The Prospects, Possibilities and Challenges of Information Communication Technology in Bridging the

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The Prospects, Possibilities and Challenges of
Information Communication Technology in Bridging
the Digital Divide

• Paper Presented at the Tokyo Seminar/Workshop
  2002
• 15-22 October 2002
• by
• Lucille C. Gregorio
• Specialist in Science and Technology Education,
  UNESCO Asia and the Pacific Bureau for Education,
  Bangkok

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UNESCO Strategy to Combat Digital Divide

• The free flow of information, made possible by
  the advent of new technology such as the
  internet. Holds enormous promise of cultural
  dialogue and mutual understanding, of quality
  education available throughout our lifetimes and
  of more vigorous and participative democratic
  processes. But the so-called digital divide
  the enormous and growing inequalities between
  rich and poor nations in access to ICTs
  threatens to deny this promise from entire
  regions.
• Mindful both of the potentials of ICT and the
  dangers of increased marginalization these
  represent for those without access to them,
  UNESCO has developed a 4-pronged strategy
  announced in Paris on Wednesday, 11 September
  2002
• Koichiro Matsuura
• Director General

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The Context

• Vast, diverse region in geography, economics,
  politics, culture, language
• has about 61 of world population
• has 5 of the 9 developing high population
  countries
• Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan

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The Context the Asia Pacific region

• 44 countries covered
• by the Regional Bureau
• for Education
• Bangkok cluster covers
• Cambodia, Lao PDR,
• Myanmar,
• Thailand, and Vietnam

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The IT situation in Asia

• cell phone users 2000- 250M, by 2005 - 600 M, up
  by 50 in 2010
• accounts to a quarter of e-commerce transaction
  worldwide
• Ref. Bangkok Post, 15 August 2001 Manila Summit
  hears how IT is affecting Asians.

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The IT situation in Asia

• The Leading Global Players
• Japan
• South Korea
• Taiwan
• Hongkong
• Singapore
• India

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The IT situation in Asia

• China - emerging superpower in IT
• India - current e-hub and emerging major
  software powerhouse
• Philippines - sends the highest number of text
  messages daily, positioning as e-hub in animation
  and backroom operations
• Singapore - current e-hub and the emerging
  global city
• South Korea - the leading broadband internet
  market

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Issues in the Utilization of ICT in School
Education in Asia Pacific

• ICT for whom - the Learners
• ICT and what to learn - the Curriculum
• ICT and how to deliver/utilize - Pedagogy
• ICT and who will facilitate delivery- the Teacher
• ICT and emerging trends and best practice-
  Research

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ICT and the Learners

• ICT for whom?
• Rationale - the need for adequate preparation to
  cope with rapid changes of the globalized world,
  and for students to become lifelong learners
• Demand integrating ICT into the in-school and
  out-of-school curriculum
• Content towards developing critical/analytical/d
  ivergent thinking, problem-solving and flexible
  learning
• Process - learning fundamentals progressively in
  terms of increasing complexity of applications
  and contexts
• Timing - acquiring requisite skills at an early
  age in order to hone and refine these skills for
  a variety of contexts

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ICT and the Curriculum

• What to learn
• Content responding to the growing demands from
  learners, for learning throughout life
• Skills developing productive skills concerned
  with understanding, interpretation and
  application in certain fields of endeavour,
  giving importance to links with communities and
  employment
• Attitudes acquisition of positive values
  sharing of information, teamwork, ethics, etc.

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ICT and the Curriculum

• What to learn
• Approach integration at primary and lower
  secondary levels and discipline-based areas at
  upper secondary level
• Reforms changing from rigid programmes to
  flexible frameworks, centralization to
  decentralization, linking formal and non-formal
  education
• Technologies appropriate choice to support and
  enhance learning, to stimulate thinking,
  awareness of ethical/social norms

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ICT and Pedagogy

• How to deliver/utilize?
• Promote flexible learning methods, learning
  actively and creatively, one way through distance
  and open learning
• Provide greater access to ICT, to allow for
  greater control over ones learning, and to shift
  the emphasis towards more individual tasks
• Awareness of the essential component of the
  process, the contributory skills and the
  necessary progression of skills by both
  facilitators/learners

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ICT and Pedagogy

• How to deliver/utilize?
• Motivate learners to access important scientific
  and technological ideas for social, cultural and
  economic reasons
• Identify a common core of ICT related skills
  applied to any discipline but in relevant
  context
• Encourage pupils to develop ways of treating
  knowledge as a resource for their own
  understanding, and eventual utilization

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ICT and the Teacher/Facilitator

• Who will facilitate the delivery?
• Teachers/Facilitators
• who have the skills on utilizing ICT as
  interactive systems
• who can select and choose appropriate (in the
  learners context) technologies to support and
  enhance learning
• who have the professional judgment/ability to
  select appropriate knowledge to be introduced to
  a learner, to further his/her learning

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ICT and research

• 1. Identification of Trends and Emerging Best
  Practices on
• - educational policies on the use of ICT to
  support learning
• - curriculum changes utilizing ICT
• - compilation and publication of exemplars on
  ICT use in various subject areas
• - delivery/utilization of ICT in formal,
  non-formal and informal education
• - changing roles of teachers/facilitators in
  the delivery/utilization of ICT in
  school and out of school

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ICT and research

• 2. Effective progression of learning through ICT
• 3. The utilization of ICT to promote connectivity
  among institutions, schools, researchers,
  marginalized and disadvantaged population
  including those in rural/remote areas
• 4. Other relevant areas

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Implications for lifelong learning

• Changing patterns of student learning, utilizing
  the internet and multimedia as a tool for
  dialogue to enhance learning
• Equality of access between male and female
  students
• Curricular revisions, integrating new and
  traditional technologies and the production,
  adaptation, translation and sharing of local
  contents
• Utilizing new methods of content development and
  access to education and scientific information

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Implications for lifelong learning

• Changing roles and insights of teachers into the
  learning process
• Stimulating professional development for the
  effective use of ICT facilities as an important
  element in the acquisition of new knowledge and
  updating of existing expertise
• Development of research skills on retrieval,
  searching and manipulating of information and
  data ways of bridging the digital divide
• Others

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UNESCO Strategy to Combat Digital Divide

• Adoption of a 4-pronged strategy to urge the
  Member States to adopt as their own at the World
  Summit on Information Society (WSIS), to take
  place in Geneva (2003) and Tunis (2005)
• Common principle for the information society of
  the future
• Access by the greatest number to the learning
  opportunities offered by ICT
• Strengthened capacities for scientific research
  and information sharing
• Use ICT to promote greater participation by
  citizens in democratic life

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Common principle for the information society of
the future

• Freedom of expression and its corollary, freedom
  of the press
• Free, compulsory and universal primary education
• The recognition that education as well as
  cultural goods and services cannot be treated as
  mere commodities
• The pre-eminence of public policy
• The promotion of public domain information and
  public service broadcasting

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Access by the greatest number to the learning
opportunities offered by ICT

• computer literacy be recognized as a basic skill
  in educational systems
• free access to the internet be provided in
  schools and public libraries
• full advantage be taken of distance education and
  life-long learning opportunities offered by ICTs
• Focus on rural areas utilizing the developing
  technology of wireless capabilities

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Strengthened capacities for scientific research
and information sharing

• This means increased exchange and cooperation
  among specialists and interest groups working in
  the fields of education, science, culture and
  communication. To this end UNESCO
• Encourages the use of new methods of content
  development and access to education and to
  scientific information, for example,
• virtual universities
• virtual laboratories, and
• research groups.

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Strengthened capacities for scientific research
and information sharing

• Such methods can contribute to bridging the
  scientific divide, enabling the researchers in
  developing countries to participate in research
  at the international level to share its results
• Promote actions that focus on building linkages
  and synergies between science and local and
  indigenous knowledge, particularly in environment
  management practices and in the transmission of
  local knowledge from one generation to the next

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Use ICT to promote greater participation by
citizens in democratic life

• This can be achieved by
• Using the internet and other ICT tools for
  dialogue between citizens and the authorities
• Integrating new and traditional technologies,
  including library services and community media
  the production, adaptation, translation and
  sharing of local contents and setting up of
  pilot projects corresponding to different
  cultural contexts

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Use ICT to promote greater participation by
citizens in democratic life

• Giving high priority to the needs of those
  disadvantages and marginalized groups that are
  presently excluded so that information societies
  are open and inclusive
• Improving access to the benefits of the
  information society for women and youth.
  Extending material assistance to countries at
  present unable to offer access to ICTs to large
  numbers of their citizens.
• Ref Bureau of Public Information, UNESCO Hqs.
• Website http//www.unesco.org/wsis

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Thank you

• Arigatou
• Terima KasihSieh SiehKhae ZuCim On
• OO KunKhab JaiSalamat PoKap khun kha