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Lesson from West Java: Digitalizing learning
Digitalization has likewise profoundly transformed education. Though digital divide still exists and much needs to be done to make sure no one is left out, digitalization is inescapable in education for several reasons. #opinion
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Digital literacy -- School students use Internet to work on their assignments in an event in Jakarta recently. (Tempo/-)
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n recent years, the affordability of rapidly progressing digital technology has gradually narrowed the gap between the haves and have-nots, and enabled millions of young people in developed and developing countries to benefit from the digital world.
Digitalization has likewise profoundly transformed education. Though digital divide still exists and much needs to be done to make sure no one is left out, digitalization is inescapable in education for several reasons.
First, digitalization provides more room for customization. Second, it saves time and energy. Third, it forces schools to adapt to technology — with numerous digital applications that can make subjects like mathematics a fun but still meaningful learning experience for students, schools have no choice but to be adaptable. Fourth, it provides a greater practical approach and flexibility.
Digitalization of education helps widen access to education.
A major digital education project called ProFuturo, for example, is bringing high quality basic education to 2 million children and teens in Africa and Latin America, and will soon expand to Asia, reaching at least 10 million children in the coming years.
The Indonesian government is also facilitating the digitalization of nonformal education sector. As many as 17,000 nonformal courses have begun to gradually develop massive open online courses, making them available to wider societies.
In West Java, open and distance learning with the help of information and communications technology (ICT) has increased the school enrolment rate from 68.76 percent in 2016 to 72.35 percent in 2017 and 81.25 percent in 2018. The distance-learning program in the province has been designed to employ a hybrid or blended mode of ICT-based open and distance learning.
