INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY AND EDUCATION

A Changed World With Unchanged Classrooms: 

                                If you compared our world today with the world one hundred years ago , you would encounter amazing advances in science , commerce , health care , transportation and countless other factors . But if you were to compare the classroom of a hundred years ago with an average classroom today , you would recognise it immediately : students lined up in rows , paper & pencil in hand ; a teacher at the blackboard jotting down important facts ; students furiously copying all that is written & said , expecting to memorise the facts & spit them out on an exam .

                                                                     -HARVARD UNIVERSITY REPORT , 2002

ADVANTAGES OF ICT:

• Increasing access through distant learning. 
• Enabling a knowledge network for students.
• Training teachers.
• Broadening the availability of quality education materials.
• Enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of educational administration and policy.
• Social skills.
• Research and development.
• Professional development.
• Policy and strategic planning.

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) can contribute to universal access to education, equity in education, the delivery of quality learning and teaching, teachers’ professional development and more efficient education management, governance and administration.ICTs stand for information and communication technologies and are defined, for the purposes of this primer, as a “diverse set of technological tools and resources used to communicate, and to create, disseminate, store, and manage information.” These technologies include computers, the Internet, broadcasting technologies (radio and television), and telephony.

                 In recent years there has been a groundswell of interest in how computers and the Internet can best be harnessed to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of education at all levels and in both formal and non-formal settings. But ICTs are more than just these technologies; older technologies such as the telephone, radio and television, although now given less attention, have a longer and richer history as instructional tools. For instance, radio and television have for over forty years been used for open and distance learning, although print remains the cheapest,most accessible and therefore most dominant delivery mechanism in both developed and developing countries. The use of computers and the Internet is still in its infancy in developing countries, if these are used at all, due to limited infrastructure and the attendant high costs of access.

                       Moreover, different technologies are typically used in combination rather than as the sole delivery mechanism. For instance, the Kothmale Community Radio Internet uses both radio broadcasts and computer and Internet technologies to facilitate the sharing of information and provide educational opportunities in a rural community in Sri Lanka. Similarly, the Indira Gandhi National Open University in India combines the use of print, recorded audio and video, broadcast radio and television, and audio conferencing technologies.

What is e-learning?

Although most commonly associated with higher education and corporate training, e-learning encompasses learning at all levels, both formal and non-formal, that uses an information network—the Internet, an intranet (LAN) or extranet (WAN)—whether wholly or in part, for course delivery, interaction, evaluation and/or facilitation. Others prefer the term online learning. Web-based learning is a subset of e-learning and refers to learning using an Internet mainly using a browser (such as Chrome or Firefox or Internet Explorer).It can also be viewed as learning through the use of electronic devices.

Technology and ICT have been drivers that have re-engineered our society and commerce in recent years. Some might say they have presented opportunities for change that have lead to unique benefits. Just as in any market, we have seen both pioneers and early adopters and, at the opposite end of the spectrum those schools that are slow and reluctant to accept change . ICT is a network which connect people worldwide.

Across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the ICT Mark, administered by Naace, is a good indicator of the maturity achieved by schools in their use of ICT in Leadership and Management, Planning, Learning, Assessment, Professional Development and use of Resources. Over 2000 schools have achieved this quality mark and can demonstrate their effectiveness in their use of ICT delivering benefits to all aspects of school and student life and extending more broadly into the community.

           No one can deny the impact that technology continues to have on almost every aspect of our daily lives, nor the speed with which new developments are adopted by us. The mobile phone is ubiquitous, and not just for anytime anywhere voice communication. Broadband data connectivity brings access to the Internet and our personal and business communications.  GPS can give us geographical guidance. A camera gives us video as well as image and sound recording capability, and local storage continues to get ever larger and ever cheaper.

With the introduction of “apps” we now have almost untold free or low cost support to use and manage the information to which we have access. With the developments in “Cloud” computing, and the expansion of the Internet to “connected things” as well as people our access to, and use of information continues to evolve relentlessly.Today it is the norm to use a range of personal data tools that specifically suit our needs. Tablet computers such as the iPad are popular for publications such as newspapers or books and magazines, delivered digitally. Along with laptops and MP3 players they offer us portability – anytime anywhere access.

The past decade has seen the rapid development of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in many areas of the global economy. The impact of changes could be varied depending on a number of factors and it could be hard to mention all relevant stuff within the limit of this post. Therefore, the music industry, one of the industries in which the changes could be obviously recognized, will be taken to be the focus of the analysis. The purpose of this paper is to review the development of ICT during the period of 2001 – 2009 and its impact on the growth of the music industry.Based on the purpose above, the paper has been divided into three main parts. The first part deals with how the ICT affected the interactions with customers and suppliers. It will then go on to the impact of ICT on the marketing aspect of the industry. Finally, there will be some conclusions as well as the development forecast for the coming years.

ICT IN THE MUSIC FIELD

The term “music distributors” here refers to the record stores where consumers can buy physical music albums. The development of technology, in particular, the new data compression techniques that enabled the possibility to compress audio data in light-weight MP3 format without losing much of its quality as compare to CD format’s and the available of tools for sharing digital music easily such as Kazaa, Morpheus, Grokster, iMesh, and LimeWire constituted a great encouragement for people in sharing their music collection over the Internet. By virtue of this convenience, a new market of sharing pirated music illegally had been established and this caused the right conflict of record labels versus consumers in the age of digital music.

Another aspect of the topic is the impact of technology on the marketing respect of music industry. The blooming of Internet in the first decade of the 21st century with multi-millions people connected formed a very potential market. In term of marketing, music artists now have a powerful tool to approach their customers all over the world. In the past 9 years, there was a fundamental change in the way performers approaching listeners. Channels like record labels, live performance, concerts used to be a traditional communication bridge between singers and fans. With Internet, the story seemed to be completely different.The growth in streaming music mentioned earlier brought back more than just the matter of revenue decline. The vast amount of real-time demographic data getting from many streaming providers as well as social networks like 

 MySpace, etc. was under investigation by both record labels and music artists. For the record labels, things like what music genre being the most listened to, what site being the most popular place for music fans, etc. were easily exploited. For performers, they could have their own personal web sites and used statistical software tools to analyze where their music was being played, how many people playing them and their locations, etc. From these information, many strategic decisions could be carried out such as what song should be chosen to be the lead single of the album.[14] The answer was the most played song. The figure below shows the features that would be used as input data for a music classifier tool. The purpose of this software is to foresee the potential of songs for becoming hits.

 

ICT USED IN ART AND DESIGN.

Computers are general purpose creation, storage and distribution systems. They have become part and design of our contemporary culture coexisting alongside television, radio, video and computer games. In addition the Internet and e-mail provide resources and communication opportunities for schools to use and develop. Communication in our culture and society is becoming increasingly visual. Our role therefore is not simply to facilitate the development of skills in art and design but to provide a context for assisting pupils to construct meaning from this array of visual information. In other words teachers and parents share a responsibility to teach the next generation how to use ICT purposefully in their learning. 

Using computers is fun, but ICT is also a challenge to understand the wide range of applications available. ICT is therefore essential that we teach children basic skills in using and managing the computer environment and creatively explore the range of computer software tools in order to gain an understanding of its strengths in much the same way as we teach using traditional tools and media. This will enable them to choose the most appropriate tools in the future. 
Using Information Communication Technology in art and design and design is a new area of experience for both pupils and teachers. ICT provides children with access to a wide range of processes and tools that until recently were only available to professionals working in the design and film industries. 
 

In art and design education the use of computers, scanners, digital cameras, printers and the Internet is challenging us to rethink the ways in which we develop pupil's creativity. ICT blurs the boundary between traditional art and design forms providing opportunities to express ideas in many different ways. In teaching art and design and design we need to consider how ICT might be used alongside and or integrated with art and design practice and how to develop this new medium in a way that develops and extends visual understanding. 
Many artists and designers are using ICT to develop and create their work. Therefore to have the broadest experience pupils must also have access to ICT in relation to their art and design work. 

ICT IN CLASSROOMS:

Many teachers use ICT to support traditional learning methods, for example, information retrieval in which students are ‘passive learners of knowledge instead of ‘active producers able to take part in the learning process. In a document entitled teaching and learning with ICT, G. Galea (2002) explains how ICT can promote teaching and learning.  According to her there are two main reasons behind increasing the use of ICT in education in UK.  Firstly, ICT can change the lessons’ pace: she stated that children in modern society need to develop sufficient potentials and skills that enable them to take full advantage from the new opportunities that ICT offer.  Second, there are groundswells of interest of academic researches in UK in how technological tools can enhance the quality of teaching and learning in schools, and so help learners to achieve better outcomes.Furthermore, it has been proved that new technologies have lots of benefits on the students.

Information and Communication Technologies have recently gained groundswell of interest. It is a significant research area for many scholars around the globe.  Their nature has highly changed the face of education over the last few decades.For most European countries, the use of ICT in education and training has become a priority during the last decade. However, very few have achieved progress. Indeed, a small percentage of schools in some countries achieved high levels of effective use of ICT to support and change the teaching and learning process in many subject areas. Others are still in the early phase of Information and Communication Technologies adoption.

In addition, schools with sufficient ICT resources achieved better results than those that are not well-equipped.  There is a significant improvement on learners’ performances.  Finally, teachers become more convinced that educational achievements of pupils are due to good ICT use. In fact, high percentage of teachers in Europe (86%) states that pupils are more motivated when computers and Internet are being used in class.Many pupils consider ICT tools very helpful in that it helps them to do assignments teachers see that ICT enables students with special needs or difficulties. It also helps to reduce the social disparities between pupils, since they work in teams in order to achieve a given task. Students also assume responsibilities when they use ICT to organize their work through digital portfolios or projects.  In addition, the study showed that ICT has significant impact on teachers and teaching processes.

ICT provides economic opportunities to both urban and rural populations. One common contribution is that it increases productivity and makes the market work more efficiently, although the magnitude of the impact on economic growth is likely to be different. The fact that virtually all new mobile customers in the coming years will be in developing countries, and more specifically in rural areas, means that the ICT platform is reaching population with low levels of income and literacy.As a result, ICT is becoming the largest distribution platform of providing public and private services to millions of people in rural and poor areas. Market information, financial services, education and health services had largely been unavailable in those areas in the past due to lack of connectivity of any kind. Now the wireless platform is promoting NEW economic and social opportunities at all levels for the poor population.

Otabor Isaac:

Obviously,new information and communications technologies (ICT), in particular high-speed internet, are changing the way companies do business, transforming public service delivery and democratizing innovation.Please,how could small Businesses in the developing world, optimise the returns on their investments on ICT?

Christine Zhen-Wei Qiang:

Our research (see chapter 4 in our IC4D06 report), covering 20,000 firms from 26 sectors in 56 developing countries, shows that businesses that use ICT (phone, PC and email) more intensively are more productive, grow faster, invest more, and are more profitable. This study includes many small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

Besides the limitations of existing telecom infrastructure in developing countries, the principal constraints in adopting and using ICT applications, especially for small businesses, include lack of capacity to assess returns and costs of using ICT, and a shortage of and inability to retain ICT-skilled labor. In some countries, business associations assist with needs assessment for businesses to invest in ICT (note that not all of them would benefit from using ICT), advise them on technology choice, and provide common business applications (e.g. HR, accounting) at low cost to small businesses. Some governments offer support of training and skills development.

DNA:

Since ICT plays a major role in economic development not only in urban areas but also rural areas,so How do you make ICT accessible to rural people in developing countries? and What are the roles of World Bank in promoting ICT in developing countries?

Christine Zhen-Wei Qiang:

In terms of ICT connectivity, the World Bank Group has promoted ICT access in developing countries through (1) advising on sector and institutional reforms to encourage competition and private sector participation; and (2) innovative financing mechanisms such as incubators, and public-private partnerships (PPPs) for extending rural access.

Low-income countries which have implemented deep sector reforms supported by the Bank Group generated some US$16 billion in investment between 1997 and 2006. Some US$20 million in output-based aid in Nepal, Nicaragua, Nigeria and Uganda provided access to 3,356 remote localities, serving over 7.8 million people.

In addition, IFC, the private arm of the Bank Group, has also been financing US$1.5 billion and mobilizing another US$330 million for 84 ICT projects to date in 32 low-income countries (mainly for the extension of mobile and data networks).

Matt Gyory:

SMS, and more generally mobile technology, has increasingly become a tool for a variety of activities in the developing world and particularly in Africa. However, the costs of SMS services such as the one Google recently launched in Uganda can be relatively high, are their any efforts underway to increase mobile infrastructure and business competition to bring prices down so services can benefit a wider range of people?

Christine Zhen-Wei Qiang:

Yes, Africa still has the lowest telephone and Internet user penetration (about 25 percent and 5 percent compared to the world average of over 70 percent and 20 percent respectively) and highest costs (e.g. price basket for Internet per month is over $40 compared to the world average of $20). The costs are big bottlenecks for ICT uptake, given the low income levels in the region.

The World Bank has been working closely with about 30 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa to strengthen regulatory frameworks, build regulatory capacities, and address rural access. Reforms implemented since 2000 have unleashed competitive forces in the sector, particularly in the mobile market. The result has been unprecedented increase in investment: total telecom investment in the region between 2000 and 2007 reached $20 billion. Africa is the fastest growing region in the global cellular market: the number of mobile subscribers increased from 2 million in 2000 to over 150 million in 2007.

From 2005, public-private partnerships for regional connectivity have been recognized as a powerful vehicle to push down the cost of international bandwidth and increase the affordability of high-speed internet. Examples of such partnerships are the on-going IFC-supported Eastern Africa Submarine System (EASSy) and the Bank’s Regional Communications Infrastructure Program (RCIP).

Together, EASSy and RCIP have triggered a race for connectivity in Eastern and Southern Africa with prices set to decrease five-fold or more. Part of the approach is being replicated for Central and Western Africa. Other ways to push prices down are to lower taxes and termination fees. Any incremental efforts to lower prices would have a tremendous impact on affordability and hence access.

For more information, visit RCIP's website.

John ALI:

Yes it is very true that ICT is changing the way businesses conduct themselves and high internet speed especially. But this can not be said of the developing countries, Ghana were I come from internet speed is a big problem, I will like tto find out if there is a concrete programme by the World Bank to assist developing countries, like Ghana and other countries in similar situation.
Thank you.

Christine Zhen-Wei Qiang:

Yes, it is a challenge to have high-speed Internet at affordable prices in most African countries at this stage. Connectivity gaps at international, regional, national and rural levels make it difficult to reap the full benefits of a highly functional and effective ICT sector. They also prevent the region from capitalizing on innovative applications to improve service delivery in both the public and private sectors.

As I said in my answer to Matt, the World Bank Group has been working closely with over 30 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa to improve ICT connectivity. At the same time, we have also launched projects and programs that develop e-government applications and IT-enabled service industry.

To take Ghana as a specific example, the country is on the cusp of a breakthrough in improving internet connectivity. The establishment of a National Communications Backbone Company Limited to develop a robust national fiber infrastructure, and the approval of cable landing rights for at least two companies to compete with the SAT-3 cable, should soon provide most Ghanaians with more affordable and reliable high speed internet connectivity.

Separately, the World Bank launched a US$40 million project called e-Ghana in 2006, which aims to provide support for improving Ghana’s competitiveness in the IT/IT-enabled services industries, including Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), as well as support for enhancing public service delivery through e-government. Activities under this project include setting up a high-speed, government-wide communications network connecting key ministries, departments and agencies; establishing a shared portal infrastructure for key agencies; and developing electronic applications for the priority revenue-generating agencies in the country.

Baloko Makala:

How is the Bank supporting SMS operating in ICT in terms of facilitating access to those mobile platforms at an affordable cost and by the same way encouraging them to innovate and extend services and eventually economic opportunities to the population?

How does the Bank plan to assist countries particularly in sub-Saharan Africa in developing their capacity towards ICT service trade at national and international level? What concrete measures are being taken to see that sub-Saharan Africa becomes competitive in this area?

Christine Zhen-Wei Qiang:

Having the right trade environment can facilitate the development of ICT. Likewise, ICT can foster, enable and facilitate trade. The relationship between trade and ICT can be viewed from three angles: trade in ICT (e.g., international telephone calls), trade in services to which ICT is a critical input (e.g., outsourcing data entry or computer programming services), and ICT as a general facilitator of other types of trade (e.g. a farmer using text messaging to check export prices). These three angles are collectively referred to as “ICT-related service trade.”


In 2007, the World Bank conducted a series of studies and capacity building on ICT-related service trade for Eastern and Southern African countries (Trade in Information and Communication Services: Opportunities for East and Southern Africa, available on our website’s publication's page). The study found that some of the critical elements necessary for successful ICT trade (“ICT-competitiveness”) are not sufficient. These elements include network infrastructure; an enabling policy, legal and regulatory framework environment; the education and training required to have a labor force with necessary ICT skills; use of ICT applications by businesses and government; and consumer awareness.