Use of ICT in Education :: Five Lessons from International Experience

The mere presence of computers and other new technologies in the classroom is not sufficient; ICT interventions need to be designed and implemented strategically in order to be effective and live up to their full potential

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have great potential to develop access, quality and equity in education at all levels – early childhood, primary, secondary and tertiary. For example:

• radio/audio can be used in place of a teacher to deliver highly structured lessons with pauses for learners to respond, or as a supplement with a teacher present;
• television provides visual effects which can illustrate complex or abstract concepts; it can be supplemented by workbooks or other materials;
• computers/internet can be used as teaching tools (simulations, online learning communities, professional development of teachers), content delivery tools (online libraries, journals, books), and management tools (assessment, record keeping); can also be used to form community telecentres and virtual schools.
• multi-media integrates radio, television and or computers.

Already widespread in the schools and colleges of developed countries, ICTs are now being used increasingly in developing countries for "e-learning" applications. At the same time there is some scepticism towards ICTs in education because the impact on student achievement and the cost effectiveness of what are often expensive applications are unclear. What is certain is that the mere presence of computers and other new technologies in the classroom is not sufficient; ICT interventions need to be designed and implemented strategically in order to be effective and live up to their full potential. While the impact of ICT on learning outcomes is still debatable, there seems to be a consensus that ICTs in education can be useful for increasing access to information as well as motivation in the classroom and efficiency throughout the education system.

The following are five "lessons" that have been drawn from international experience with ICTs in education over the last decade or so. There are undoubtedly other lessons that can be drawn from the international experience but these five strike me as being the most important for educators in India.

Lesson number one is that those who seek to introduce ICTs into education should be firstly and primarily concerned with the kind of education they are trying to deliver. In particular, they should start by clarifying education goals and curriculum objectives and not begin by asking what (and how much) technology should be introduced to the schooling system. For example, is the educational aim to reach more learners or to help students learn more and better? Is the aim to help teachers to improve their practice or to help make work in the school easier and more productive? Or perhaps the aim is simply to introduce teachers and students to 21st century technology.

The second lesson is to know when a technology-based solution to the education problem you have identified is the right solution. This is not always so. To understand what the right solution to their education problem is, education managers need firstly to know their needs and the resources available at present or can mobilise in the future. In thinking these issues through education managers should ask themselves: how and to what extent can technology help me achieve my goals and objectives given my current state? It is important to note that different types of technologies offer different advantages – as well as challenges – depending on how these technologies are deployed.

The third lesson is to understand that training of teachers is the means, not the end. The experience is that training teachers does not always make a difference in terms of changed practice in the classrooms. Teachers need time and an enabling environment to develop technological pedagogical content knowledge. By this I mean the teacher's knowledge of how to represent concepts using technologies; strategies to teach content using technologies in a constructive way; knowing how to use technologies to address learning difficulties; how technologies can be used to build on existing knowledge; and how to use technologies to develop new ways of knowing and learning or to strengthen existing ones. Managers of education systems should ask themselves whether they provide teachers with the necessary support – institutional, administrative, technical and financial – after a training event to ensure effective change in teaching practice. How well are teachers' performances and progress with new techniques, methodologies and approaches monitored by the education systems? How does an education manager know when an innovation is working? To what extent are new ways of teaching being assessed in terms of the impact they have on student learning?

The fourth lesson is that the sustainability of innovations in respect of ICT and education, and, of course, other educational innovations, depends on establishing a critical mass of innovators that reinforce and enrich each others' changed practice within schools and across schools. The keys to success are for the managers of education systems to firstly know where the pockets of experimentation, innovation and creativity are in their education community, secondly, to know how to build on the existing strengths of teachers and, thirdly, to know how to use technology to create, animate and sustain an education community. In addition, sustainability of any innovation regarding ICT and education will only succeed if there is sufficient financial resource to meet the total cost of the technology introduced, particularly the maintenance of machinery, replacement parts, availability of technical support and the updating of software. There are also issues regarding the extent to which the community is involved and the acceptance of ICT by the end users, namely the teachers and learners. Experience shows us that political and technical leadership is also important for the necessary policy support and the effectiveness of change management.

The fifth and perhaps most important lesson of all is that planning for ICT should be part of and not separate from general education and school planning. The biggest mistake is to think of ICT and its use as an 'add on', an extra aspect of the curriculum. The people involved in planning for ICT must be fully integrated into broader education and school reform efforts. Ultimately, the managers of education systems and schools must ask themselves how ICTs support and enable school activities, particularly the teaching and learning process.

All of these lessons have been learned by developed and developing countries over the last twenty years or so, often at great cost, and it is clear that some countries have been better able to apply ICT in education than others. In the developing world, for example, the Philippines appears to have done well in terms of technology planning for schools and Laos has demonstrated some good practice of developing an approach to ICT in education in a rural context. In all cases it has been found that the transformative power of ICT in education is more likely to be realised when technology is introduced within the context of radical institution-wide reform.