I was recently going through this report by GeSCI published in June 2009 and found some of the portions extremely relevant and precisely the reasons/rationale behind the new "DE Resource Centre Training Model" being implemented in Orissa. Time and again we face these problems and seem to deliberately forget them or unable to internalize them (more often than not I feel we seem to suffer from some selective amnesia on this count) and as a result keep on repeating the same old blunders. We seem to be blundering along as far as ICT policies are concerned. I have extracted some of the relevant portions from the report as mentioned below:
ICTs in schools today
Planning and deployment of ICTs in schools today suffers from several major
problems:
• Planning officials, school principals and other decision makers do not emphasize
or in some cases even consider the educational objectives at all. ICTs are
acquired without any due consideration for what purpose they will actually
serve.
• Decision makers often focus purchase decisions on the ICT hardware and
software. There is often no consideration given to acquiring the appropriate
Assessing Technology options for schools
A Report by the Global E-Schools and Communities Initiative
Page 5 of 65
content, training of teachers, support and maintenance, which together form the
“system-wide” approach discussed in detail later in this chapter.
• Budgets only consider the immediate costs and seldom, if ever, consider the
long term costs of purchasing, deploying and maintaining ICTs. For example,
costs for replacements, disposal or even operating costs for refresher training,
maintenance and technical support are often ignored. The sum of all this costs is
called the TCO (Total Cost of Ownership).
• ICTs are equated with personal computers usually in computer laboratories.
There is no consideration given to other alternative technologies. Even where
there is some awareness, decision makers are still faced with a myriad of
questions and complex decisions on almost a daily basis: adopt laptops or
desktops? Are thin-client computers better than networked desktops? Open
Source or proprietary software? Whether to have the computers networked or
connected to the Internet?
• Even when there are computers available for students, there are few or no
incentives to use the computer in class. Sometimes the equipment has been
installed but it is seldom used outside of specific “ICT classes”. This might be
due to the teachers not being adequately trained or not having enough time to
dedicate to preparing the classes to incorporate the use of these new resources.
Also, school calendaring issues (teacher timetables and exam schedules)
complicate the adequate use of the devices even more.
• Inattention to monitoring and evaluation, that do not allow the benefits being
obtained and the mistakes incurred in when introducing ICTs in schools.
Common Disconnects
The five major issues hindering effective deployment of ICTs in schools today are
1. Lack of focus on educational objectives
2. Considering ICTs a 'solution' for which the problem is not clearly defined.
3. Failure to consider all the elements of the system-wide approach
4. Failure to consider short term as well as long term costs - Total Cost of ownership
5. Failure to consider the human factors related to teachers, headmasters and
students.
These problems manifest themselves in many ways but the classic and often seen
cases include:
• The computers sent to the school never leave their boxes because school
personnel are afraid to break them!
• A school equipped with computers does not use the computers because the
teachers have not been trained. While a few miles away, another school has
had all their teachers attend an ICT training program but the school lacks any
computers.
• Computer labs seem to have most of their computers broken all the time.
• The ministry of education draws up plans to equip every school with
computer labs connected to the Internet and shelves the plan because it is too
expensive.
The System-wide approach
The effective deployment of ICTs in schools and indeed in any setting is a complex
affair that goes beyond purchasing hardware and software. GeSCI has identified
several key elements that must be considered if the deployment of
ICTs is to have meaningful impact. These components must all co-exist; none is
optional and together form a system. This system should be comprehensive, demand
driven, capable and efficient and well coordinated. To read the entire report try out the link below:
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