Good Practice in Information and Communication Technology for Education

• Publisher: Asian Development Bank
• Year: 2009
• ISBN:
  9789292547660
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Didattica
• Subtopic: Amministrazione nella didattica

Information and communication technology (ICT) for education is a rapidly evolving and high-priority development area. This guide stresses the importance of a holistic good practice framework in which ICT for education issues are pursued through three interrelated perspectives: national perspective, education sector perspective, and education institution and school perspective. The guide draws on a range of sources, including the findings of studies on ICT for education by the Asian Development Bank and the experience it has gained with stakeholders and partners in providing project assistance for ICT for education in its developing member countries.

Introduction

How can a developing nation consider investments in information and communication technology (ICT) for enhancing its formal and nonformal education systems when most of its people still live in absolute poverty? This question is discomforting for everyone concerned with the intersecting issues of ICT and development (ADB 2004). However, these interests are not contradictory, and raising the educational level of the poor is a long-term solution toward alleviating their economic problems. The impact of educational level on economic development is more pronounced with the recent growth of ICT and its increasing importance in social and economic development. This has profound implications for education—both in how ICTs can be used to strengthen education, and how education can be more effective in promoting the growth of ICT in the Asia and Pacific region (ADB 2004, 2008b). However, education systems have changed very little in response. Without improved efficiencies in their education systems, developing nations will not likely be able to provide the additional human capital required to achieve economic self-sufficiency in the context of a highly competitive global economy that is increasingly based on the electronic transfer and manipulation of information (ADB 2004, 2008b).

Why Invest in ICT for Education?

ICT has the potential to “bridge the knowledge gap” in terms of improving quality of education, increasing the quantity of quality educational opportunities, making knowledge building possible through borderless and boundless accessibility to resources and people, and reaching populations in remote areas to satisfy their basic right to education. As various ICTs become increasingly affordable, accessible, and interactive, their role at all levels of education is likely to be all the more significant in making educational outcomes relevant to the labor market, in revolutionizing educational content and delivery, and in fostering “information literacy.”

Information literacy is the sustaining force of a knowledge society. Information literacy is recognized as “a basic human right in the digital world” as it empowers individuals “in all walks of life to seek, evaluate, use, and create information effectively to achieve their personal, social, occupational, and educational goals” (UNESCO 2008a). The digital divide is much more than a “technology access” divide; without the skills to use the technologies, an even greater divide emerges—the information literacy divide. This divide is not a “north–south, developed–developing” issue; it applies to all countries and is more a reflection of the extent to which education systems are—or are not—keeping up in the development of knowledge societies (UNESCO 2008a). It is increasingly clear that a principal factor in stimulating economic growth is improvement in cognitive competencies and skills (ADB 2008b).

To date, many initiatives in ICT for education in developing countries have been limited to increasing information access for educational institutions in general and specifically for teacher training, aimed at using ICT-based resources and tools in the classroom. Evidence that the use of ICT leads to higher student achievement or other positive effects is limited to pilots that have yet to be implemented on a larger scale in developing countries. However, ICTs enable access to and use of information that may not be commonly available in certain contexts, thus providing teachers with content they would not have had otherwise to engage their students. In addition, teacher training in ICT for education parallels training in teaching methodology that supports student-centered learning. Hence, investments in ICT for education are likely to lead developing countries toward educational reforms that are necessary for fostering an information-literate citizenry, which is the key to competing in the global economy.

Investments in ICT for education at the basic and secondary levels support information literacy as a foundation for subsequent learning, as well as supporting teacher training in student-centered methodologies that foster critical and analytical thinking during the early years of the education cycle. ICTs have the potential to improve the teaching and learning process by enabling students to access information and engage in interactive learning experiences that would not otherwise be available to them. Such ICT-enhanced classroom experiences have the potential for encouraging student-centered learning, allowing students to be active learners who construct knowledge rather than passively receiving information. As a further pedagogical development, ICT can support evolution from the student-centered approach and the use of interactive technology to team-centered pedagogy and the use of collaborative technology. In this context, the focus is evolving from ensuring appropriate learning styles to ensuring an appropriate learning environment.

Investments in ICT for education at the higher educational level support the development of a skilled, “ICT-capable” labor force that may attract direct foreign investment, as well as research and development activities and university–private sector links that are important drivers of innovation and growth in advanced economies (ADB 2008b). ICT capability involves technical and cognitive proficiency to access, use, develop, create, and communicate information appropriately, using ICT tools. Along with having the potential to enhance teaching and learning in the classroom, ICTs in higher education have the potential to

• encourage open communication between and among students, faculty, and others that supports active learning and knowledge construction;

• make available information and resources supporting academic research that would not be accessible otherwise; and

• foster development of learning materials, presentations, and lectures in an interactive manner that allows faculty to deliver them to and share them with students directly.

The flexibility and accessibility enabled by ICT have led to the emergence of open distance learning (ODL), wherein the teacher is removed in space and/or time from the student, and most communication is through an electronic medium (e.g., internet, radio, television) (UNESCO 2002). ODL has taken the form of open universities that have adopted a student-centered approach in higher education systems in a number of countries. Open universities have been established to meet the increasing demand for higher and/or tertiary education while providing opportunities to working adults and others who face constraints in accessing such education in its traditional form.

Investments in ICT for education in the are...