General trends in the use of ICT in education

The following review of experiences in the use of ICT use focuses on the school context and takes into account the availability and accessibility of online resources and connectivity. It has been extracted from the article Newer Technologies for the Learning Society (C.Villanueva, 2000). As the world is gradually becoming more and more connected, special emphasis is put on the use and integration of online resources.

1. Generally, full integration of ICT in education is still very rare. Highly interactive multimedia or hypermedia are not yet widely used. Online activities involving an intranet or the Internet are used for information and communication purposes rather than tools for interactive education.

2. New, mixed modes of learning are emerging: Face-to-face and online learning activities, lectures, videos, multimedia and telecommunication tools support the various learning processes, sometimes in a hybrid manner and sometimes in a more integrated manner.

3. Distance education is now being delivered in two different ways, namely in a synchronous mode where participants are using ICTs to communicate at the same time and in an asynchronous mode where participants are learning/communicating independently, ie at different times whenever they are online (anytime-anywhere learning).

It was found that face-to-face meetings or synchronous interaction in real time are still required to supplement asynchronous and independent learning if more effective learning is to take place. ICTs facilitate a high level of interaction among students, the instructor, and the computer-mediated material. Communication can be dynamic and as variable as the teachers and students desire, and it can take place through a variety of modes, such as e-mail, listervs, chat, bulletin board, and desktop conferencing.

4. ICTs have become a driving force of educational reform and they are an integrative part of national education policies and plans.

Growing evidence shows how more and more countries in the region have started to equip their schools with computers to achieve school reform or school improvement efforts or even to give their schools a semblance of being modern and technologised. However, at this point, many educators who see online technology as an enabler of new teaching, learning, and governance practice, may only have scarce information on the potential and authentic use of ICT in education.

Experience has shown that the introduction of technology in school undergoes three phases, namely a substitution phase where traditional practices still occur but new technologies are used; a transition phase where new practices begin to appear and well-established practices are being questioned; and a transformation phase where technologies enable new practices and some old ones become obsolete. If educators insist on using ICT as substitute for current practices, they may not contribute to solving the educational problems they are encountering now.

5. The introduction of ICTs in schools has brought about a more positive attitude to school among learners. Since ICT and web-based learning offers greater diversity of learning goals, projects, activities, and exercises than traditional classroom offerings, student interest and motivation have increased substantially.

Teachers and students are stimulated because teaching becomes more dynamic which expands their vision as well as access to high quality materials and educational software. Moreover, teachers seem to be motivated to teach more creatively. Portals link teachers to an array of lesson plans, teacher guides, and student exercises that are posted on the Internet by government agencies, NGOs, and educational institutions.

6. Online classrooms tend to be more successful if ICT is combined with an appropriate pedagogy. The educational arena of online learning is still in its infancy. While there are many institutions that offer online courses, in-depth understanding of the pedagogical issues related to online education remains unexplored.

Many online courses are nothing but web pages combined with e-mail and chat rooms without any pedagogical foundation. Successful experiences showed that there has been a decrease in teacher-led activities as well as a decrease in the amount of frontal instruction and a move toward more project activities and independent learning as a result of ICT use.

7. Online learning enables learners to have more control over educational content and activities. Online environments put the learner at the centre of the educational experience. In traditional teaching, repetitions are used frequently by presenting very similar information in different forms or by asking the same question worded differently. Many learners do not like repetitive exercises.

The Internet encourages learners to dig for information and practical examples by themselves. Hypermedia and multimedia facilitate an array of approaches that have never been possible in traditional teaching and learning.

The Internet promotes an alternative type of learning by doing where students are asked to undertake projects that are related to real life situations. Technology delivers information with emphasis on active creation and exploration of knowledge rather than one-way information transfer, which allows the learner to make full use of their own multiple cognitive abilities.

8. The interactive feature of learning resources enables learners to become increasingly engaged in the construction of content and thus contribute to a more authentic learning situation. For instance, students can access virtual libraries worldwide. Thus they have access to vast amounts of information and resources that are unattainable in a single instructional setting.

As far as teachers are concerned, a wealth of teaching resources posted on the Internet everyday has helped teachers handle day-to-day teaching challenges. Teachers can exchange lesson plans, pedagogical techniques, and strategies dealing with issues and common problems.

9. Online learning provides built-in technical tools that make learning easier. For example, the language used for searching information and materials are intuitive and immediate. It does not have to be learnt by the user and can be adopted with minimal effort. Basic syntax and grammar can be used as instruments for navigation and retrieval of information.

Integration of communication and authoring tools, along with the click-to-connect interface has succeeded in significantly streamlining the process of checking email, accessing shared data, and setting up conferencing connections. Simulations or visualization technologies are likely to help students to learn complex systems in more concrete ways. Computer mediated communication chat (CMC) and bulletin board tools can supplement face to face sessions.

10. The education and training of educators now includes just-in-time and collaborative learning. ICTs open a whole world of lifelong upgrading through distance education, asynchronous learning, and training on demand. ICTs are flexible enough to introduce new courses in direct response to emerging demands.

11. ICTs help to break the professional isolation from which many teachers suffer. With ICT, they can easily connect with other professionals, colleagues, and mentors, with universities and centres of expertise, and with sources of teaching materials. Teachers are now publishing their instructional materials on the Internet and sharing their successful teaching practices with other teachers.

12. The use of networked computers to promote group learning activities is becoming more and more popular. Computer technologies in education are moving from individualized self-learning to distance-delivered group learning methods. Using computer-mediated communication tools, and web-based group space, students can apply knowledge by combining their efforts to construct a resource activity or project. Cooperative learning through computers has positive effects on group task performance, individual achievement, and attitudes towards collaborative learning.

13. Universities are entering into partnerships with the private sector, particularly the IT industry, in order to help maintain operation and financial viability of ICT-based education programmes. More and more schools are realising that linking with the business sector will not necessarily threaten the school systems. Others see an advantage in capitalising on their education services and products. Learning alliances in the delivery of products can offer multiple benefits, such as reduced training development costs, shared R&D costs, or shared organisational content databases and libraries.

14. ICTs are altering the function of libraries and are intrinsically changing the role of librarians. Schools need not continue to suffer from a lack of library support from isolation from a wealth of learning resources that are readily available on the Internet.