February 2003 Insights Education
Issue #1
Missing the connection?
Using ICTs in education
The spread of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the
last few decades has had a significant impact on work, leisure, culture
and social interaction. But can ICTs make a difference to development
and education?
Why and how are ICTs being used in education - are they integrated into
the system or simply added extras? How are they being used in teaching
and learning? Given the high costs and shrinking resources in education,
are ICTs a wise investment? What investment is being made in teachers
and other roles necessary to support ICTs applications? Are ICTs being
used to bridge or widen gaps or are they creating new ones?
There are typically two sets of responses to these questions. For some,
ICTs have widened the divide between the technology-rich north and the
technology-poor south. There is indeed a huge overlap between those subsisting
on less than $1 a day and those without electricity or telephone connection.
Within nation states a gap is emerging between the elite with access to
information technology (IT) and the poor without it.
Others argue that ICTs offer developing countries the opportunity to
catch up on development. This "leapfrogging" thesis asserts
that developing countries can bypass the initial stages of development
and it may even be beneficial for developing countries to enter the information
age late(r) and so avoid the expensive teething problems of earlier stages.
These two responses reflect the optimistic and pessimistic views about
ICTs. The optimistic view stresses the potential benefits of ICTs and
argues that they have revolutionised the way people live. The pessimistic
view sees the inequity ICTs can create and suggests that they are driven
more by advances in technology geared to satisfying the needs of large
IT companies than meeting development goals.
However, this debate has been largely rhetorical and lacks detailed
consideration on the ways in which ICTs can be used in education in the
developing world context. The claims that ICTs provide access to high
quality learning resources, extend scarce teaching resources and improve
efficiency are often taken for granted. While Leach
considers how computers can be used to develop the professional knowledge
base of teachers and improve the curricula for learners, it is still unknown
what impact ICTs have on teaching and learning performance.
Those in favour of ICTs in education often assume that placing high-grade
hardware into schools will change teaching and learning. However ICTs
are merely educational tools which, as Leask
points out, require careful planning and attention to human resource development
such as teaching skills.
Unfortunately much of the discussion about ICTs has centred on computers
only. Myers highlights
how ‘older’ technologies such as radio can be used in education,
in this case for raising health awareness in a rural context.
A common theme in this issue of insights education is that ICTs investment
for education requires long-term planning which takes account of issues
of sustainability and the new developments that ICTs-enhanced education
may produce. If, for instance, schools plan to invest in software or content
development, the initial and ongoing costs will need to be budgeted for.
The significant financial requirements and the dependency on external
funding that this entails may well cause developing countries to consider
less expensive strategies such as educational television combined with
community learning centres or telecentres.
Strategies which allow developing countries to experiment with different
kinds of ICTs in different settings may well mean countries develop their
own models of best practice. ICTs investment should therefore consider
the full range of available technologies.
Higher education is one area where arguably, ICTs can be maximised for
teaching and learning purposes and where private education institutions
can have an advantage. Burkle’s
Mexican private university case study highlights the teaching and learning
changes that computers can produce but reinforces the argument that using
technology well relies on lecturersÌ motivation and skills. It
also raises the issue of the extent to which the private model can be
transferred to public-funded institutions.
Using ICTs in education means more than simply teaching learners how
to use computers. Technology is a means for improving education and not
an end in itself. Thus, ICTs should also be used to promote information
literacy - the ability to access, use and evaluate information from different
sources in order to enhance learning, solve problems and generate new
knowledge. One aim of education should be to help learners become more
independent and effective information seekers and critical users. The
common assumption is that as people become familiar and comfortable with
ICTs, they will develop an information culture that generates critical
thinking and awareness about knowledge production.
The debate over which technologies are appropriate and relevant in education
has received little attention in the developing world context. Cawthera
examines the use of ‘low-cost’ ICTs solutions rather than
the high-grade solutions that are quickly overtaken by advances in technology.
However, cost-effective use of computers relies on regular maintenance
and part replacement and one question here is whether using recycled second-hand
computers can avoid this difficulty.
Many education technology projects in the developing world have failed
to realise their goals because parts and technicians were unobtainable
locally and staff were not sufficiently trained to make the most of the
technology. If investment in ICTs for education is to be sustainable,
it needs a proper long-term plan that considers these ongoing costs.
Developing effective partnerships with governments and the private sector
is key to reaping the full educational benefits of ICTs. For example,
governments might encourage the private sector to play a more socially
responsible role by improving infrastructure pricing policy, or negotiate
favourable connection rates for educational institutions. Selinger
examines the role of the private sector in developing ICTs skills drawing
on the experience of the Digital Partnership programme and Cisco’s
Networking Academy Program.
The UK’s Imfundo project is committed to developing partnerships
between the public and private sectors. Pontefract
argues that effective use of ICTs must be tied to the needs of developing
countries and challenges the ‘one size fits all’ approach
of many programmes. More importantly Imfundo calls upon the private sector
to demonstrate visibly its commitment to ICTs for education development.
These articles raise questions of relevancy and support the argument
that ICTs need to become part of a broader development strategy rather
than an add-on with limited impact. They highlight several crucial hurdles
that need to be overcome if the possibilities that ICTs offer are to connect
to genuine needs in the education system.
One further cause for concern is the difficulty in obtaining good quality
software at a reasonable price. Software is not only expensive initially
but even if free in the first instance, (as with Microsoft’s recent
promise to South Africa’s public institutions), the cost of renewing
the license prohibits many institutions from using it. Free open source
software and alternative operating systems such as Linux are a practical
way forward for many developing countries and pose serious challenges
to the monopoly of large software firms. One target of private sector
involvement should therefore be ensuring that developing countries have
access to sustainable software that is tailored to their needs.
Sound and effective policy is the key to making sure that ICTs do bring
solutions that connect to real problems, otherwise it is likely that initiatives
will be small scale and have little impact on the system. This requires
collaboration between sectors including education, finance and telecommunications.
Policy-makers will also need to consider:
- who will pay for ICTs in schools and how
- the role the private sector should play
- the appropriate balance between investing in training and infrastructure,
such as software and hardware
- what kind of software will be used
- how schools that obtain ICTs and infrastructure will cover recurrent
costs eg, Internet access and maintenance.
ICTs need to be used for more than simply reproducing learning by rote.
Paying attention to issues such as human resource development and considering
the full range of technologies will ensure that ICTs become real tools
for education development.
Yusuf Sayed
Senior Education Advisor
DFID
1 Palace Street
London SW1E 5HE
UK
T: +44 020 7023 0190
F: +44 020 7023 0287
y-sayed@dfid.gov.uk
See also
‘The Segregated Information Highway’, by Y. Sayed, JUTA/University
of Cape Town Press: South Africa, 1998
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