The Issue of Information and Communication Technology in Education - Report Example

Running head: PEER ASSESSMENT OF GROUP WORK Peer Assessment of Group Work Name: Course: Tutor: October 24, 2010 Critique on ‘issues in ICT’ group project Abstract This paper is a review of a project by a group of our classmates in which they were to discuss the issue of information and communication technology (ICT) in education. The paper includes a group critique on the project and two personal critiques on the same project. The critiques looks at the extent at which the issues have been discussed and has also recommended ways in which the issues could have been expounded by the group. Introduction Information communication technology (ICT) refers to the processing and the maintenance of data or information, the usage of the various types of computers, network, communication or mobile technology to convey information (Bauer & Kenton, 2005). ICT has recently become a significant building block of the modern society. It is particularly becoming a strategic tool in the developing nations for accessing global education. ICT is now regarded by many countries as core component in the education system. The group appreciates the presence of ICT; they have also identified the many obstacles that could hinder the progress of the technology. However, they have only looked at the issues of ICT in education based on one issue, the challenges in integrating ICT in education, while there are many issues such as sustainability, effectiveness, cost and equality of ICT that they could have discussed. Nevertheless, their discussion on the issue that they have mentioned is well presented. In their argument, they bring out ICT growth not going hand in hand with the current education status/needs. The efforts to advance the technology by governments and institutions are recognized in the project work, and this is true because according to recent studies nations all over the world are investing heavily in education and particularly in higher education after the realization of the unquantifiable benefits that this brings to an individual and the society. The group project points out that even with these efforts by governments still the implementation of information and communication technology (ICT) are said not be at its peak potential. It is believed that ICT has the ability to positively impact on the performance of teachers and learners, thus having a major contribution in learning and in academic achievement. According to recent researches, however, it is pointed out that ICT impact on student achievement is yielding few conclusive statements on the use of ICT in education. Further research shows that in industrialized nations, most of the advanced schools ICT are generally not taken as central in teaching and learning process. This confirms the statement that ICT is not effectively used despite the availability of infrastructure. The major reasons according to them could be due to the following reasons; 1. Teachers often feel that they do not have sufficient knowledge in order to use ICT effectively. 2. A large knowledge gap exists between teachers and students, and between beginning and experienced teachers in terms of ICT expertise. 3. The current pedagogical practices of many teachers and curriculums of many schools do not make for effective teaching and learning practices in ICT. These reasons have been highlighted by the group as the major ones that are affecting ICT in the education system but the points seem to revolve around the same point it would have been better if the group had looked at the issue from a broad perspective. The key issues in ICT in education include; impact on learning and achievement, equity, costs, best practices, tools, policy, monitoring and evaluation, teachers and teaching, and content and curriculum. For example, they should have considered the contribution the institution administration, the government and the society have on the issue. Like the administration of institution are said to contribute to low implementation of ICT in the institutions by failing to offer the required training to the educators. Taking an institution to the new information age is faced with several challenges especially to those who hold various positions of responsibilities in an education system. Ringle & updegrove, (1998), suggests two dimensions of change; socio-economic and pragmatic or technical changes. The plan to start implementation of a change such as that of infusing ICT in the education sector should first focus on technical changes then the socio-economic aspect should be considered when setting the vision and the context of the process. The challenges that faces infusion of ICT and education system majorly depends on the vision, values and the culture of a particular institution put on the change. The failure to have a successful implementation of ICT in the education system can also be due to inability to create a culture which emphasizes on collaborative relationship between the teachers and the students. This means that setting up of the required infrastructures for ICT is not enough to bring about technological developments; it requires change in the norms, skills and beliefs of an institution. It is important to understand that use of ICT in learning whether it is in the classroom or in distance education does not weaken the roles of teachers; neither does it drastically change teaching practices. It is however vital to have a range of support and enabling mechanisms in optimizing teacher’s use of ICT. Even with the introduction of ICT, the traditional teacher leadership skills and practices should not diminish as they are still important in the learning process; it requires that the teachers have easy access to the latest, relevant, timely and on-going professional development (Bauer & Kenton, 2005) so that the value of education does not deteriorate in any form. These requirement calls for the educators to have time and resources to explore this new knowledge base and develop new skills. For the educators to meet these requirements the support of the administrators, the government or even the surrounding community is paramount. Additionally, the teachers ought to have easy access to working computers or any other technologies in ICT and a reliable technical support. The shift of pedagogies, re-designing of curriculum and assessment tools, and also providing more autonomy to schools have major contributions in ensuring optimal usage of ICT in education Pedagogical aspects of ICT The pedagogical integration of ICT aspect though discussed by the group is not well expounded. Much emphasis is put on the failures of the teachers and not on the other involved parties such as the government and the institutions. It is true that “the current pedagogical practices of many teachers and curriculums of many schools do not make for effective teaching and learning practices in ICT” this could be because even though computers have been introduced in many learning institutions, the infusion of computers into all subject areas, integrated into classroom practice in a way that transforms pedagogy, is relatively new. A Shift in pedagogy involve change to problem-based or investigative learning (Avril &Viv 2000) where the students are required to take more responsibilities in the learning process and also for the teachers to provide control over the learning process exercised in the conventional pedagogy. This makes learning process to become open ended where the teacher becomes more of a facilitator than a provider (Avril &Viv 2000). This change makes the learning process to be collaborative between the teacher and the learners as it encourages the learners to become more active in learning as they seek out for new skills or knowledge. Ability of learners to access online makes it easy for them to manage data and communicate ideas better. This ends up making the learning process to become more participatory and to be in a more interactive environment. As Dhanarajan 1996, puts it, the benefits related to ICT should not be viewed from the access it provides but should be looked at from the transformation of the relationship between the learners, their teachers and the learning equipment used. The reason as to why the infusion of ICT in the education cannot be effectively realized is because the government and the institutions are focusing more on putting up the infrastructures and on access and equipment and not on the usage of the technology. Wang and Woo (2007) also emphasizes on the need to focus on the pedagogical design, they states that a successful use of ICT in the education system depends “not only on the availability of technology, but also heavily on the pedagogical design. Lack of knowledge Effective integration of ICT and education requires the teachers to have more professional developments. The development should focus on ensuring the following; teachers have the necessary skills on the various applications, ability to integrate the technology in the curricula, changes in the curricular that relate to use of ICT, changes on the roles of the teachers and underpinning of educational theories. These should ideally come to be only when there is a pre-service training of the teachers and also an enhanced in –service. In most of the developed nations and some of the developing ones, for instance Singapore and the United Kingdom, to ensure that the teachers are in a position to catch up with the developments in technology, knowledge and ability to use ICT is a teaching accreditation requirement (Finley & Hartman, 2004). While the ability of the teachers to use the various applications in ICT may appear as self-evident, the other four requirements are also of great importance. In the most of the researches carried out on the usage of ICT in various educational setting, it has been identified that the necessary infrastructures for ICT are installed, also the teachers are knowledgeable on using the technology but the teachers do not understand the importance of using the technology and they also do not see how this technology can help the deliver better to the students. Eventually, it appears that the professional development in the ICT is much on teaching of the tools and not on using the tools in the learning process. The teachers are afraid of being replaced by the developing technology as it seems that the teacher’s authority in classroom could diminish as the technology encourages a learning environment that is learner-centered (Finley & Hartman, 2004). This greatly indicates a strong barrier in adopting ICT in the education system. Further, it indicates that what is needed to remove this barrier is to make the teachers understand and appreciate the changing of roles with the upcoming of ICT in learning institutions. It is also important to make the teachers understand that ICT does not make them lose their roles in the classrooms but it even makes their role to be more critical. ICT does bring change in the learning process but the change in only in terms of kind of roles, for instance it opens up the classroom to the outside world where even the community gets a role in the classroom, the teachers roles changes from that of being the sole voice in authority to being a facilitator, the teachers thus become co-learners and they learn together with the students. As Hannafin & Savenye (2005) puts it, some of the reasons why the teachers may be reluctant in using ICT may be due to; poorly designed software, lack of support from the administration, skepticism on effectiveness of using the technology in learning, and the lot of time and efforts related to learning how to use the technology. Past research also has reported that many educators get uncomfortable and at other times they are overwhelmed or feel threatened by the changes brought about by ICT in education (Bauer and Kenton, 2005). The question that comes up when working to ensure the infusion of ICT and education is “How can teachers who are disinterested or phobic about information and communication development be made to adopt new technology-based models of teaching and learning?” most of the teachers who make use of technology to achieve alternative forms of pedagogy and curriculum are those who view the importance of change and growth in their profession and they take the step to innovate upcoming technology at their own cost. To achieve a large scale shift like this that is standard in the education system, it would require that the teachers should alter existing pedagogical practices, the institutional structure also needs to change and the relationship with the community should also change in a fundamental way. The barriers to effective integration of ICT in education systems majorly revolve around the role of the teachers or the instructors in education. This implies that development in the teacher profession is the cornerstone in educational ICT use. The other challenges facing infusion of ICT in education that the group could have probably included in order to show that not only the teachers are contributing to failure of achieving the desired results could have been; Conclusion As the group discussed the issue of ICT in the education system today, it is not enough to install the necessary infrastructure and to ensure access of this technology to the users for it to be successfully infused in the education system today. It requires proper planning and collaboration of the parties involved in ensuring effective implementation. The project presented was well researched even though there are some issues that were left out in looking at the ICT issue. It provides valuable lessons that may be learned in ensuring best practice in using ICT. Personal critique 1 ICT is becoming popular in the education systems worldwide and the interest to use it is increasing even in environments where it seems challenging like in the developing countries. The technology is however surrounded by several issues that are common in virtually all countries where it is in use. To look at these issues, it is important to give evidence using the studies carried out by the researches in order to validate the arguments. For instance, in discussing the issue of infrastructure in ICT, the most affected countries are the underdeveloped countries. Successful use of ICT relies on effective content/courses and training delivery through using electronic media such as the Internet, intranets, extranets, satellite broadcast, audio and video tapes, radio, interactive television, and compact disk read only memory (Finley & Hartman, 2004). Poor economy and lack of adequate infrastructure facilities are major challenges in having effective ICT use in the least developed nations. The least or the under-developed nations are faced with a lot of problems in implementing the latest developments in technology. The challenges are mostly related to technology, psychological, socio-cultural and economic factors that would affect successful implementation of ICT especially in higher learning institutions. Reluctance to change the learning atmosphere, poor level of competency in English, lack of funds and technical resources in universities, lack of confidence to practice computer applications coupled with absence of infrastructure such as electricity and telephone lines in many parts of the country are the most difficult issues to address. It is however worth noting that the related benefits and potentials of ICT far outweigh the challenges. Just as our group critique indicates, this group project seems to dwell on only one issue in the ICT, which is the challenges faced by the teachers in using the technology. Much emphasis is on the failures of the teachers in integrating ICT in education, this topic could have been broadly discussed considering the many challenges that surround this issue. Also, in their discussion, they have not based their argument using several examples of such situations in the certain countries they have mostly used Australia and this may make this situation to appear as if it is only affecting Australia. Had they used some specific examples from other countries in their argument this situation would appear to be affecting the education worldwide. In the project, the group states that the government is using a lot of resources in ensuring that teachers and students have access to use of technology, this could be true but it would be important to note that in many nations especially the developing ones and the underdeveloped ones where ICT is being introduced, the government is faced with the challenge of capital to introduce latest developments in this technology. For instance some underdeveloped countries in Africa are said to be willing to make use of the technology but they are faced with shortage of capital (Finley & Hartman, 2004). Using general or one source of information to draw a conclusion makes the project fail to address the issue from a broad perspective. However, the issue that they have discussed is well presented since they have deeply discussed it and they have intensively used written materials in their arguments. Personal critique 2 The ever increasing developments in information and communication technology (ICT) in these modern times have brought significant transformations in the way the world relates or communicates and in various operations especially in education. Consequently, this have brought major impacts on the needs in educational and training, this is in terms of the content and the delivery services for educational and training purposes. It has also resulted to an increasing pressure on decision-makers as they need to go for new technologies. At the same time, different forms of ICT are coming up with an increasing need of ICT options for decision-makers to decide when infusing ICT into education and in training. This increasing need due to the growth of technology in ICT today is enveloped by several issues which need attention if implementation is to be successful. The issues range from those of cost to that of accessibility of the technology. Looking at the issues in ICT that are discussed in the group project, the group effectively brings out the issue on how ICT has not been properly implemented in education even though the essential infrastructure and knowledge to use the technology are available. The group has identified only the major reasons that are drawbacks to this development and three reasons are sufficiently explained. However, the three reasons seem to point only at the teachers as the major barrier of integrating the technology in the education system and this make it appear like no other party is involved in this issue. It would have been good if this group had looked at other parties that also play a role in acting as a barrier to infusion of ICT in the education system such as the role of the institutional management, the government, and the students. For instance the management of an institution is responsible for ensuring that training of the teachers is facilitated and also ensuring that the students have easy access to ICT. Finley & Hartman, 2004 point out that in several cases, teachers are not provided with the necessary professional development on how to use ICT in the educational contexts. Such factors have not been considered by the group and the generalization of ideas as such may easily create contradictions. On the other hand, the government is responsible in ensuring that latest development in the ICT market is available in the country and failure to do this could be causing the lack of enough knowledge of the educators. There is proper use of in-text citation in the project and this gives the project a professional look. The information is well sourced and the sources are credited this also makes the information given to be reliable to use in making a conclusion on the issue. In their conclusion, the group has recommended the way forward in ensuring that these barriers are done away with, this is a proper end of the discussion as after identifying the problem, they have provided possible solutions to the problems. Generally, the group project is well done although there are crucial points in this issue that have been left out. References: Ringle, M. & Updegrove, D. (1998). Is strategic planning for technology an oxymoron? In cause and effect. London. Palvier publishers. Hannafin, D. & Savenye, S. (2005), “Technology in the Classroom: The Teacher’s New Role and Resistance to It, in Educational Technology, 33 (6), 26-31. New York: NY. John Wiley & Sons. Bauer, J., & Kenton, J. (2005). Toward technology integration in the schools: Why it isn't happening. Journal of Technology and Teacher Education, 13(4), 519-546. New York: NY. Parsley publishers.13 Finley, L., & Hartman, D. (2004). Institutional change and resistance: Teacher preparatory faculty and technology integration. Journal of Technology and Teacher Education, 12(3), 319-337. London. Merrell Publishers Avril L. &Viv E. (2000). ICT, pedagogy, and the curriculum: subject to change. New York: NY. Routledge. Read More