WORKSHOPPERSPECTIVES: NORTH / SOUTH RESEARCH PARTNERSHIPS ICT IN EDUCATION

GeSCI’s thematic focus areas and meta-review ofICT in education researchPatti Swarts, Development Manager: African Regional Programme

21st April 2009Irish Aid Centre, Dublin, Ireland

The context…

complex, fuzzy, ambiguous, confusing, emerging

Context…

• Rush for technology• Bureaucratic, inflexible and archaic education systems• Insufficient systemic planning and budgeting• Disjointedness between national policy and local

classroom implementation• Lack of capacity to implement and sustain investments• Current practice poorly serves contemporary student

needs

GeSCI focus areas

• Educational Leadership and ICT• ICT Infrastructure, Connectivity and

Accessibility• Integration of ICT into Teaching and Learning• Teacher Education and ICT• Education Content and ICT

Meta Review

• Targets ICT research related to GeSCI focus areas from 2006 -08

• 2 phases: literature review, deeper investigation of particular issues

• Includes descriptive, evaluative, general and empirical categories

• To reveal general trends in ICT research and major topics of academic dialogue and methodological approaches underlying ICT research

Meta review issues emerging…

• Very little innovative practice filtering down to classroom level

• No thorough analysis of expected ICT impact

• Poor decisions about deployment and intended use of ICT resources

• Isolated, individually-driven initiatives: no lasting change

• Massive educational technology investments: little evidence of success

Meta review issues…

• Business models and analysis of benefits of ICT inadequate to needs of education

• Educational leaders poorly equipped to lead ICT integration

• Non-recognition of full range of components that support sustainable change

Educational Leadership and ICT

• Critical success factors for effective ICT implementation in developing countries

• What would constitute sustainable ICT development and implementation?

• The role of culture in effective ICT implementation

• Capacities required for effective ICT integration and use

ICT Infrastructure, Connectivity and Accessibility

• Appropriate and innovative solutions to respond to connectivity and access challenges

• What constitutes a full scope of resources necessary for effective ICT integration

• Stable models for evaluating the benefits of expenditures made linking new investments to the realities of existing culture and infrastructure

• ICT resource and investment models appropriate for developing countries

Integration of ICTs in Teaching and Learning

• Reconceptualisation of teaching and learning to optimise the use of emerging technologies

• Identification of major barriers to successful ICT integration and development of appropriate solutions

• Models for effective cooperation between educators, university researchers, teacher preparation faculty members, government policy makers, non-government organizations (NGOs), and the private sector

• Models to strengthen practitioners’ theoretical foundation for ICT integration

• Commonly applicable research templates to help teachers in compare practices

ICT integration…• Improved evaluation protocols for the

learning benefits compared to ICT costs• Identification of teacher and student

perceptions and behaviour related to ICT integration

• Models for effective professional development to accompany technology investments

• Criteria for effective ICT integration• Appropriate resource models to create and

sustain successful ICT classroom integration

Teacher Education and ICT

• Relationship between teacher preparation and the effective integration of ICTs

• Models for aligning teacher education programmes to the real challenges confronting classrooms in developing countries

• Strategies to create robust programmatic bridges between the higher education programmes that prepare teachers and the schools that ultimately hire them

• Principles driving effective teacher preparation for effective ICT integration

Educational Content and ICT

• Implications of dramatic change in nature of content

• Discretionary skills required by teachers and students

• Best practice in content development• Learner safety and privacy and protection of

intellectual property• The contribution of m-learning strategies to

support content development in a variety of disciplines and educational levels

• ICTs as tools for learner diagnosis and assessment

What is needed?

• Bridging the gap between research, policy and practice• Coordinated and complementary efforts• Re-examination of assumptions• Fundamental re-thinking of educational purpose and practice• Multi-disciplinary approaches and multiple perspectives • Creation of innovative approaches which are contextually

relevant • Transformational models and strategies• Sustainable capacities and capabilities in developing countries

to develop own solutions