In 2005, Valdez enumerated
concerns relevant to the challenges of technology use in the classroom. These
concerns are (1) some technology may become distraction for students , (2)
technology is just one variable while many others also need to be addressed,
(3) teacher competency is problematic, and (4) students and teachers have
unclear, often inconsistent, expectations of technology use. Furthermore,
Valdez emphasized that to achieve statistically significant effect sizes,
schools must make certain that (1) that there is appropriate software,
sufficient technology support and maintenance, (2) technology use is aligned
with learning expectations, and most important of all (3) teachers are equipped
with the competencies to effectively model and teach exemplary use of
technology. On the contrary, Clark, Yates, Early and Moulton (2009) presented
“direct, evidence-based argument that, while media provided economic benefits
for training organizations, they have not and will not influence learning,
motivation, or work performance. This conclusion challenges the relevance of
ICT as an educational tool. Bingimlas (2009) clarifies this contradicting views
and the answer is that despite the numerous advantages, there are barriers that hinder the effective integration of ICT into
education. The major barriers were lack of confidence, lack of competence, and
lack of access to resources. These three barriers are critical components of
technology integration; therefore, teachers must be provided with software and
hardware ICT resources, professional development program, sufficient time and
technical support.
UNESCO declares that ICT is
instrumental for the realization of “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”. Furthermore, the UNESCO website claims that its approach
in promoting ICT in education is holistic and comprehensive. It is quite
imperative that any ICT program associated with education must be assessed in
view of these attributes. The challenges – barriers, difficulties, weaknesses
are related to access to ICT, competency of teachers, efficiency of ICT
management and administration for educative purposes and the over-all
monitoring and evaluation system of ICT use. According also to UNESCO, the
quality of teachers and their professional education is the key to the achievement
of quality education. Yet, the quality of teacher education and the status of
their continuous professional education remains one of the most pressing
challenges across the globe, which UNESCO believes must be addressed to cope
with the world need for 9.1 million new teachers to reach internationally
agreed target by 2015.
As proof of its commitment for
the upliftment of education, UNESCO includes the “Open Educational Resources
(OER)” feature in their website where teachers can access educational materials
for teaching and for their own professional advancement. In addition, the
UNESCO Competency Framework for Teachers is a very good document that can be
used in formulating a long term plan for ICT training of teachers,
implementation, monitoring and evaluation particularly on investigating the
role of ICT as a contributing factor to teacher effectiveness and student
learning. The competencies for teachers would actually complement the need to
develop the 21st century skills among the learners because the
UNESCO framework stipulates the need to (1) build
workforces which have ICT skills to handle information and are reflective,
creative and adept at
problem-solving in
order to generate knowledge, (2) enable citizens to be knowledgeable and
resourceful so they are able to manage their own lives effectively, and are
able to lead full and satisfying lives, (3) encourage all citizens to
participate fully in society and influence the decisions which affect their
lives, and (4) foster cross-cultural understanding and the peaceful resolution
of conflict. Furthermore, it emphasizes the balance between teachers’ ICT
competencies and their ability to cascade these to their students. In
accordance with the 21st century life skills, the framework aims
that ICT can provide opportunities for teachers to help the students become
collaborative, problem solvers, creative learners using ICT so that they become
effective citizens and members of the workforce. The
framework is summarized in the table below:
(3)
Equity. There is a real
danger that uses of ICTs can further marginalize groups already excluded or on
the edge of educational practices and innovations. On the other hand, with
supportive policies and careful planning and monitoring, ICTs hold out the
promise of facilitating greater inclusion of such groups.
(6)
Tools new technologies are
introduced, it is critical that their cost and impact in various educational
situations is thoroughly examined. While evidence shows that it is the actual
application of the ICT tool that is the most important determinant of its
effectiveness for educational purposes, the choice of tools is quite large, and
each tool has its own advantages and disadvantages.
Despite the many challenges and
issues that prevent the full and successful implementation of ICT, Sipin,
Espiritu and Malabanan (n.d.) still provide several points for promising future
of ICT in the Philippines. According to their paper, the Philippines has been
identified in 2004 by AT Kearney as among the world’s 25 most attractive
destinations for ICT and has the potential to be a major global service provider.
This potential is actually a reality. The Information Technology and Electronic
Commerce Council of the Philippines (ITECC) categorizes ICT-based services into
(1) “ICT services”—tasks requiring in‐depth
knowledge of computer programming and programming languages, networks, and
software programs—and (2) “ICT‐enabled
services,” or services delivered over telecommunication networks or the
Internet to a range of business areas. In the latter group, technology is used
as a tool or an enabler, and the functions tend to be labor - intensive. Sipin,
et.al concludes that for the Philippine context, the promising areas are
software development, animation, call-centers, medical and legal transcription,
and business processing outsourcing. These areas are no longer promising but
flourishing already considering that a media giant already put up an animation production
facility in the country, that the call-center and outsourcing industries are
big contributor to the economy and that some medical institutions are already
envisioning the Philippines to be at par with other Asian countries in terms of
medical tourism.
Retrieved
Nov. 25, 2014 from http://www.dlsu.edu.ph/research/centers/aki/_pdf/_concludedProjects/_volumeI/Sipinetal.pdf
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