Ok I know I mentioned Indonesian education in the header above but really this article is relevant for any school out there that does not have English as its main medium of instruction.

Google has introduced Google Translate translation service. It is free. Teachers and students can now have better access to websites for educational use. Students will find it easier to use the massive resources of the Web for their research work. Also for example, where once to design a WebQuest, a teacher will have difficulty finding web resources in their native languages, this hurdle can largely be overcome with Google Translate. Though not perfect, I think it can assist students and teachers to overcome much of the language barrier.

Anyway, at the very least no one can insult me (in written form anyway) in French and get away with it.  By the way. what are those French lines in the Beatles’ “Michelle”?

Online education is a popular option for many educational institutions. If a school wants to move most or  a big part of its teaching and learning resources, the teachers would have to prepare themselves for what such a move would entail. It is never simply about a transfer of traditional teaching and learning resources to the web.

Teachers would have to decide what are the kinds of lessons that would be moved to the web. Not all would have to be moved and maybe, not even a majority of them. Teachers would first have to decide which lessons are best done online? Would the teachers want these resources to be of the drill-and-practice nature or the exploratory nature?

What are the platforms for these resources? Have the teachers familiarized themselves with these platforms’ strengths and quirks? Would the students be required to work individually or in groups in a collaborative nature? If the latter, how is the work to be chunked so that real collaboration takes place.

They would have to know about, among other things, synchronous and asynchronous online learning. They would have to be aware that in asynchronous online learning, they would not be able to use body language, facial gestures and to some extent even their personality which usually exudes their warmth to the students which is so important towards creating a safe learning environment may undergo some major changes. Any good teacher would know that these are very important aspects of their teaching repertoire. The absence of face-to-face contact in asynchronous would also mean that the immediate feedback that a teacher usually gets from their students through their the same body language and facial expressions would also be lost.

While synchronous learning through, for example, video conferencing, can in theory reduce some of these losses, teachers would still need to adapt to the virtual environment. In short, there is a real need to train teachers to use ICT effectively if a school plans to move its teaching and learning resources online.

These are just a  few of the issues that teachers and school adminsitrators have to grapple with when turning to the web. These are issues that must be decided based on what the school wants to do for its students.

Today if you do not have enough financial resources to acquire and run basic Office-like applications, you would still be able to do so in two ways. The first is to switch to Open Source Software (OSS) and the second is to rely on a the Net. OSSs, like Linux-based software are not only mostly free and legal but also easy to use. Computer users accustomed to working with graphical user interfaces will find that Linux-based software have a similar feel. With regards to applications on the Net, Google, for example, has headed in the direction of providing web users with Office-like applications for free. The thinking now is that the world is headed towards using web-based applications and moving away from individually installed software on PCs for both work and play. This is now seen as a strategy that is part of a new business model for technology companies like Google.

This shift is itself a lesson for educators and schools. This shift is, on the whole, a positive thing too for education.  The provision of free web-based applications means that costs for using ICT in schools all over the world would be reduced considerably as schools no longer would have to be too worried about the cost of software licensing. The high costs of software licensing has caused many schools especially in the Third World to use illegally installed software.

Schools that face problems with funding, can now turn to both OSS and also the Net. For these schools, it means that good internet connection becomes important. In some countries, for example, Indonesia, good internet connection is hard to come by. The government of Indonesia has plans for a nation-wide network for the Internet however this is likely to take some time before its completion. The alternative is to use commercially-owned internet service providers which can be more expensive than in developed countries where competition helps to drive down prices. However, with the savings made from not having to pay for software licenses, schools could seriously consider these commercial internet service providers as a viable alternative to gain access to teaching resources.

Furthermore with the advent of cheap, no frills laptops, schools would spend less than if they had to spend on more powerful desktops designed to run the bloated applications found installed on most desktops and laptops today. The cheap laptops are a good alternative to using desktops because of their mobility. This mobility would mean that the school can buy fewer computers as they can be moved around the classrooms as and when is needed. All the laptops need to do is to be able to connect to the internet and run OSS, which in general can run on less powerful and cheaper machines too.

Schools can obtain very good learning management systems (LMSs) for free. OSSs like Moodle and also content management systems like Joomla! are also free. One can design sophisticated online courses using Moodle that can rival (or even be better than) the more expensive well-known commercial ones. Schools can use Joomla! for almost any purpose to connect and communicate in anyway they want with their stakeholders. All they require is server space. Here again is more good news for educators. The price of servers have been tumbling so schools also have the option of just simply buying server space so they would not have to worry about the maintenance of servers. The cost of server space has never been cheaper. Many come with easily-installed software for schools to use.

Clearly the alternative route for schools intending to use ICT for education has never been clearer and cheaper. Schools must capitalise on these possibilities if they want to take advantage of great learning possibilities and for their students to acquire the new literacies of the 21st century.