I enjoyed the reading about 10 lessons in ICTs and education in the developing world. But the paper focused mostly on issues of access and the challenges of getting broadband connections and resources to install and troubleshoot computers in school. There was very little mention on the actual usage of the machines in the curriculum. The World Bank and other institutions must go beyond merely placing machines in the classroom and providing occasional teacher training. The actual use of the technology in the classroom and its integration in the curriculm is critically important.
In developing countries, even those lucky students who finish high school and college are often unemployable because the education they received is substandard. For example in a non-profit program that I ran to teach poor women computing skills, many women had finished college but could not use excel meaningfully because they did not understand why 2+2=4.
There is also the issue of language. Accessing the internet is fine but most of the content is in English and most government schools use English (if they do, ineffectively). While I agree that technology excites teachers and students alike, the most important part of this equation are the teachers and their training. Would not resources be better put into teacher education than on providing hardware.
4 comments:
I agree that teacher training is key. But in my experience it's a bit of a chicken and egg process between assuring reliable equipment access and getting teachers to incorporate technology in their curriculum. I think the key is for the trainer to work with the teacher to figure out what technology applications really make sense to help them reach their curricular goals, and then to make sure they get they equipment and technical support they need to use it.
I was also interested in your comment about the dominance of English on the Internet. Are people / institutions in developing countries publishing their own content and / or is anyone translating content? I'm sure the answer to these questions must be yes to some degree, but I'd be interested to know more. Thanks!
I commented on another post about a similar issue where there need to be more focus on the use of technology in schools. Many times students simply learn how to use computers in a computer class but do not learn how to use it for research, to problem solve or construct knowledge appropriately.
So I do agree with you but after having been at many schools in the Caribbean I must say that access there is equally important. For one most teachers are deeply rooted in culture religion and tradition. Convincing them to use the technology is a task within itself. If it provides frustrating and complex problems like the ones that com with bandwidth constraints, then they will be less likely to continue its use. Also many of these rural schools are so old and so poor that they cannot eliminate these problems by themselves. Here in the states it easy to pay for an air conditioned room and replace or recycle computers every two years or so. Not so everywhere else. Some have old infrastructure, no space, consistent power failures, leaking roofs, mold and other problems which makes other problems accrue there that would not have happened here or if their situations were better.
Your suggestion that it is critical for technology to be incorporated into the cirriculum in "devloping" countries, and that educator training is paramount to insuring success in implementing these new technologies is spot on. A broader education clearly continues to be important to the students because, as you pointed out, the language barrier can be another roadblock to properly equipping these students to be able to compete for jobs in emerging international economic markets. I am skeptical that there will be enough money to accomplish all this though. The amounts being invested by The World Bank, by the countries themselves and by foundations helping these developing countries can't possibly pay for the education and training needs as well as the new computer and communication expenses.
Teacher training is key--and more importantly actually USING technology in classrooms is what is key. Coming from my current P/T work (an afterschool literacy workshop in East Harlem) each evening I wince to shut the lights on the classroom we used, tucked away on the 5th floor of PS 38, housing not only our shelves of books, desks and the (super-comfortable) reading rug/pillows--but also housing 30+ broken, non-working, once-donated iMac computers. I literally have to share a classroom with 30 dead computers! And to think, this was earmarked "donation" money to "improve education" one day not so long ago.
so, that is a huge topic: how to USE computers for education. And, unfortunately, so far I've found there is no simple answer. As pedagogy evolves, many agree: there isn't one book of teaching and learning that can be copied and distributed to all populations. How we might use ICT in Harlem would look totally different than in an NGO project site in Nepal or a refugee camp in Sudan. It depends on the context of the situation, the knowledge brought to the table by the educator/educands and the social and political ability to expand on that knowledge.
Consider places like Myanmar/Burma and Tibet where severe restrictions are placed on ICT and their use. When you google "democracy" on chinese google, you get very different results than when you do it on google.com. this is on purpose and also must be taken into account when converging technology with education. Education is act of a political cycle--education and politics inform each other in a symbiotic system and I think, as information society comes into full focus, technology's role in Education is going to have huge significance. (I guess that's why we're all here, in this class)
Language is instrumental for education and therefore is also politics. No doubt, having to learn English before learning how to use a program in the middle of a foreign country is an act of "symbolic violence" according to a lot of hegemony-theory types (Gramsci) and at the very least presents a major road-block to ICT for people who may have to compromise time to learn for something more crucial, such as farming, family care, business, etc.
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