INDICATORS OF ICT USAGE IN EDUCATION

“ICTs in Education: State-of-the-Art, Needs and Perspectives” is one of the main IITE projects. Besides other directions of this project, the extent and nature of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) usage in schools is surveyed. Within the framework of this direction, IITE collects information on the extent of ICT usage in education. This work is not unique. Many national and international projects in this area are being developed. For example, in 1998 within the framework of the international project SITES-M1 such information was collected on the base of sample statistics from different countries. Since 1978, comparative study of information and communication technologies in schools is held by the Advisory Unit: Computers in Education for more than 100 countries. In G7(8) countries this project is called OrbIT, and every two years on the base of the collected data the Report and Executive Summary are published. All this experience is very useful for our work. Collecting and analyzing the information will allow us to compare progress of UNESCO Member States and take a wider view of the penetration of the new technologies in the global educational sphere. We make emphases on basic levels of education (primary and secondary schools). As a follow-up of the Dakar Forum, it is important to obtain the information for ICT usage in education based on its main indicators. The very approach of measuring achievements in ICT usage in education with the system of pertinent indicators is rather evident, but the problem itself is much more complicated. Contemporary educational statistics contain superfluous amount of mixed, heterogeneous redundant indices some of which are important only for a narrow profile specialists and some of which have a reference value only.Outworking a classification scheme for indicators of ICT usage in education is quite a natural task, and it has three main goals. The first one is to systematize and put in order a given set of indices. The second is to find blank spots if there are any. And the last but not least one is to find during this systematisation a special subset of the most important figures that can satisfactorily describe the processes under consideration.

Scheme 1. Indicators of ICT in Education – Goals of classification

It is important to remember that the problem of indicators of ICT usage in education is not only a problem of classification. It also includes organizational, informational and educational aspects which may be briefly described as follows:Organizational – including legal aspects and procedures of obtaining and processing all the necessary data and statistical informationEducational – including description and evaluation of phenomena under consideration.Informational – including all the necessary procedures of information maintenance and provision.The indicator problem is also a multilevel one as the education system can be considered on regional (subregional), national, local level and the level of educational institution itself. Though

To put in order

To find blank spots

To provide a core set of data

Classification SchemeGoals

IITE in its work is mainly considering two former levels, we remember that other levels are also important in elaboration of the national pilot projects.

AspectLevel

Organizational Educational Informational

Regional

National

Local

Institutional

Scheme 2. Aspects and levels of the Indicator problem

In systematization of the measures of ICT usage in education we can divide them on several classification pairs as shown on scheme 3.

Scheme 3. Classification pairs of measures

In further development of the indicator system IITE developed a Questionnaire for ICT usage in education. Items of the Questionnaire can be divided into three main groups referring to the Educational Content, Technology and Staff. Each of these groups consists of several tables with the sets of multiple-choice or open questions. In the group of Educational content, a first set is aimed at national and regional curricula and embodiment of information and communication technologies in them. Second set considers availability of different courses in information and communication technologies for students of different age. Next set of open questions is aimed at the national policy plans and initiatives in ICT implementation in school. In the Technology group first set is devoted to quantitative data on student/computer ratio, networking, multimedia systems, etc. Then distribution of various operation systems environment and Internet access for primary/secondary school is questioned. After that educational software availability for different disciplines is measured. And finally, in the Staff group, teachers confidence and vocational development in ICT is questioned for primary and secondary school teachers and administrators on the levels of elementary ICT literacy and professional competence.

Direct Indirect

Qualitative Quantitative

Absolute Relative

Regular Occasional

Scaled Structural

Educational content

ICT curricula ICT studies for students National plans and initiatives

Technology Hardware quantity and quality Operation systems Communications and Internet

access Educational software

Staff Teachers’ vocational competence and development

Scheme 4. ICT usage in education the Questionnaire structure

After an international expertise of the Questionnaire data from UNESCO Member States are to be gathered for the information system “ICTs in Education: State-of-the-Art, Needs and Perspectives”. Special training modules for decision- and policy-makers on the problems of educational management in ICT on the basis of statistical modeling are supposed to be included in the IITE educational programme.