Significance of internet and conventional education resource center for sustainable education by science & arts students

Abstract

Sustainable education should make the development of an attitude of lifelong learning in students one of its critical goals. This can be achieved through the promotion of reading habits that goes beyond academic needs in student through the Media Resource Centers (MRCs) or school libraries. As such, the MRC has become a normal feature of any academic system. However, with the availability of an unlimited resource through the internet, students, especially in developed nations seems to be turning more to internet sources for educational materials, though some still wish to maintain contact with print materials. This study is exploratory and uses a qualitative approach. It is focused on a comparison of the attitudes of science and arts students in a secondary and a post-secondary institution to the use of the MRCs as a predictor of its relevance in the age of internet. The study employed 8 focus group interview involving 48 participants made up of 24 students (12 from each of the 2 groups) in the secondary school and the tertiary school. Results were analysed for themes that run across group responses. Findings show that participants do not differ on gender basis across the institutions but differ on subject area basis, though at the tertiary level only. Reasons for MRC use also differ on school type basis and secondary school participants were found to display better lifelong learning attitudes through leisure/extra-curricular reading habits than the tertiary students.