Conclusions and implications
1. While many countries in the region reported of having developed a policy and master plan on teacher training on ICT, this area still needs to be looked into more carefully for the purpose of linking them to the broader ICT for development and education goals, as well as updating and encouraging a move forward from developing basic computer literacy competencies to ICT-integrated teaching/learning. Many countries are realizing that they have developed their ICT in education policy from the technology perspective and the need to revise and overhaul the policy from the pedagogy-based perspective has been expressed by many.
2. There is a clear need for countries to formulate their basic standards/benchmarks and ICT competencies for teachers, managers and students that can serve as basis for developing teacher training programmes on ICT.
3. While basic computer literacy and software applications need to be taught to teachers and other professionals, ICTs and applications should be introduced from the perspectives of teaching and learning process, or as pedagogical tools rather than as ICTs and applications per se. Countries should now start moving forward in their training courses and focus on the development of skills in the pedagogy-based and integrated use of ICTs into the subject curricula and classroom teaching.
4. Training programmes should always start with an introduction of the rationale and purpose of using ICTs in teaching/learning, the role of teachers in the new ICT environment and how they can benefit from the use of ICTs, even before the technical aspect is given. Experience in certain countries has shown that without the motivational push, teachers do not bring back what they have learned into classroom application.
5. The issue of whether troubleshooting and technical maintenance should be included in training of all teachers or only given to selected key teachers needs to be considered more carefully.
6. The value of training principals and headmasters together with the teachers (but on a different stream) is beginning to be recognized in many countries in the region and is beginning to be practiced by a few countries. This trend should be replicated and expanded to other countries as well.
7. Similarly, extending the training facilities and programmes to the community, to the parents and other groups can benefit the school-based programmes in terms of potential support that can be given to both teachers and students’ efforts and initiatives. Providing access to resources can also help improve community life.
8. There is now a growing body of training modules and materials which have been tested and can be replicated or adapted by countries planning to implement new training programmes. The issues of sharing, of copyright and open sourcing need to be addressed to break the barriers that prevent the poorer countries or marginalized areas from tapping into this wealth of resource.
9. The inventory of teacher training on ICT programmes initiated by UNESCO should go beyond profiling, to serving a clearing house and depository of actual copies of training modules and materials on ICT.
10. Best practices and lessons learned in teacher training/professional development on ICT should be documented in a more in-depth manner, as it is more cost-effective and wiser to learn from other countries’ experiences which have pioneered in this area and have accumulated lessons learned rather than start from zero.
11. The huge amounts of resources invested in teacher training programmes will only be well used if teachers return to their schools with continuing support from their schools in terms of facilities/equipment, connectivity, appropriate software installed, materials, technical and help-desk support available.
12. Countries should now start venturing into the gradual use of online learning combined with the face-to-face mode of delivery – selecting parts of training programmes that can easily be implemented online.
13. To enable countries to learn from each other, especially the less technologically advanced countries learning from those more developed, attachments and study visits should be considered as one effective training modality.
14. To enable countries to have equal access to the wealth of training resources that are beginning to grow, digital/electronic copies of these should be made available on the Internet as open source, initiated by UNESCO through a Web-based clearing house.