Presented by:NIHAYMA P. MACASINDIL

Ph.D. in Educt’l. Mgt.-I

Presented to:Maridee B. Adiong, Ph.D.

Professor

INTRODUCTION

'ICT is not only the future of our children’s education it is the present;

and we need to make the investment in ICT now!' Walter Lockhart

Twentieth century marks the dawn of great modernization and is

referred to as the “information age”. Hence, education has never been given

much of an importance before as this age does. Innovation in learning

presents itself in various ways. A great part of this is the birth of Information

and Communications Technologies (ICT) which is now considered as the

most advanced tool used in education nowadays. It has become our society’s

efforts to teach its current and emerging citizens valuable knowledge and

skills around computing and communications devices, software that operates

them, applications that run on them and systems that are built with them.

The adoption of ICT into education has often been premised on the potential

of the new technological tools to revolutionize an outmoded educational

system, better prepare students for the information age, and/or accelerate

national development efforts (Albirini, 2006). Indeed, many experts expect

that the effective use of computer in education can be a determining factor

which countries will succeed in the future. This rings true today as displayed

by computer-reliant industries in the world such as media, business

industries, and the like.

However, ICT is complex and quickly changing. It is confusing for many

people. It is so pervasive in the modern world that everyone has some

understanding of it, but those understandings are often wildly divergent. In

the field of education, it has been noticed that teachers’ reactions to

technological innovations are mediated by their cultural perceptions

(Watson, 1998; Harper 1987). Cultural perceptions “embody group

understanding based on common beliefs and values” (Jones and Maloy,

1996: p.25). They are influenced by the norms and standards they have

been oriented to both in schools and their community at large. In the

Philippines, complete modernization is still quite a struggle. Filipinos are

known with their strong cultural tie which inhibits them from embracing

modernization from foreign countries. History is a great lesson for them. The

colonization of Spain, America, and Japan in the republic caused a great

trauma for many that is why there are still areas in the country that prefer to

stick with their status than to welcome changes introduced by aliens. As

pointed out by Mark Oppeneer, “the implementation of ICTs in service to

indigenous people in development settings is a double-edged sword”, as

both the critics and proponents of ICT(4D) have seemingly irreconcilable

perspectives. Effort is yet to be doubled to substantiate the idea that ICT is

not colonization by stealth but an alternative rejuvenation of cultural

identity.

The biggest region in the Philippines occupied by indigenous people of

common identity is the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). The

main concern of its local government has always been an echo of the

national government’s own call to alleviate poverty and improve the quality

of life of the people. ARMM is behind in terms of modernization and economic

growth among other regions in the country. Yet, it continues to fight these

struggles with the help of the national government and foreign aides. Among

its thrusts is the upgrading of education through utilizing the use of ICT. It

has responded to the challenge of information age on educational reform by

initiating programs to incorporate technology use in education. This proves

that cultural perception on new technologies is not a major issue in the

operation of ICT in the region. In fact, the Department of Science and

Technology-ARMM has recently accomplished a new task in line with their

ICT program by distributing laptops in various schools in the region.

However, the quantity of the device is apparently inadequate to

accommodate the number of the educators at par with the sum of the

learners.

It may be true that cultural perception in ARMM towards ICT is not at

its worst but the low status of the region in terms of educational

developments is unfortunately at its least. This is so because the ICT

implementation in the region has not been guided by research and planning.

These first stages of the operation have been overlooked which may

ominously generate percussions for ICT diffusion in the region. As a result,

teachers’ reaction is not so favorable to response to the urgency and

effective delivery of ICT in education. Leaders have accountability on this

deficiency. Obviously, unless teachers recognize the vital role of ICT in

education and the leaders operate this program with thorough planning and

strict implementation, upgrading in education for a developing region will

forever be a fiction. Likewise, strategies are yet to be developed and

strengthened to guarantee a successful implementation of this project. The

understanding of these inadequacies has become the primary purpose of this

study. This will give a closer look of the needed improvement of the

teachers’ capability in terms of ICT devices, particularly computers, and

other issues on ICT implementation in Masiu II District, Lanao del Sur in

particular.

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

Worldwide research has shown that ICT can lead to the improved

student learning and better teaching method. A report made by the National

Institute of Multimedia Education in Japan, proved that an increase in student

exposure to educational ICT through curriculum integration has a significant

and positive impact on student achievement, especially in terms of

knowledge-comprehension, practical skill, and presentation skill in subject

areas such as mathematics, science, and social study. This level of

competency inspires every nation to integrate ICT in its system of education.

However, many of the education technology solutions provided worldwide

are not accessible and affordable to all. There a lot of challenges that each

country, specially the developing ones, has to work out and problems that

have to be given solutions before they can enjoy the full benefits of ICT.

Financial support is the main obstacle in ICT programs for developing

countries. Education in these countries takes place under circumstances that

are substantially different from those in developed countries. The poorest

countries spend the least – absolutely and proportionately – on non-salary

related educational expenditures (Gould, 1993). In the early 1980s, while

African countries allocated only 3.6% of their education budgets to

classroom materials, and developing countries in Asia spent 8.8%,

industrialized countries spent 14.4% on books and learning aids

(Gould,1993). Lewin (2001) estimated that, while the richest countries

spend as much as US$ 430 per child on non-salary educational

expenditures, the poorest countries disburse approximately US$5 per child,

of which US$1 or less goes to information and communication technology

(ICT). It is, therefore, no surprise that in developing countries, school

buildings commonly do not have concrete flooring, furniture, electricity, and

water, and there is virtually no equipment for science, art, and other

practical subjects (Beauchamp, 1995). The Philippines is a developing

country in Southeast Asia whose educational system shares many of the

same problems and limitations as those of its fellow developing nations.

Some provincial schools lack chairs and tables, blackboards, and laboratory

equipment. Some do not have electricity and water. There is a scarcity of

learning aid in general. In contrast, American students have 140 times more

reading material available to them than their Filipino counterparts (Gould,

1993). Anecdotal evidence further suggests that public and private sector

programs in the Philippines lack coordination within and between

themselves. During the implementation of the 1996 DECS modernization

program, teachers were trained to use Macintosh computers but were

supplied with IBMs (Gonzales, 1998). There was also a one-year time lag

between the training sessions and the equipment delivery (Rosas, 1998).

Victoria Tinio of FIT-ED and Pilipinas School Net narrated that in mid-2001,

two public schools in Cebu province received computer and network

equipment (Tinio, 2001). Unfortunately, neither school had rooms that could

accommodate the machines. The schools were not expecting the

computers, and were therefore unprepared to receive them, because the

machines had been promised to them two years earlier, as part of the 1999-

2000 DECS Computerization Program. Ultimately, one public school set up its

network, but in a room without air conditioning.

Despite these conditions, the Philippines along with other developing

countries in Asia, Africa, and South America are generally interested in

educational technology, particularly in ICT, hoping that their educational

systems reap the pedagogical benefits associated with it. Drill and practice

or tutorial software, for example, individualizes instruction and provides

students with immediate feedback (Chief Executive Officers’ Forum on

Education & Technology, 1997). Students can proceed at their own pace.

In recent years, the then Department of Education, Culture, Sports

(DECS), now Department of Education (DepEd), has partnered with other

government agencies or the private sector to improve public school facilities.

In the record of Philippine Asia’s Knowledge Center (1997), DECS's Adopt-a-

School Program, initiated in 1998, enlists the help of private corporations in

delivering educational goods and services, among these computer

laboratories and equipment, to underserved areas. This program still

continues today. Nevertheless, many remote areas are not reached by this

program, and municipalities in Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao are

some of them. Granted, however, that these devices are made available to

these areas, more challenges are still to be resolved. Educators must be

abreast of knowledge and proper training for the utilization of the

equipments. MacDougall and Squires (1997) suggests that teacher

professional development should have five foci: 1) skills with particular

applications; 2) integration into existing curricula; 3) curricular changes

related to the use of IT (including changes in instructional design); 4)

changes in teacher role; and (5) underpinning educational theories. Ideally,

these should be addressed in pre-service teacher training and built on and

enhanced in-service. In some countries, like Singapore, Malaysia, and the

United Kingdom, teaching accreditation requirements include training in ICT

use. ICTs are swiftly evolving technologies, however, and so even the most

ICT fluent teachers need to continuously upgrade their skills and keep

abreast of the latest developments and best practices. However, aside from

knowledgeable and experienced teachers, schools with ICT tools are also in

need of technical support specialists. Tinio (2002) contends that whether

provided by in-school staff or external service providers, or both, technical

support specialists are essential to the continued viability of ICT use in a

given school. While the technical support requirements of an institution

depend ultimately on what and how technology is deployed and used,

general competencies that are required would be in the installation,

operation, and maintenance of technical equipment (including software),

network administration, and network security.

Attempts to enhance and reform education through ICTs require clear

and specific objectives, guidelines and time-bound targets, the mobilization

of required resources, and the political commitment at all levels to see the

initiative through. Lewin observed that

the prospects of the poorest developing countries benefiting from the

potential of ICTs to transform opportunities and access to learning are

severely constrained. For small minorities, concentrated in the

professions and amongst the wealthy,… participation in global

networks offers real advantages which can and will influence

development and learning. However, for the majority easy and

convenient access will remain unaffordable and /or unavailable.

DISCUSSION

ICT in Education means "Teaching and Learning with Information

Communication Technologies". Educational institutions acknowledge that

they must move apace with the technology driven changes in society and

economy. In today’s knowledge society, not only must schools ensure that

learners possess the competencies to wield these new information and

communication tools productively, they must equip learners with the critical

and analytic tools necessary to live and flourish in an information-saturated

environment. Mastery of facts has become less important than the ability to

contextualize these facts and derive their meaning within specific contexts.

As repeatedly said, ICT is a new measure to determine the global

competitiveness of a country. It has been a landmark to education in the

twentieth century. ICT in education is indubitably a great deal of productivity

in teaching-learning process that despite its cost and demand, it has seemed

to be part of the government’s duty to provide its people with easy access

on technological solutions in learning.

After a headlong drive to the horizon of information age, many say that

ICT in education today should not only be a privilege, but a right. In first class

countries, this notion might sound true but not in developing countries where

the main burden to act upon has always been their growing population which

causes their resources to be outnumbered by humans. In 2012, the

Department of Education in Philippines only received P238.8 billion out of its

1.8 trillion national budget for the same year. Only if education in the

country needs not to answer other concerns but ICT implementation, this

amount could be a huge help. However, unending lack of schools, classroom,

teachers, and books are pressing matters that needed to be addressed.

In Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, the country’s burdens

utterly roar in the entire region. The local government agencies are

allocated with budget to at least slowly answer each of them as the national

government does for the whole nation. But when you turn your eyes around

the region, the question is always: Is this how sluggish the government is

acting upon the reformation of this county? Since I was young until I grew up

to this day, I barely see changes in our province in Lanao del Sur. Apparently,

I am not ignorant of the reason behind. The answer is as constant as the

Earth’s rotation: Corruption and poor governance. I have spent few years in

Masiu, Lanao del Sur during my elementary days and I can say what was my

school before when I was but a student is almost as it is today now that I am

part of its teaching force. Although, like other places in the country, ARMM

also sees itself to be advanced in terms of educational system. DepEd-ARMM

and DOST-ARMM under the program MOVE-UPS is hand in hand in providing

the schools all over the region of computers and other education

technological solutions. In fact, Masiu II District was a recipient of DOST’s

distribution of laptops in December, 2008. As expected, there was no

sufficient fund to accommodate all schools. The more distressing fact is to

witness the people to have been immune with this awful situation to the

extent of tolerating the same. Unfortunately, the end result is the deprivation

of the students’ full potential to improve and develop through learning. This

supposed lack of fund does not stop in the inadequate supply of educational

necessities. Recently, four classrooms in Pangandaman Central Elementary

School, where I am currently stationed, were burned to ashes and until now,

the government has not donated enough funds to rebuild classrooms. If it is

hard for them to grant the school with new building as the students’ abode in

the school, it is not a question why there is a zero number of room to

accommodate computers and other multimedia tools and equipments, if

there is any. Furthermore, with a single laptop on-hand which we had since

2008, our district cannot properly utilize its use for the frequent electric

outage in our municipality. The electric power scarcity in the municipality is

not caused by shortage of electric supply as many cities in Mindanao are

experiencing. But its resident citizens are not capable of paying their electric

bills; so, the local government has to answer the total electric bill of the

entire municipality. However, most of the time, the government fails to do so

and thus, the frequent electric outage. With this problem, Masiu II District,

chooses to keep the laptop closed and uses it only for urgent reports with the

aid of an electric generator. It is only used for administrative function, not

for student learning and adds the fact that there is an absence of internet

access in the whole district. With this kind of set-up, ICT now has no disparity

from the ICT during 1980s when it was only for work productivity tool such as

word processing, databases, spreadsheets, graphics programs, and desktop

publishing. Therefore, technically speaking, there is still no “ICT education”

in the District. The teachers are still engrossed with the traditional teaching

method where quality education, as defined in the present generation, is not

realized.

In the midst of these scarcities is another scarcity. The educators are

not yet capable to use ICT as means of teaching for lack of training and

experience. In areas like Masiu, only a few teachers are computer literate.

This is another factor which pulls the teachers to fight for the full ICT

implementation in the education system. For them, it brings hassle in their

usual unfussy teaching environment. Thus, it is a vital role of the

government and education administrators to intervene to the negative

impression of the teachers on technology use. It is perilous to entrust the

future of our youth in the hands of teachers whose mind-set do not

correspond to their duty as educators. Trainings and orientations are crucial

to generate a strong sense of responsibility among the teachers before they

are formally introduced to the new phase of teaching method such as ICT

application. There is indeed an appalling ground to change their prevailing

school culture. Quoting from Albirini, it is widely accepted that culture, within

a nation or an organization, shapes individuals’ perceptions of innovations

that bear directly on their lives. In line with this, it is better to introduce the

benefits of ICT in the entire community as well to achieve a more stable end.

As suggested by Martinez (1999), one of the major challenges facing

developing countries is to make technology an essential part of the culture of

the people. Educating them on ICT’s importance is the best way to infuse

technology in their culture. This, of course, is a large cost for the government

which is another load in its pocket and an additional reason why ICT in

education is close to fiction for poor urban areas like Masiu.

ICT is complex and quickly changing. Keeping updated with such

technological resources is never an easy thing for developing countries such

as the Philippines. The best option it has is only to take care anything it

produces today to preserve it for the next ten years. ICT devices precisely

need maintenance for the continuity of its system, and doing so is not free of

disbursement. Technical support specialists cost a lot but they are highly

needed for the continued viability of ICT use in a given school. One of the

major difficulties to optimizing computer use in urban areas has been the

lack of timely technical support. Masiu II District neither has one to look over

the technical problems of its computers and other ICT tools. Without on-site

technical support, much time and money may be lost due to technical

breakdowns. In our case, we have our devices checked and repaired in

Cagayan de Oro City that is why it has become a neighbouring city to us

despite its distance. Our principal or supervisor usually answers for the repair

fee, taken from their own pocket because sadly, we do not have any MOOE

or maintenance and other operating expenses. Apparently, all challenges in

ICT implementation in education are financial-related.

RECOMMENDATION

Whyte suggests the following potential sources of money and

resources for ICT use programs:

1. Grants

2. Public subsidies

3. Private donations, fund-raising events

4. In-kind support (e.g., equipment, volunteers)

5. Community support (e.g. rent-free building)

6. Membership fees

7. Revenues earned from core business:

Connectivity (phone, fax, Internet, web pages)

Direct computer access to users

Office services (photocopying, scanning, audiovisual aids

8. Revenues earned from ancillary activities:

Business services (word-processing, spreadsheets, budget preparation,

printing, reception services)

Educational services (distant education, training courses)

Community services (meeting rooms, social events, local information,

remittances from migrant workers)

Telework and consulting

Specialized activities (telemedicine)

Sales (stationery, stamps, refreshments, etc.) 

As suggested by Rexcris http://www.slideshare.net/rexcris/status-of-

icts-in-philippine-basic-education, for today’s hardship, less fortunate areas

like Masiu Lanao del Sur “…must reaffirm the power of older ICTs such as

radio, television, and playback technologies. Computers and Internet may be

mainstream but these are not always the most appropriate because at the

end of the day, the central concern is the good quality of education not an

urgent modernization.” Meantime, the problems that hinder ICT in education

can be addressed one by one as time and human resource allow. The electric

outage maybe addressed by providing a solar power in the District. The

teaching force of Masiu II District can put up an income-generating program

that would shoulder the cost of a sufficient solar power supply for the district.

Moreover, they can secure financial assistance from LGUs for the permanent

installation of electrical wiring in the different schools under the district of

Masiu II. They may seek also the assistance of other stakeholders and other

agencies to have a stable access to internet. Another equally important

aspect is to have a secure place or storage room for the multimedia tools.

Principals and teachers must work hand in hand with the community to

ensure the safety of the equipments. Parent-Teacher Association should

have an active role in ensuring the protection of the tools.

Meanwhile, teachers’ training and mass ICT orientation must be

delivered in the field to keep teachers well-abreast with the know-how of

Information and Communication Technology. Teachers must understand that

ICT have become an inevitable part of the education today. In making

students functionally literate, they have to be fully equipped with necessary

and relevant technological knowledge and skills. Nearby Teacher Education

Institutes (TEIs) like Mindanao State University maybe tapped for the mass

ICT training of teachers in the district. Workshops and hands-on training will

be of most beneficial for the teachers. Before conducting a mass training in

the district, SWOTsing (SWOT Analysis) and environmental scanning may be

done to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the teachers in ICT and to

address carefully their needs and be able to provide appropriate trainings.

Indeed, challenges in ICT among teachers in Masiu II District cannot be

answered by one solution alone nor can be solved overnight. Definitely, it will

take some time to realize the use of ICT in the said district. Manpower,

financial and time are certainly, the most imperative factors that need to be

considered.

REFERENCES

http://www.econ.upd.edu.ph/perse/?p=913

http://www.ceo forum.org /reports.cfm ?R ID = 1

http://curry.ateneo.net/~didith/2001ICTUse.pdf

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/ICT_in_Education/

Key_Challenges_in_Integrating_ICTs_in_Education

http://www.elmoglobal.com/en/html/ict/01.aspx

http://www.slideshare.net/rexcris/status-of-icts-in-philippine-basic-education

JOURNALS:

A Gonzales, keynote address in the Conference on the Education

Technology

Master Plan, Makati City , 3 0 October 1998 , p . 3.

Beauchamp, A. P., “Uganda's schools: Do these need computers?” in

World

Conference on Computers in Education VI: WCCE 95 Liberating the

Learner: Proceedings of the Sixth IFP World Conference on Computers

in

Education, J. D. Tinsey & T. J. Van Weert, Eds., (Chapman & Hall,

London, 1995) pp. 193 -201.

K .M. Lewin, Compare: A Journal of Comparative Education [Online] 30

(3 ),

313-321 (2000).

MacDougall, A. and D. Squires (1997), “A framework for reviewing

teacher

professional development programmes in information technology”.

Cited

in Blurton, C., “New Directions of ICT-Use in Education”, p.29.

N. L. Rosas, report presented at the Congress on the Educational

Technology Master Plan , Makati City, 3 0 October 1998, pp .2, 30,

4,

6.31. R.T. Gloria, DECS Memorandum 90, s. 1997, Department of

Education, Culture and Sports.

V. Tinio, Personal Communication, 20 July 2001.

W.T.S. Gould, “Global pattern s of education ” in People and Education

in

the Third World

Chief Executive Officers’ Forum on Education & Technology), Year 1 Report:

From Pillars to Progress (1997)