10 key principles when conceptualizing, designing and implementing ICT in education systems

USAID adheres to 10 key principles when conceptualizing, designing and implementing ICT in education systems:

1.     Use ICT to achieve education and development goals. Technology should be used to address areas where system capacity is poor, schools are underperforming or there are gaps in student learning. A well-designed technology solution can be used to disseminate resources, connect students to information, enhance teachers’ practices and students’ performance in all subject areas, improve school management and support data-driven policymaking. Program example: In India, the USAID-funded Right to Read project delivers audio-visual lessons and learning materials via computers and mobile devices to assist teachers in assessing individual student needs, bridge gaps in teachers’ own teaching skills and knowledge, and create integrated school and community reading programs to improve students’ reading skills.

2.     Use ICT to enhance student knowledge and skills. If schooling is intended to be relevant to work and important to a society, success in school should be accompanied by the development of a broad body of knowledge and a complete range of skills—including literacy, numeracy, information literacy and independent-learning skills that contribute to achievement in later life. ICT should be used to help students build these skills. Program example: USAID’s Strengthening Education in Afghanistan project uses tablets and solar panels to support girls’ preparation girls for the examination, required to gain admission to public universities and improve their learning achievements. 

3.     Use ICT to support data-driven decision making. Regular and reliable data are essential to planning and policy, financial management, management of school facilities, decisions about school personnel (including teachers) and support for student learning. Program example: In Guatemala, USAID uses a mobile application (EscuelaApp) to provide the Ministry of Education with access to data about education services. The application provides access to data on education statistics and indicators to allow policymakers to incorporate evidence-based decision making into their programming.

4.     Include all short- and longer-term costs in budget planning. Estimating full capital and operating expenses of technology projects in schools requires consideration of all equipment and activities needed to ensure that hardware (and software) are installed, operated, maintained, repaired and replaced, and that teachers and other personnel have the skills and resources they need to use their new tools to meet project goals. Program example: In Nicaragua, USAID promotes a culture of appropriate adoption and effective use of technology. Through the private sector partnership "One Laptop per Child" program, USAID’s Community Action for Reading and Security project introduces the use of computers and software as tools to improve early grade reading skills and to expose children to reading materials.

5.     Explore technology alternatives to find appropriate solutions. The proliferation of new tools and new approaches is accelerating in both developed and developing countries; these innovations challenge project developers to think creatively about emerging opportunities. Program designers should consider alternative ways of meeting proposed educational objectives, including broadcast or other technologies, low-cost/low-power computers, and mobile telephones. Program example: In Mali, USAID’s Education Recovery Support Activity uses interactive audio instruction (IAI) through USB/MP3 solar-powered radios to enhance literacy and math instruction for conflict-affected children and youth.

6.     Focus on teacher development, training and ongoing support. In-service teacher professional development is frequently among the most important and complex components in an education-technology project. Teachers are essential to student learning outcomes. Program example: In Kenya, Tusome, USAID’s national early grade reading project, supports schools through training of education officials to use tablets containing support materials for classroom observation and feedback to teachers to improve delivery of lessons while building the Ministry of Education’s capacity to support reading instruction for increased reading outcomes. 

7.     Explore and coordinate involvement of many different stakeholders. It is vital to engage multiple stakeholders in education technology projects, as they frequently cut across several sectors and entail great expense as well as technical and organizational complexity. Valuable contributions can be made by international and local organizations, including donor agencies, charitable foundations, NGOs, private-sector technology firms and government agencies, in addition to ministries of education. Program example: In Jordan, USAID partners with the mobile operator Orange to incorporate technology and innovation in outreach and communication as well as monitoring and evaluation activities. Orange provides tablets for MOE employees to record teacher coaching session observations and to use the data to create community awareness messaging campaigns around educational programming.

8.     Develop a supportive policy environment. Establishing policies, plans, and central agencies to shape the use of technology in education can help ensure that initial expenditures and activities support government objectives and that high-impact activities receive ongoing funding. Program example: USAID has supported the ICT Council for Burma to release a white paper entitled “Empowering Myanmar through Technology,” which included a set of recommendations for key policy reforms and a range of possible ICT-related capacity building initiatives, including digital literacy and technology for educational purpose.

9.     Integrate monitoring and evaluation into project planning. Planning (and budgeting) for monitoring and evaluation of education-technology projects should begin during the first phase of project design. In most circumstances, it is important to emphasize using randomized studies and experimental statistics; such methods typically require collecting baseline data or collecting data from control-group samples. Advanced planning, budgeting and preparation are essential if these measures are to be put in place. Program example: In Pakistan, USAID conducted an evaluation that helped assess the current integration of technology within USAID/Pakistan programs, identify challenges and opportunities in the external environment, and contribute to the development objectives of the upcoming country development cooperation strategy. 

10.                        “It takes capacity to build capacity”—System strengthening precedes system transformation. Developing-country school systems rarely have the capacity to effect substantial change in teaching, learning or school operations—whether technology is used or not. Schools and school systems that lack basic levels of management, leadership, teacher professionalism, resources and other core components must build the stable foundation needed for the equitable and effective delivery of public education. Program example: Liberia’s Civil Service Agency is using the biometric registration system to more easily verify payroll information during the entry of mobile money enrollees into the payment system. USAID’s Liberia Teacher Training Program has upgraded the human resources system of the Ministry of Education (MOE), helped establish a biometric identification system, vetted teacher payee lists to remove ghost workers and issued biometric identification cards to a large portion of Liberia’s MOE workforce, helping to put into place systems that enable the digitization of civil salary payments in the MOE.

Halomoan alvaro 9G/15

The culture ICT

UNESCO has long advocated and demonstrated that culture, in its diverse manifestations - from tangible and intangible cultural heritage to cultural and creative industries - is a driver and enabler of the economic, social and environmental aspects of sustainable development.In this context, ICT, insofar as they have a direct impact on the way cultural expressions are created, produced, disseminated and accessed and play an increasingly pertinent role in the safeguarding and transmission of cultural heritage, can respond to major global challenges through the exercise of freedom of expression and the promotion cultural diversity.

In the framework of the 2015 WSIS Forum a discussion panel on Action Line 8 “Cultural diversity and identity, linguistic diversity and local content” debated questions on how are ICTs fostering cultural entrepreneurship in the cultural and creative industries, notably in developing countries and at the local level, how are new forms of media and technologies strengthening platforms for dialogue, exchange and building capacities of local populations to overcome the challenges faced by communities worldwide.

“In Africa ICTs allow a greater access to cultural goods and services but beyond access and distribution, they allow creators to engage with the audience, to co-create, and to connect with the diaspora” said Silja Fischer, Secretary General of International Music Council.

The session explored possible measures that should be taken to strengthen policies and strategies to promote the diversity of cultural expressions, cultural and creative industries, and to  safeguard cultural heritage via ICTs, including for more efficient documentation, protection, transmission, and accessibility, and discussed policies and strategies that should be put in place to generate social and economic development in view of the new modes of creation, production, dissemination and consumption of cultural goods and services by and for youth in the digital age.

Main outcomes of the session stressed that:

·         ICTs are progressively more incorporated into the cultural and creative sectors. Even though accessibility by all remains an important challenge, developing countries are using ICTs for cultural content, creation, access, and distribution, and there are positive innovative models that are context specific.

·         People are what is driving development models, creativity and innovation, but governments must put in place national policies and infrastructure that will foster the diversity of cultural expressions and close the digital divide and keep up with new advancements.

·         There are increasing initiatives in digitization of cultural content and heritage which help preserve this content for future generations (eg. digital libraries and museums) and which also allow marginalized groups to be engaged, share knowledge (also traditional knowledge) and foster social cohesion.

Rustam Effendi 9G/27

ICT for education?

What Does This Mean for ICT, Education, and Development?

 Increasingly, countries across the globe are embracing a vision for development of Knowledge Societies and adopting policies and strategies to encourage this development. Education is of vital importance in the knowledge society, as a source of basic skills, as a foundation for development of new knowledge and innovation, and as an engine for socio-economic development. Education is, therefore, a critical requirement in creating knowledge societies that can stimulate development, economic growth, and prosperity. It is not only the means by which individuals become skilled participants in society and the economy, but is also a key driver expanding ICT usage.14 12 UNESCO (2005).

Towards Knowledge Societies. Paris: UNESCO, p.2 13 Punie, Y., and Cabrera, M. (2005). The Future of ICT and Learning in the Knowledge Society - Report on a Joint DG JRC-DG EAC Workshop held in Seville, 20-21 October 2005. Seville: European Commission DirectorateGeneral Joint Research Centre Thus, rather than considering ICT, education, and development as separate pillars required to support the knowledge society, one may view education and development as interrelated drivers for socioeconomic development. In this view, ICT is the enabler for both innovation and education – without which a knowledge society cannot be realized, supported or further developed. This is visually captured in the following figure:

Changing digital Technology (multimedia)

As personal computers and their software become more powerful they have the capacity to not only record and edit text, sound, still images, motion pictures and manage interactivity individually, but synthesize all of them onto the same page, screen or viewing, creating new plateaus or forms of composition. Personal computer technology has placed multimedia creation in the hands of any computer user. As multimedia becomes a more prevalent form of communication it is argued that the literacy of ‘reading’ and ‘writing’ using multimedia be taught in schools and other education institutions.

The related study of mass media has long been part of the school program in many school systems either as a separate subject option in secondary schools or more often as a part of general literacy learning. Film Study has also been a school subject in many schools for some time using relatively expensive and complicated equipment to make film or video. The rapid development of multimedia via personal computing means that it is becoming a routine form for a widening group of people not only for just “reading” but for creating the media. The line between mass media and personally authored media is becoming much more blurred if not obliterated. Some non professional authors on the web already have audiences larger than major commercial publications such as major newspapers and TV stations, whether text based blogs or multimedia podcasts. The sudden emergence of short video as a medium for viewing and authoring on sites such as YouTube has illustrated the very rapid rate of change in this area, and the need to learn new forms of literacy

Fernando Buyu 9G/12

INFORMATION,COMMUNICATION AND TECHNOLOGY

INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHONOLOGY

 Understanding and Development of Information and Communication Technology (ICT)

 Information and Communication Technology (ICT) includes two aspects, namely Information Technology and Communication Technology.  Information Technology covers all matters relating to the process, use as a tool, manipulation, and management of information.  Communication technology covers all matters relating to the use of tools to process and transfer data from one device to another.  Therefore, mastery of ICT means the ability to understand and use ICT tools in general, including computers (Computer literate) and understanding information (Information literate).  Tinio defines ICT as a set of tools used to communicate and create, disseminate, store and manage information.  The technology in question includes computers, internet, broadcasting technology (radio and television), and telephone.  UNESCO (2004) defines that ICT is a technology used to communicate and create, manage and distribute information.  The general definition of ICT is computer, internet, telephone, television, radio, and audiovisual equipment.

 A. Development of Information and Communication Technology in Education

 The history of the use of ICT in education, especially in learning, is strongly influenced by the development of ICT hardware, especially computers.  Teemu Leinonen (2005) divides the development into 5 phases as illustrated in the following figure:

 Image of ICT Development Phase

 The first phase (late 1970s - early 1980s) was the programming, drill and practice phase.  This phase is characterized by the use of computer software that presents practical and brief exercises, especially for mathematics and language subjects.  The second phase (late 1980s - early 1990s) was the phase of computer based training (CBT) with multimedia (computer-based training with multimedia).  This phase is the golden era of CD-ROMs and multimedia computers.  The third phase (early 1990s) is the phase of Internet-based training (IBT) (internet-based training. In this phase, the internet is used as a learning medium. The fourth phase (late 1990s - early 2000s) is the e-learning phase which is a phase of maturity based learning  internet The fifth phase (late 2000) is the social software + free and open content phase, which is marked by the rise of learning software and free learning content that is easily accessed by both teachers and students, which can then be edited and manipulated as needed.

 B. Utilization of ICT in Learning

 The rapid development of information and communication technology (ICT) brings a new paradigm in education from various aspects, including changes from traditional learning to new learning, from teacher centered to learner centered, to changes in information delivery to information exchange. The electronic learning facility developed in Indonesia is Education TV, which features a variety of learning topics from various subjects with varying delivery modes.  The large number of learning CDs that can be found on the market or distributed to schools is also a separate opportunity that can be utilized by schools to support a better learning process.  Unfortunately, although it is realized that ICTs can help speed up the education process and have the potential to improve the quality of education, its use has not been widespread and equitable in schools.

The use of ICT tools in the learning process above is a form of integration of ICT with the learning system.  UNESCO (2004) claims that curriculum integration is the use of ICT's ability to add value to the learning process by integrating ICT-based activities into the curriculum.  These activities include: (i) using generic software packages (office application packages, graphics, and presentations), (ii) using special software for interactive learning, simulations and mastery of content;  (iii) using synchronous and asynchronous communication tools for online collaboration and information exchange (e-mail, web forums, instant messaging, audio- and videoconferencing), and (iv) using the internet as a source of information and research.  In the curriculum integration model, ICT skills are not taught as separate activities, but are obtained along with ICT-based learning activities.

 In KTSP, ICT is also treated as a learning substance in the form of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) subjects.  ICT subjects can help students to recognize, use, maintain information technology equipment and communication technology, as well as use all the potential that exists for the development of personal abilities.  How to package / process information and how to communicate it.

 1. Computer Assisted Learning

 In the field of education, computers have various functions.  One of them is the function of learning media, which can include the presentation of material and exercises.  This learning model is commonly referred to as 'computer-assisted instruction' (CAI) or computer-assisted learning (CAL).  The positive benefits of computers in the field of education and teaching have been widely reported results. Stepp-Greany (2002) conducted a study of students' perceptions of technology-based learning.  He found a number of things, including the following: (1) most students agreed to bring a computer lab to make the lesson more interesting;  they also find the use of CD-ROMs fun;  and (2) students feel confident working on task-based activities (task-based activities).  Furthermore Skinner and Austin (1999) conclude that the computer conferencing learning model is useful for increasing student motivation by increasing their level of self-confidence.

 2. Computers and Students

 Student learning experience is one of the determining factors that is very influential in achieving their success.  Therefore, teachers should try to create a conducive and interesting learning atmosphere.  One mode of learning that is considered to be able to fulfill this is by utilizing computers as learning media in the classroom or as self-access learning resources.

 Regarding how computer usage affects students, Brown (1999) reports that (i) computer use has a positive influence on student self-esteem;  (ii) students can study independently without feeling that other people are observing the difficulty of the task they are doing or the mistakes they make;  (iii) as an alternative, students can also work in groups, which benefits students with lower ability to build confidence gained from other students;  (iv) computers offer flexible access where students can use them according to the time they want, either during class or in addition to class time;  and (v) computer-assisted learning is a financially effective way for independent learning, as well as for coordinating and managing learning and assessment.

 3. Computers and Teachers

The role of the teacher is very important in carrying out computerized teaching.  In the context of computer-assisted learning, computers are very useful to support the teacher's role in the teaching and learning process, but cannot replace the teacher, whose presence is important and is always needed as a guide and mediator.  Some ICT Software / Facilities for Learning Media Purposes

 a.  CD-ROM

 A CD ROM is a 4.75-inch diameter optical disk that is used as a medium for storing information in large enough quantities (+ 600 MB), which can be accessed and read on a monitor, or printed through a printer.  CDs can store information in various forms, such as: text, images, presentations, slides, audio and video.

 b.  Internet

The internet is an international network that connects thousands or even millions of computers with diverse contents, such as education, government, business, culture, and technology.  This internet network allows individuals to interact and communicate with others through computers from various parts of the world at a fairly affordable cost.  Some internet facilities and activities that can be used to support learning are email, discussion forums, web browsing, and chatrooms.

 c.  Learning Management System

Learning management system known as learning management system (LMS) is software in the form of a learning portal.  In general, LMS provides a space for teachers to store material (upload) and assignments given to students.  On the other hand, this LMS also provides space for students to work on or deposit assignments.

 d.  Program Authoring / Teaching Material Development Template

The Authoring Program is a template used to develop teaching materials.  This program can be in the form of freeware (free tools) or packages that must be purchased.  The advantage is that teachers can develop their own material according to the needs and learning objectives that have been formulated.  There are several freeware that can be downloaded from the internet, including Hot Potatoes.

 e.  Educational TV

This Education TV has an excellent program that school management and teachers need to know to be able to make the most of it.  The following are featured promulgation programs that are downloaded from TV Pendidikan's official website, together with a brief explanation of each.

Otto daniswara 9G/25