Efficient use of ICT can transform education

Editor, RE: “Teachers trained in basics of smart classrooms” (The New Times, May 25). When the first motion picture cameras were available, they were used to make “movies” by placing a camera in the audience of a theater and shooting the stage. It took time to understand that the camera would transform an entire industry. There is a lot to learn about computers and how they are used, globally, in education. To see it as a tool to help instructors “teach”, as mentioned in this article is an indication that the education system needs to better understand the impact that computers have had, globally, in transforming the entire idea of education including blended learning, flipped classrooms, games/simulations and more. For a country that is driving itself to be the leader in applying technology to development, it can’t afford to start at ground zero. It begins at the university level where future teachers are being educated and where the university needs to reach into the school system to provide faculty with an understanding of the global changes and how to bring that experience into the schools. It is clear that the various government agencies have planned for the rapid introduction of computer hardware into the education system. What is not clear is whether a similar amount of fiscal and human resources were/are allocated to prepare and support the system to effectively use these tools and to maintain currency of the hardware, software and wetware (teachers). Too often we have seen major investments in hardware only to find that their effective use diminished or even abandoned because of insufficient resources devoted to effective infrastructure support. Let us hope that further exploration will prove this not to be the case here. Tom Abeles

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Efficient use of ICT can transform education