“Which people and what institutions will be most seriously harmed by this new technology?” ~ Neil Postman

This is the fourth question that is posed by Neil Postman in his attempt to get us to think of entering a serious discussion ongoing discussion with ICT. While ICT in education can be an enabler, we must always also bear in mind that it can also be not just a disabler but it may also cause serious harm to both sections and institutions of a community as a result of its use.

This is not as far-fetch as it sounds. The most obvious is the link between the use of ICT in education and the great divide between the haves and the have-nots.  This is a real issue despite the price of ICT-related equipment falling over the years. This is also in spite of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) movement to provide the poor with inexpensive laptops. Even in countries where there has been a large investment in ICT equipment with the country’s schools through the MasterPlan for IT in Education (MPITE), there is still a sizable number of students who do not have access to ICT tools for learning at home. As teachers move towards online learning, it is easy to imagine how difficult it would be for the “have-nots” to have access to computers for online learning. This can mean an unfair advantage for those who do not have computers in their homes. A good look at issues of access is required before educational institutions embarked on such online learning adventures.

Will the use of ICT lead to the extinction of the classroom teacher as an institution? This is not just about the issue of older teachers having difficulty adapting to new technologies. These new technologies can also endanger those who can adapt to the new tools as the tools can take a life of their own. The possibility of these new ICT tools to take over the teaching and assessment of learning of students would mean that even for those who can incorporate ICT into teaching, their own existence as a teacher is threatened especially if the use of these ICT tools imply the possibility of greatly reduced costs. Already we see at the tertiary level, institutions pushing for more online courses to accommodate a global student audience and its attendant increased revenues.  This increase in online courses will not necessarily mean an increase in the number teaching staff at such institutions but it may mean that existing teaching staff will be required to take on additional teaching burdens, and even this may disappear with greater automation being introduced.

To prevent the latter from happening, it is vital that teachers (at any level) quickly understand what technology is all about. What can “live” teachers offer that ICT cannot offer in terms of the quality of the learning and the learning experience? Teachers must make clear their contribution is indeed invaluable and unique to their being “live” teachers. Their students must be able to see this. It cannot be just an empty boast. But before their students can be made to see it, can teachers themselves see what it is?

With the advent of ICT in education, will schools and other traditional educational institutions, in the form that they are generally today, continue to exist? Why would students need to sit in a classroom? Why would students need to go to schools or universities to learn? The advent of the Net has meant that learning students today are spoiled for choice about what they want to learn. They can pursue whatever interest them. They are not limited to the traditional subjects on offer in schools today. They can enjoy the educational version of the “Long Tail” (see here and here) instead of what is being offered in the traditional shop window. Not only this, schools and other traditional educational institutions will have to show a far greater dexterity and nimbleness to fit a world where learning, unlearning and re-learning is the order of the day. Yet these are institutions not known for these qualities. What would become of these institutions as we know them today? These institutions would need to change quick or be irrelevant and become defunct.

But it is not only schools that will become defunct. The traditional methods of assessing learning will change and that also means that the various high stakes examinations syndicates which are the traditional arbiters of who has knowledge and who has not, will also have to change. Today, these high stakes examinations syndicates only assess the  subjects that are traditionally offered in a school shop window. With the increased choices offered by ICT, who decides who is knowledgeable? While there has been talk of the death of such high stakes examinations in the past with the “discovery” of the other intelligences, high stakes examinations have actually grown in popularity, despite it being a poor means of assessing learning. This rise in its popularity has also meant that examinations syndicates have grown too. But with the ability to learn almost anything in almost any way you want, examinations syndicates will face a real challenge to their raison detre. How will they be able to assess the learning of a myriad of subjects that will be offered through the use of ICT for learning? What will be under attack is who is the authority in learning. Is this necessarily bad? The last question is also applicable to the other issues raised in this post.

“What new problems might be created by solving the original problem?” – Neil Postman

This is the third in Neil Postman’s series of questions for anyone who wants to introduce a new technology. Often technology is seen as the savior of much of the world’s ills. However, in more recent times we have become more acutely aware of the problems that have arisen as a result of the introduction of new technologies into the world. Some of these new technologies have made it already threatened our own existence. And we are not only talking about nuclear missiles here.

The trick for us is to discern what that technological genie is going to be doing once it has been released from its bottle. Too often we cannot put the genie back in. For this reason we have to do our very best to try and understand the impact of any technology before we unleash it to the world. As I have written and mentioned before, in this regard we have a lot to learn from the Amish people and their approach and attitude towards technology. Far from being Luddites, I believe they have tried their best to have a proper conversation with technology which is a lot more than can be said of many of us in the developed and developing world. The Amish people try to pre-empt problems that may arise from the use of technology. Those involve in education should adopt the same attitude.

For schools, the introduction of ICT for educational purposes can create problems within the school environment. Bear in mind, this is in addition to the fact that the jury is still out about the positive impact of ICT use in schools. One of these problems is that the introduction of ICT for education can be a distraction from the goals of education itself. many have even come to believe that acquisition of software and ICT hardware skills have become one of the goals of education. They may not announce these as goals but in practice that is what it means. I have on a few occasions already mentioned in this blog how schools teach software to their students in the computer labs s if these students will be Adobe Photoshop  or some other specialists of some other software. How many have stopped to ponder if it is the business of schools to teach students specific software? Not recognizing this means that schools will overburden themselves on wrong priorities and worse, think they are making great progress on educational goals. The real problems related to education that can be addressed in schools may not be addressed in such an environment as there are many things that become distractions.

Teachers already have enough problems making learning meaningful and effective. If ICT is brought into the classroom without careful thought and preparation, there is a real danger that it will add to the problems of designing and managing effective lessons. Teachers become more stressed out if ICT use becomes a requirement when they are ill-prepared to do so. This was the experience even in Singapore. When the MasterPlan for IT in Education (MPITE) was introduced, there was quite a number of teachers who decided to retire early to avoid having to meet the “recommended” dosage of ICT in the classroom. They know all too well that what has been recommended has a tendency of becoming a “requirement” soon enough. The pressure to adapt to the use of ICT  tools can lead to a negative reaction to ICT use for education

ICT for education has often been touted as the way to get students to learn through collaboration, personal and group research and inquiry and make learning meaningful such that students become life-ling learners. But seriously, if the only ICT adaptation to education that occurs in the classroom is the kind that only re-emphasizes rote-learning and mechanical operations only, then there is only a pretense at trying to achieve those goals. Unprepared teachers will resort to ICT that only repeat what they have been doing all their teaching lives, albeit in an electronic form. It does not matter if they use a software found on a CDROM or on an online platform. The way the teaching and learning is done is still very traditional. In fact, it can easily be further compounded with ICT.

The introduction of ICT on a mass scale for education can also lead to a problem of high maintenance costs, which will then be passed on to the consumer either through higher taxes or higher school fees. Computers need to be repaired regularly, costs of maintaining printers and their ink or cartridges will also rocket as the paperless classroom is still a long way to go despite the introduction of ICT. Will this lead to a greater divide in education between that for the rich and the poor? In Indonesia, we see the divide getting bigger as privately-owned schools which cater to the higher income families try to boast an ICT infrastructure within the school. It is an irony of sorts that the schools for the rich who can already afford the computers in their homes are getting computers in the schools while the poor are not likely to see any for their use both in the home and the schools. Even in ICT-rich Singapore schools, the Minister of Education has had to fend off parental worries that member schools of the FutureSchools@Singapore will be out of reach of lower income families.

ICT in schools is often described as an “enabler”. But many forget that ICT in schools can also be a “disabler”. For this reason, conversations like this, must continue, to help those responsible to draw up better plans for ICT usage in schools. It should also continue so schools will continuous check and -re-check what they are doing with ICT to see that it does not become a “disabler”.

“Whose problem is it?” ~ Neil Postman

This is the next question that Postman posed when considering why a new technology is to be introduced. After answering “what is the problem to which this technology is a solution”, Neil Postman wants us to identify the real owner of the problem. This is important because by seeing this we will realize whether we are trying to solve our problems or that of someone else?

Let’s look at virtual environments. Why are virtual environments created for schools? As explained in my previous post, I do not think that such virtual environments are important for schools. I believe that the fact that it was pushed to schools shows that there is a problem but it is not that of the schools. It is that of the software industries. They want to create a market for them to sell their products. It is largely a problem for the sales managers and their salesmen. Not for schools. For this reason, school teachers and administrators must learn to see through the hype, or sales pitches. Do schools really need them?

As mentioned in my previous posts, ICT is also often introduced to schools to lend an aura of prestige and progressiveness to the schools. For example, one reason why Singapore’s schools are considered world class is the ubiquitous presence of ICT equipment. In Indonesia, the surest way to lend a school an air of “international” quality is to promote the availability of computers in the school. Never mind if in both cases, rote learning and mechanical operations are the order of learning in the schools.

Whose problem is it that there is a need for such prestige? Does the prestige affect the teaching and learning process in schools? Quite obviously, it doesn’t. What it does affect is the image of the school. This is important for the owners of the schools, the parents of the students and the student themselves. What it does give to all three groups is bragging rights. For the owners of such schools, it means that they hope bragging about the introduction of ICT will bring about more “customers” for the school. For the parents, it assuages their fears about not giving the best for their children’s future. And for the students themselves, they can brag that they come from a “technologically sophisticated” school.

Whose problem is it also that schools are expected to use ICT to teach students the so-called 21st century skills like collaboration and problem-solving? Are students and teachers supposed to be test pilots of every new technology? Does this come under the ambit of the schools? Where is the line drawn with regards to what is considered to be suitable as part of a school’s goals? School teachers and administrators need to ask these questions so they do not become saddled with other people’s problems. Schools as they are, are already crammed with all kinds of new initiatives to overcome all of society’s ills. Currently everybody’s agenda has become the schools’ agenda. A more discerning approach can help to reduce the overload that is happening in schools and bring back some semblance of sanity.