ICT in Education: Six Questions Part 5
“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.
