ICT and its Role in Education
Dr.Siddharth
Kumar Pokhriyal
Academic Associate
School of Education
Uttarakhand Open University
Haldwani
ICTs are making dynamic changes in
society. They are influencing all aspects of life. The influences are felt more
and more at schools. Because ICTs provide both students and teachers with more
opportunities in adapting learning and teaching to individual needs, society
is, forcing schools aptly respond to this technical innovation. This is fortunately not the case, although
computers and their application play a significant role in modern information
management, other technologies and/or systems also comprise of the phenomenon
that is commonly regarded as ICTs.
Pelgrum and Law (2003) state that near the end
of the 1980s, the term ‘computers’ was replaced by ‘IT’ (information
technology) signifying a shift of focus from computing technology to the
capacity to store and retrieve information. This was followed by the
introduction of the term ‘ICT’ (information and communication technology)
around 1992, when e-mail started to become available to the general public
(Pelgrum, W.J., Law, N., 2003).
Developments in Information and
Communication Technologies (ICTs) have impacted all sectors of society,
including the education sector. In higher education, application of ICTs in
form of e-learning is already hanging teaching and learning processes. There
are many pedagogical1 and socio-economic factors that have driven higher
learning institutions to adopt e-learning. These include greater information
access; greater communication via electronic facilities; synchronous learning;
increased cooperation and collaboration, cost-effectiveness (e.g. by reaching
different students and in greater numbers) and pedagogical improvement through
simulations, virtual experiences, and graphic representations.
According to a United Nations report (1999)
ICTs cover Internet service provision, telecommunications equipment and
services, information technology equipment and services, media and
broadcasting, libraries and documentation centers, commercial information
providers, network-based information services, and other related information
and communication activities. According to UNESCO (2002) information and
communication technology (ICT) may be regarded as the combination of
‘Informatics technology’ with other related technology, specifically
communication technology. The various kinds of ICT products available and
having relevance to education, such as teleconferencing, email, audio
conferencing, television lessons, radio broadcasts, interactive radio counseling,
interactive voice response system, audiocassettes and CD ROMs etc have been
used in education for different purposes (Sharma, 2003; Sanyal, 2001; Bhattacharya
and Sharma, 2007).
ICTs
in Education
Conventional teaching has emphasized content.
For many years course have been written around textbooks. Teachers have taught
through lectures and presentations interspersed with tutorials and learning
activities designed to consolidate and rehearse the content. Contemporary
settings are now favoring curricula that promote competency and performance.
Curricula are starting to emphasize capabilities and to be concerned more with
how the information will be used than with what the information is.
Contemporary ICTs are able to provide strong support for all these requirements
and there are now many outstanding examples of world class settings for
competency and performance-based curricula that make sound use of the affordances
of these technologies (Oliver, 2000).
The
1990s was the decade of computer communications and information access,
particularly with the popularity and accessibility of internet-based services
such as electronic mail and the World Wide Web (WWW). At the same time the
CD-ROM became the standard for distributing packaged software (replacing the
floppy disk). As a result educators became more focused on the use of the
technology to improve student learning as a rationale for investment. Any
discussion about the use of computer systems in schools is built upon an
understanding of the link between schools, learning and computer technology.
When the potential use of computers in schools was first mooted, the
predominant conception was that students would be ‘taught’ by computers
(Mevarech & Light, 1992).In a sense it was considered that the computer
would ‘take over’ the teacher’s job in much the same way as a robot computer
may take over a welder’s job. Collis (1989) refers to this as “a rather grim image”
where “a small child sits alone with a computer”. However, the use of
information and communication technologies in the educative process has been
divided into two broad categories: ICTs for Education and ICTs in Education.
ICTs for education refers to the development of information and communications
technology specifically for teaching/learning purposes, while the ICTs in
education involves the adoption of general components of information and
communication technologies in the teaching learning process.
In development literature, ICT has been characterized as having the
potential to enable national development. However, ICT has been conceptualized
mostly as a monolithic and homogeneous entity. To a great extent, the ambiguous
findings and diverse opinions on the role of ICT in national development can be
attributed to this limited focus. From activities to operations, from research
to development, from health services to amusement, from education to
governance, ICT has become an essential component of basic life.
ICT’s acts as
a knowledge ladder in the era of education. We can say benefits of ICT Tools like
Anytime, anywhere. One defining feature of ICTs is their ability
to transcend time and space .ICTs make possible asynchronous learning, or
learning characterized by a time lag between the delivery of instruction and
its reception by learners. Online course materials, for example, may be
accessed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
ICTs’ mediated education in Open
Distance Learning Institutions improves the quality of Teaching and Learning processes.
The ICTs are learner friendly and also help in improving the quality of Support
Services offered Open Distance Learning (ODL) Institutions. ICTs have good impact on the teaching-learning
methodologies. Application of ICTs in ODL Institutions provide new teaching
learning environments, new infrastructure, new operational systems for distance
learners, academic staff and support staff.
The potential of ICTs will be realized only when these technologies
serve the implementation of educational strategies. ICTs are helpful at various
stages of course development process and facilitate the production of
multi-media learning.
ICT increases the flexibility of delivery of education so that learners
can access knowledge anytime and from anywhere. It can influence the way
students are taught and how they learn as now the processes are learner driven
and not by teachers. This in turn would better prepare the learners for
lifelong learning as well as to improve the quality of learning. In concert
with geographical flexibility, technology-facilitated educational programs also
remove many of the temporal constraints that face learners with special needs
(Moore & Kearsley, 1996). Students are starting to appreciate the
capability to undertake education anywhere, anytime and anyplace.
One of the most vital contributions
of ICT in the field of education is- Easy Access to Learning. With the help of
ICT, students can now browse through e-books, sample examination papers,
previous year papers etc. and can also have an easy access to resource persons,
mentors, experts, researchers, professionals, and peers-all over the world.
This flexibility has heightened the availability of just-in-time learning and
provided learning opportunities for many more learners who previously were
constrained by other commitments (Young, 2002). Wider availability of best
practices and best course material in education, which can be shared by means
of ICT, can foster better teaching. ICT also allows the academic institutions
to reach disadvantaged groups and new international educational markets. As
well as learning at anytime, teachers are also finding the capabilities of
teaching at any time to be opportunistic and able to be used to advantage.
Thus, ICT enabled education will ultimately lead to the democratization of
education. Especially in developing countries like India, effective use of ICT
for the purpose of education has the potential to bridge the digital divide.
India has a billion-plus population and a high proportion of the young
and hence it has a large formal education system. The demand for education in
developing countries like India has skyrocketed as education is still regarded
as an important bridge of social, economic and political mobility (Amutabi and
Oketch, 2003). There exist infrastructure, socio- economic, linguistic and
physical barriers in India for people who wish to access education Bhattacharya
and Sharma, 2007). This includes infrastructure, teacher and the processes
quality. There exist drawbacks in general education in India as well as all
over the world like lack of learning materials, teachers, remoteness of
education facilities, high dropout rate etc (UNESCO,2002). Innovative use of
Information and Communication Technology can potentially solve this problem.
Internet usage in home and work place has grown exponentially (McGorry, 2002).
ICT has the potential to remove the barriers that are causing the problems of
low rate of education in any country. It can be used as a tool to overcome the
issues of cost, less number of teachers, and poor quality of education as well
as to overcome time and distance barriers (McGorry, 2002).
With the view to promoting and
motivating quality research in teacher education, the National Council for
Teacher Education (NCTE)i constituted a Research and Programme Advisory
Committee in June 2004. The NCTE’s concern is to enable teacher education
institutions to prepare a workforce of trained teachers who are fully conversant
with the technology. It signed an MoU with INTEL Technology India Pvt. Ltd.,
Bangalore, on 20th December, 2006, with a view to achieve the objectives of
imparting sustained professional development of all teacher educators from all
recognized institutions and making ICT a part of teacher education curriculum.
References:
-Swamy, Raju Narayana I.A.S. (Secretary to Government of Kerala), “Towards Improving the -Quality of Education by
Integrating ICT in Teacher Education”.
-Noor-Ul-Amin, Syed
(Department Of Education, University Of Kashmir), “ An Effective use of ICT for
Education and Learning by Drawing on Worldwide Knowledge, Research, and
Experience: ICT as a Change Agent for Education ,” (A LITERATURE REVIEW)
- Ulvik Marit University of Bergen, “ICT and active learning processes
as challenges
and possibilities in teacher education”
