.

3. KEY CONCEPTS IN INFORMATION MANAGEMENT • There are a few concepts that are very relevant in information management. Sometimes a few of them are used interchangeably to mean information. • These are: Knowledge, information technology, data gathering, computer processing, storage and retrieval

4. RELATIONSHIP AMONG KNOWLEDGE, INFORMATION AND DATA Knowledge Information Data Knowledge is based on information which is in turn based on data

5. WHAT TO KNOW • Knowledge and information management was not about technology. It is about people, people as individuals, people as teams, people as communities, people as organizations. • Technology handled properly can make an important contribution to information management. It can connect people to each other, it can connect people to information they find useful. It can protect them from irrelevant content. • Information can be gathered and used by managers in a school system. These managers include school administrators seated here. This bring the idea of being information literate.

6. INFORMATION LITERACY Information literacy is about: • How to find information; • How to analyze information; • How to gather information. The ability to gather information from multiple sources, select relevant materials, and organize them into a form that will allow the users to make decisions or take specific actions is referred to as information literacy.

7. FOCUS OF SCHOOL INFORMATION SYSTEM Student information system Admissions Parent web portal Enrolment management Online SIS system Online applications Teacher grade book Fund raising Online grade book Accounting Attendance Students billing Report card E-portfolios Scheduling Teacher web module Discipline Admin-Plus Direct Online forms Photp ID cards

8. Administration Plus Web Access School lunch Library Health E-mail District management Teacher evaluation Student evaluation Report samples Report downloads

9. MORE FAMILIAR FOCUS Administrators in our secondary school have need of information to work in areas like; • Curriculum design, development and implementation • Programme evaluation and supervision • Record keeping and retrieval • Information dissemination to stakeholders • Staff and student welfare • Discipline

10. YOU CANNOT RUN AWAY FROM YOUR SHADOW A time is coming that we cannot do but join the whole world (globalization) and do things the right way it is done. At such times we would be talking of e-administration; e-finance; e-examination; e-attendance; e-assessment; e-government etc.

11. In which case bulk of your administrative activities have to be done online like: • Sending of messages, decision extract, instruction to be carried out, memos etc to subordinates, that is your teachers; • Sending returns, reports, vouchers to TESCOM and Ministry of Education and other agencies; • Making online payment; • Sending feedback to parents, students and other stakeholders; • Display of information; • Monitoring the activities of staff and students;

12. Downloading curriculum and other materials; • Conducting action researches via online collection of data; • Sharing ideas with others via e-mail; • Attending conferences, workshops and seminars via teleconferencing and videoconferencing; • Carrying out online staff and students assessment; • Monitoring staff and students attendance online; • Counseling activities done online The list is not exhausted. Administrators that want to be successful in this era of computer technology have to brace up.

13. You may also wish to know that transactions outside Nigeria are basically done online. These include: • Booking of flight; booking hotel reservation; operating security devices include entrance to your hotel and other rooms; • Making payment for all these using credit cards, visa cards etc. because nobody will accept cash from you; • Making deposits and withdrawals through the use of Automated teller machines; • Accessing needed information for transactions including maps and guides.

14. WHAT EXACTLY IS THE SHADOW? • Computer literacy and internet compliant. These are the only tools through which one can access information and communicate with others around the world. • Computer technology and digital media play an essential role in how individuals work, live and learn. Organization of all sizes – schools and businesses no matter how small rely on computer to help them operate more efficiently and effectively. At home, work, and school computer help to do work faster, more accurately, and, in some cases, in ways that previously were not possible.

15. In the classroom, computer and computer-related technologies are having profound influence on the way teachers instruct and students learn. • Registration of students for examinations like WAEC, NECO, JAMD etc is done via computer. • Hosting domains and opening web sites for your school and your business are activities from which administrators cannot run away. • Installing internet facilities and computer labs are there. • Assessing information regarding job opportunities, scholarship for students and pension and jobs after retirement is done online. • Even the activities that are part of your daily routine – typing a report, driving a car, paying for good and services with credit, or using ATM – involve the use of computer technology. We now can see why computer is the shadow from which we cannot run away.

16. We may be putting our students to disadvantages and hindering their progress if we careless or refuse to take this line of development especially in this era of globalization of all things including economy, education, sports, entertainment etc. There are challenges and opportunities outside there for us and our students to tap. This is beside the fact that we would become irrelevant in the schemes of things, obsolete in our ideas and be of little or no use to the students and staff we are leading. We must wake up.

17. WHAT TO DO? The computer in your school and office is not for decoration. • Learn and get to use them. • Encourage your staff and students to take computer literacy quite seriously. • Order for more to complement or go over all intending users. • Get assistance to train your staff and students from government and other agencies. • There are several non governmental organization, UNESCO, UNICEF willing to help if you seek assistance. To do all these you must be computer literate and internet compliant.

18. DISCUSSION SESSION • Locating sources of information • Information about what • Information management skills • Storage and retrieval of information • Ways of presenting information • Need to be computer literate and internet compliant. What advantages. • How to be computer literate

19. ADMINISTRATORS AT WORK There is not much an administrator can do these days without computer. The team above was looking for information on how to solve problems relating to their work. Work is done better and faster that way.

20. ANOTHER TEAM AT WORK

21. THANKS FOR LISTENING REMEMBER TO STAY GREEN BY GREENING THE ENVIRONMENT AND THE CURRICULUM