TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Ironies of the ICT age
You are what you read
Y
ou are what you read. This was true in the past and it is true today. Our students now read shorter passages and refer more to entertainment and to touch-screen keyboards. There is no more typing, let alone handwriting.
As we celebrate Teacher's Day on Nov. 25, we have witnessed a profound change over the past few years in student preferences in how they learn. They are still the same students who learn about the world in our schools. They still stay in wall-and-brick classrooms with the same teachers who stand in front of the same boards.
However, the students have changed. They are, as Kahlil Gibran called them, 'children of the era'. Welcome to the new ball game, fellow teachers.
A new study report released in July by Analytical and Capacity Development Partnership (ACDP) revealed that 71 percent of 3,127 students surveyed had access to ICT. This is impressive considering the fact that the study was conducted in Papua, one of the least-developed provinces in Indonesia.
Employing stratified sampling techniques, the study recruited 220 schools, 107 of which were elementary schools and 113 of which were junior high schools. The schools were spread across 3,000 villages. 110 schools were surveyed in an urban setting, 67 in the suburbs and 43 in remote areas. It was an ambitious ICT-related study considering Papua's difficult geographical terrain.
The study found that the role of teachers was crucial in ICT usage, despite the fact that teachers were 'digital immigrants' compared to their students who were 'digital natives'. Using Mark Prensky's (2001) definition, you are an 'immigrant' if you were born before 1985. So, by this definition, our teachers are now in the immigrant category. Are our teachers up to the challenge?
UNESCO's ICT Competency Framework mentions at least three stages in a teacher's development in ICT. First, improving technological literacy and facilitating student learning. Second, deepening knowledge and helping students develop skills in seeking out information and implementing solutions in daily life. The final step sees a teacher creating knowledge by helping students acquire new insights in improving the quality of life in society.
The UNESCO framework was integrated into Education and Culture Minister's Regulation No. 16/2007 on teacher competency. The regulation seeks to anticipate and prepare for the coming age of social media.
Yet, even with the proliferation of smartphones, our teachers are still struggling to reach the first stage outlined in UNESCO's framework.
But there is some good news from the ICT Papua study that is supported by research conducted by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the European Union. A teacher's age and location matter. Around 79.2 percent of young teachers (aged 19-25) said they were able and savvy users of ICT, compared with only 45.6 percent of older teachers (aged 45 and above). Those who lived in the city were more ICT-savvy (61.2 percent) than their peers in remote areas (36.6 percent).
A little note here about the school principals. They are less knowledgeable on ICT issues than teachers. In fact, teachers responded positively when asked about the importance of ICT in learning. 95 percent of teachers agreed that developing ICT was an important part of education.
Furthermore, ICT is not just about human skill and computer hardware issues. It is also about infrastructure. Power supply and telecommunications facilities must exist in order for ICT to become a reality.
There were cases of surveyed schools that had never opened the laptop boxes or LCD projectors sent to them simply because the schools lacked proper electricity or sufficient bandwidth signals.
Here then is a sequence of ironies: teachers agree that ICT is a necessary thing, but they lack ICT skills. Their leaders cannot act as models and there is no electricity to begin with. If you happened to be a teacher in such a position, what would you do?
Clearly, teachers cannot solve this problem alone. An initial study by the Paramadina Public Policy Institute (PPPI) revealed that teacher colleges or LPTKs were not well-prepared to teach ICT to pre-service teachers. Prorep, a USAID-sponsored study found that many LPTKs lacked ICT instructors and computer labs.
The nationwide Teachers' Competency Test conducted this November has forced teachers everywhere in this vast archipelago to use computers despite the fact that many may not use computers in their daily life. In some areas, this approach confronted a harsh reality. In Kupang, the capital of East Nusa Tenggara, the computer-based test was switched to a paper-based test because of unreliable electricity supply.
There are some lessons to be learned from the studies cited above.
First, train teachers and principals to use ICT and encourage young teachers to use ICT.
Second, provide hardware and reliable support systems.
Third, expand electricity coverage and telecommunications infrastructure.
Finally, we should note that teachers are not superhuman. They cannot generate power and bandwidth. Therefore, they need to receive help in this area so that they can prepare our students for the future.
_______________________________
The writer is the research director of PPPI (Paramadina Public Policy Institute) and deputy rector for academics, research and student affairs at Paramadina University, Jakarta.
