In the Lord of the Rings, the band accompanying the Ring-bearer led by Gandalf approached the entrance of the home of the dwarfs at Misty Mountains and was barred by the Moria Gate bearing the ancient inscriptions, “Speak, Friend and enter.” Gandalf spent quite a bit of time trying to decipher the password that would magically open the gate. After a long time pondering upon it, he realized that the magical word was “friend”!

Similarly, if a teaching faculty in a school intends to move into the magical realm of integrating ICT in the curriculum, the approach to doing so should be based on that word “friend”. For ICT integration to succeed it must be people-friendly. Although the process of ICT integration seems to be about technology, in reality it is about people, especially the teachers and the students.

It is about people because it is these two groups that I mentioned above are the ones who are going to be most affected by the whole process and they are the ones who will decide on the outcome of the whole process. In an earlier posting, I described teachers as the “gatekeepers to ICT integration” in the classrooms. The success of an ICT integration program is dependent on the willingness of the teachers to introduce them in their classrooms. Therefore it becomes imperative that in any attempt to introduce ICT into the classroom on a regular basis, great thought must be given about:

• teachers’ perceptions or beliefs about the usefulness of ICT in education;
• teachers’ attitudes towards learning and adding another dimension to their already vast teaching repertoire and responsibilities;
• the kind of training and other forms of assistance that they would require to be using ICT successfully and regularly in the classroom; and
• the motivations for the teachers to use ICT in the classroom.

It is only when these considerations are taken into account before and during the implementation of an ICT integration program, that ICT integration can be a more friendly process for all, especially the teachers. This is vital not only as a PR excercise but for the successful implementation and continuity of the program. It is people first, and technology, second. It is only then we can “Speak, Friend and enter.”