In Global Peace Through The
Global University System
2003 Ed. by T. Varis, T. Utsumi, and
W. R. Klemm
University of
Tampere, Hameenlinna, Finland
ICT in SECONDARY EDUCATION
for the KNOWLEDGE SOCIETY
Piet Kommers
University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands
and
Vladimir
Kinelev and Boris Kotsik
UNESCO IITE
Moscow, Russia
Summary
ICT (Information and
Communication Technology) is already a vital factor in all levels of education. Secondary Education is a decisive
stage, however. Learning and studying at this age has impact on the new members in the community-of-knowledge society. This report is a plea for
educational policies that promote and sustain the further ICT infrastructures
for secondary schools. The first step is the penetration of internet-connected computers in the schools. The second step is even more crucial: the continuous evolution of didactic methods so that young learners will actually learn to learn in and with the WWW-based infrastructures. Similar to the need to make enterprises into "learning organizations," school institutions also face the need to become "Learning Organizations." It
implies that new ICT facilities will become catalysts in the innovative
processes in secondary education.
The first stage is the changing teacher role once information access
becomes widely available through the World Wide Web. The second stage is that the new study-environment in the school allows learners to participate in carefully-selected WWW-based learning communities. Last but not least, it will be an ongoing process in which teachers and students work together, partly face-to-face in the same physical location, partly in the virtual learning communities via the WWW.
It is the role of this UNESCO Policy Guidelines to sketch the conceptual outline of how traditional teacher-oriented education will gradually develop into learner-oriented education where the WWW plays an indispensable role.
Policy
Guidelines by the UNESCO IITE Institute Moscow
The use of Computers and the WWW is essential for the further progress of Education. ICT stimulates students and teacher to develop one's learning style. Also the motivation of teacher teams can be helped by ICT; it stimulates teachers to become aware of good and better didactic approaches. Students who use ICT develop a longer-term study attitude that makes them less dependent on continuous formal schooling. ICT is already a vital tool for professional training; the sooner learners know how to use ICT, the more easily they can find their way on the WWW to capture the newest methods. |
Introduction
|
Education For All. Urgent to integrate Media and Internet facilities in Secondary Education. For the developing countries this is even more urgent. |
This executive report
emerges from the IITE Institute[1] as an input to the UNESCO Medium-Term Strategy 2002–2007 report, contributing to peace and human development in an era of globalization through education, the sciences, culture and communication. It can be found under the IITE WWW
domain. Under the label "Education for All," according to the Dakar Framework for Action[2],
this report aims at indicating the most promising and urgent policies for integrating
media and internet facilities in Secondary Education. The need for Media and Information
and Communication Technologies (ICT) may be only a marginal one for the
western world. |
Urgencies for Media-based Learning
|
... opposed to the opinion that knowledge can be obtained only by going to schools. ... the global education problem is not solvable by conventional means like building classrooms and the preparation of large numbers of teachers. |
If we look to the larger
world, and especially to the third world countries, we are confronted with
the fact that almost one billion adults are illiterate, and two thirds of
them are women. And looking into the socio-economical realm that education is the key to development that is both sustainable and humane, and to peace founded on mutual respect and social judgment, it is even more easy to see that creativity in learning and knowledge play an even greater role.
The right to education is nothing less than the right to participate
in the life of the modern world.
Mahatma Gandhi opposed the opinion that knowledge can be obtained only by going to schools, colleges and self-study. Theodore Hesburgh claims that the global education problem
is not solvable by conventional means like the building of classrooms and the
preparation of large numbers of teachers. His idea is that we need new creative thoughts on the
total educational enterprise. It is clear that even the more ideological theorists have signaled the need for media-based learning. Combined with behaviorist and cognitive learning theories, it is inevitable that the strength of ICT in learning is that it may build upon individual learners' prior knowledge and individual cognitive styles. |
The Online Computer as a Commodity
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) gradually developed from virtuous and elitist into commodity with a high degree of public addresses. This can be observed if we see sectors such as transport, industry, agriculture, health care and public services. Certain areas like the publishing sector, justice, and education show a remarkable resistance to adopt and integrate ICT facilities. One of the reasons is that these sectors are knowledge intensive and workers in those sectors are skeptical about the added value of ICT. Knowledge workers seem to understand that the steps from data to information to knowledge to understanding and finally wisdom are not trivial.
The WWW in Secondary Education
Education, schooling, and training all deal with learning. However they are different cultures. Its actors, its infrastructure, and its procedures all have been developed as a certain social- and economical situation demanded for a certain transfer from experienced adults to the younger generation. The same is the case for Primary, Secondary and Higher Education: they have different orientations, especially if it comes to taking benefits from the WWW.
Nature of Learning in the
Secondary School
|
The role of Secondary Education shifts towards "Learn-to-Learn" and thus anticipates the continuous learning during the job. Instead of "learning for attaining the certificate," it becomes more vital to "learn based upon interest and social orientation." ICT is an ideal means for "learn-to-learn." National examinations should include ICT skills and students' attitudes in the final criteria. |
The nature of Secondary Education has evolved
during the last two centuries.
Crucial was the step towards accepting that school was a direct key to
social mobility. As universities
became more accessible via the large social regimes and the further
abandoning of feudal class societies in the second half of the 20th century, the Secondary School became an arena where didactics played a more crucial role; students who were supposed to continue learning because of their parents' high expectations, rather than the students' intrinsic motivations on average. ICT is potentially a very powerful dimension to
transform the way the young generation prepares for tertiary studying. However the limitation of the
potential ICT impact is in the fact that the schooling content, methods and assessment
criteria are rather inert to the reality of our societies, economies and
industries. The question why Primary and Tertiary Education has a higher potential to migrate with the ICTs' potentials lies in the fact that these schooling sectors have a higher amount of autonomy. At the same
time, it can already be observed that once the standardized final examination
has been offered, there is exactly an enormous scale of restructuring if ICT
is fully accepted as a learning support mechanism in Secondary Education. |
WWW: a Provocation to Learn to Study
|
The secondary School is migrating towards a community for mature learners. The scope of the Secondary School curriculum should target study skills rather than the retention of factual knowledge. |
The most sensitive phase for "Learning to Learn" is in the stage between 11 and 16 years. A clear indication that supports this
assertion is in the observation of new Secondary School paradigms, as in the
Netherlands: The Study House[3] Model. Its underlying motive is that students should invest in
learning skills and attitudes, driven by intrinsic motivation and curiosity
rather than by the pressure of covering the large number of subject domains
in order to pass the final examination.
Though initially it was widely expected that the teacher attitude will conflict and prevent a smooth integration of the Study House, it became soon evident that the Secondary School students objected: "If we are supposed to prepare ourselves for predefined standardized tests, it is unreasonable to ask us to experiment with alternative study methods; we expect the teacher to teach us as precise as possible what we can expect as final test criteria. It is the teacher's role to bridge the gap between what we were taught before, and what we are supposed to perform at the final examination." |
ICT for Learning in Secondary Education
The Need for ICT
One of the central notions around the question "if" and "how" ICT should play a role in education is that ICT requires students to acquire the skills and attitudes to benefit from ICT. "Computer Literacy" was the epitome for this curricular accommodation until the early 90s.
As ICT functionalities progressed, such as the availability of expert systems,
simulations, multimedia and recently the virtual reality, the key question
became how to integrate ICT applications as cognitive tools[4] for learning
in regular didactics. So far only
the text processor, the spread sheet and the database have penetrated the
didactic arena. The gradual
adoption of the constructivist learning paradigm enabled teachers to see how
learners can convey their highly personal learning process like the
internalization of concepts and problem solving strategies. In parallel to the role of ICT as a
learning tool, the potential role of ICT for the teaching process also came
into focus. It is remarkable that so far the ICT teacher-support has not concentrated on the didactic integration of cognitive learning tools; the larger amount of interest has been paid to WWW-based learning management systems like currently available in WebCT, Blackboard, or Learning Space etc.
The main metaphor is the WWW-based functionality for delivering the right content just-in-time and correspondence among the learners. These systems have contributed to Higher- rather than Secondary Education so far. Much more challenging is the further integration of
cognitive learning tools that have both an interface to the learner and the
teacher as well. Typically successful learning tools are simulation systems like for instance "Interactive Physics,"[5] "Electronic Workbench"[6] and the more generic frame systems like "Stella"[7] and many
emerging systems for qualitative modeling.
Constructivism and Meta-Cognitive Learning Tools
|
Distance Learning is not a goal in itself; it should bring learners and teachers more closely together. Learning is a process of growing awareness on various realities. Science, cultural and social domains rely on integrated knowledge based upon intuition and critical thinking. Conceptual representations are crucial in knowing what you know and detecting what you don't know yet. Learning from wide open information resources like the WWW can only succeed if the learner masters the method and tools to visage the interconnections. Concept mapping is a fast propagating method to let learners navigate on the WWW. |
An even more obvious dimension for didactic ICT support is the spectrum of meta-cognitive knowledge representation tools like concept-, mind- and cognitive mapping.
The main underlying paradigm is that learners' sustainable and generic learning progress depends upon adequate imaginations of foreground and tacit knowledge. Intuitive knowledge
was regarded as primitive, undesirable and even erroneous knowledge that
should be kept out of the didactic procedures. Constructivism accepts intuitive knowledge as essential
before formal learning may be built upon it. Conceptual representations as are manifest in concept mapping
procedures have been introduced in diverse subject fields. The main procedure is to elicit the
student to schematize conceptual entailments in order to guide the thinking towards
the contours between the known and the unknown. "Inspiration"[8] is one of the more widespread concept-mapping tools for education. It illustrates in the many ongoing
publications how students and teachers may negotiate upon structural representations. Also a more recent investment has been made in how "Visual Argumentations"[9] may assist
in collaborative learning situations.
The need for using ICT in learning becomes quite obvious as the
information access via the WWW became abundant and both learners and teachers
need tools for adequate selection and navigation in their searching. Though Secondary Education traditionally orients towards strict curricular content specifications and towards the national final examinations, there is an ongoing trend to invest in the students' capacity to learn independently and authentically. This trend needs ICT as
infrastructure and cognitive support tools as well. |
Media for Learning Support
Based upon the dominance of cybernetic learning paradigms, it is quite understandable that the initial attempts to introduce computers in the learning process was also based upon "programmed instruction" and later on "intelligent tutoring systems." Papert's LOGO system and the many modeling, simulation and knowledge representation tools were skeptically allowed only in summer camps; they were merely seen as games and distractions, not beneficial for mastering curricular goals. And indeed still nowadays the whole spectrum of media-based learning tools aims at extra-curricular assets, but in fact creates obstructions along the main road to the golden final examination; the gateway to higher education. The crucial lesson from the past ten years experimenting with new learning tools in Secondary Education is that educational media are a provocation to the traditional test-regimes in schools. It shows that right after clarifying the student that a central examination is their final criterion, students (and teachers) are reluctant to "learn the unknown." Students rely on the teachers' intuition about what is relevant to learn and what is irrelevant. Curiosity, experimentation, risk taking and searching for analogies are not encouraged. The reality is that "learning by assimilating the teacher's knowledge and preferences" is seen as the most appropriate and efficient way to attain traditional schooling criteria.
Flexibility and Life-Long Learning
|
Learners can only become continuous learners if they are regarded as participants in knowledge communities. A knowledge community exists and survives based on the awareness that there are always good reasons to reconsider earlier conclusions. Traditional reproductive learning methods are not the best to elicit curiosity and appetite to join collaborative learning. ICT is a provocative medium for knowledge communities. The key factor for successful ICT in the schools is the willingness of schools to learn by themselves. Similar to "learning organizations" in industry, it is the key that schools transform themselves into learning communities. |
If there is no external reason to reform schooling, life-long learning and knowledge creation rather than knowledge reproduction, there is also no reason for integrating ICT in the school. For more than two centuries, learning has been a top-down process, and teacher-centered learning became mutually dependent.
The introduction of new media in the school will only pay-off if it is carefully linked to an adequate reform in didactics and last-but-not-least a reform in assessment paradigm.
It means that learners should finally be evaluated to the extent of
producing relevant understanding rather than demonstrating common understanding
by others. A solid underpinning of this position will not be found in epistemological analyses; it will be promoted by new urgent qualifications demanded by the evolving "knowledge economies." The knowledge economy needs players in the "knowledge game." These persons are not selected based
only on their actual knowledge.
They need the capacities to synthesize newly-developed ways of working and cooperation skills in large networks of specialists and reformulate important trends to any relevant sector in the society and economy. For these highly wanted citizens,
knowledge is not only an end product or raw material; it is the mentality
that expertise manifests between specialists. As in larger technical and social processes, there is a
need to combine various disciplines.
Knowledge workers have the capacity to mediate between expertise
domains. Learning and helping
other people to learn is the key process. Media and communication facilities will play an ever more
important role. The issue of
this Policy Guidelines Report is to clarify that Secondary Education has a
vital role in preparing the next generation citizens. Also this report aims at showing how
new learning methods will emerge and how schooling institutes will attempt to
accommodate these trends. |
ICT for Teaching in
Secondary Education
Didactic
Methods and ICT Facilities
|
The road map towards "learning schools" runs via "learning teachers." ICT can mobilize teachers' creativeness and make their didactic practice more flexible and creative. Networks of teachers stimulate the exchange of best practice, multi-cultural orientation and self-appraisal. |
Teachers are the key players in promoting
learning. Teacher training is
crucial for starting this innovative process. The dominant paradigm so far is that teachers need to be
taught the content that they are supposed to teach later on. The dilemma of bringing teachers and
teacher students to a new didactic method, such as the integration of ICT, is
that they themselves have been taught in traditional ways for many
years. Also there is an overall
lack of candidate teacher students in many of the Western European
countries. The process of changing teacher attitudes to use ICT in the learning process is helped by the fact that alternative assessment methods are now being developed to decide upon the admission of pre-service teachers basing upon their predicted class- room performance.
E-communities become compelling and popular ways to discuss staff development and teacher training. An active
organization to do so is EDEN: The European Distance Education Network[10]. |
Virtuality for Experiential Learning
ICT as a mechanism for teaching and learning went through various stages before it arrived in its current catalytic function. Early software prototypes demonstrated the "computer as an electronic teacher." In the mid nineties Hypertext, Hypermedia and Multimedia were introduced. CD-ROM and the WWW, and the DVD became the default information resources. Since 2000 Virtual Reality and its 3D user interface carry users through fictitious and other worlds. Learners are supposed to navigate through unknown spaces and achieve a high realism. The overall pattern is that ICT becomes an extension of our senses and thus addresses the mental faculty of imagination. As will be stressed later in this report, it is the emotional, affective and esthetic dimension that will become important in our next generations of media programs. Already for airplane pilots and for medical surgeons, for example, the haptic and tactile sensation is included to let trainees "feel" and "touch" critical variables in their task performance. The overall spectrum of didactic methods of today includes the learner as a deploying personality who needs gaming, experimentation, negotiation, crises and reflection in order to learn genuinely. ICT is no longer the instructional format for reconciling prerequisite learning steps. ICT offers an exploratory space where the learner is at charge. One of the new teacher roles is the facilitator; the person who stimulates the learner for taking risk, understanding by analogy and reflection. This role is in essence pedagogical and should not be underestimated after all. Like in many sectors, also in education the Video Conferencing in combination with VR avatars will allow the learner to experience conceptual laws like currently consolidated in sciences; Physics, Biology, Chemistry and medical practices are adopting the three-dimensional immersive effects for a deeper involvement and finally learning.
ICT and the Quality of Secondary Education
|
Virtual Reality so far is the ultimate way for high-training and immersive games. Like simulations in general, the virtual reality offers the learner a wide spectrum of complications and challenges to survive. Virtual reality is better than reality itself in preparing the learner for complicated problems and emergencies, as we never hope to meet them in the real situation, but statistically we know that our students will meet them once, for sure ... So far, books confront learners with abstract situations. Real life rarely exposes itself as a written description. |
The call for quality
indicators of educational systems can hardly be isolated from the various
cost aspects that go together in terms of teaching load, equipment cost, and
innovation support by external teams. - One aspect of ICT's effect in Secondary Education is the question of the extent to which ICT facilitates the achievement of prior (traditional) goals as assessable in national and international comparative studies. - A second aspect of the same question is the extent
to which ICT in Education facilitates a more smooth transition from the
schooling period into the labor market. - A third aspect is the question of how well ICT facilitates the continuous evolution from the existing schooling concept to the schooling concept that fits to the learning needs of tomorrow's society, especially as we try to cope with the knowledge society. It may be clear that these
three interpretations do not necessarily converge in implementation; a high
score on the proliferation of ICT for more optimally achieving traditional
learning goals may hamper the catalytic function in the evolution of schooling
paradigms. |
The Need for Road Maps
Policy-makers should have alternative road maps that illustrate the cost-benefit ratios at various moments on the three distinguished dimensions. A conclusion in "Digital Technology and its Impact on Education"[11] by Joseph
Hardin and John Ziebarth:
........ Technology is affecting education in revolutionary ways, and the momentum toward these changes is irreversible.
Teachers who have begun to use the Web see this change occurring, even if they only have experience with static information-gathering and display capabilities. Most of these
educators have not yet used or even seen the potential of collaborative
technologies for their classroom and their school.
....... Colleges of education need to become leaders in applying computational and information technology for the K-12 community, and university administrators need to begin to chart the 21st century vision of their institutions, a journey that will include information technology and collaborative learning and teaching. An obstacle that needs to be overcome is the view many hold that computers and Internet connectivity are "tools" for learning, and thus an increased grade point average is the only measure of value for these resources. A more important perspective is for administrators and school boards to realize that the Web represents a new environment for learning and teaching and that very soon every teacher and student will need access to the information represented on the Web in order to be competitive in their work and in their lives....
Return
on Investment
|
Like globalization, cultural diversity and technological advancement, schools will evolve towards new learning needs. The question if ICT brings added value to education is a rhetoric question; It will be very hard to eliminate ICT from schools. Therefore the question is whether the cost of ICT equals the benefits is obsolete. The only high price is to wait until learners abandon schools because they cannot use the existing curricular content. |
In "A Different Way to View the Return on Investment (ROI) in e-Learning,"[12]
by John Moran, attention is drawn to the speed ICT allow education to catch
up with innovations in the learning contents and the costs that are implied. According to this criterion, ICT
facilities have a huge impact.
The implication is that for Secondary Education the speed of content
innovation is considerably lower than in higher and vocational education. In "ROI of E-Learning: Closing In"[13] by Paul
Harris, attention is focused on the ROI (Return on Investment) way of thinking
that is common in commercial enterprises. The central message is that the ROI concern is just a mentality
that becomes complicated as soon as we address the innovation of learning
processes. The reason is that we
do not only increase the amount and the speed of the learning, but mainly its
direction in unexpected ways.
This means that it is essentially impossible to map the new learning
effects on the scheme of traditional learning criteria. Learning implies changing. Improving means changing the
changing. The only reference
point is to what extent the new learning methods allow us to cope with next
unexpected situations compared with the traditional situation. |
Globalization Effects in Secondary Education
Societies underwent globalization effects since the mid eighties. Expanded transportation, and even more importantly the dense communication infrastructures, created opportunities for citizens to visit and connect to other parts of the world. Globalization was also reflected in the reorientation of large socio-economical and political units in Eastern and Western Europe and a subsequent change in the polarity between East-West and an increase in the North-South conflicts. For the younger generation these shifts brought an increased attention for migration and building a new life in economies that announced themselves as prosperous and attractive through the mass media. Schooling received a considerable influence from this trend, for instance, in the growing inclination towards learning a second and third language.
Autonomous Learning
Communities
Flexible, Mobile and Immersive
Learning
Three dimensions are crucial for the newly emerging "learning communities" and so-called "learning networks":
- Learning scenarios will be embedded in communities of practice and less orchestrated as the top-down delivery processes of traditional schooling and corporate training. Mobile and on-line learning are likely to benefit from new flexible paradigms that bring the learner back into the centre. A key function in flexible autonomous
learning is to find the right learning partners.
- Student learning is continuously shifting towards project-based learning and problem-based learning, wherein curricula and teachers are catalytic factors.
Learning by gaming (simulations and meta-modeling) is one of the methods to make students curious about underlying processes and meaning. Attaining the certificate and thus
opening the gate to higher education is the prime goal for secondary school students. At the same time it may inhibit the
needed learning attitude for participating in the knowledge economy. Existential factors such as attempting
to understand complex dependencies like in technology, economy and health, need
a continuous curiosity that exceeds the motivation to learn for the test
only. It is this anticipatory
function of ICT in Secondary Education that elicits new learning modalities and
learning attitudes. The role of WWW-based learning communities emerges.
- Participating in VR (Virtual Reality) is a growing
opportunity to make learners alert and better prepared to complex jobs and
understanding complex conceptual dependencies. Examples are in the domains of Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Astronomy but also the three-dimensional orientation during data mining in the fields of Economy and the Social- and Life Sciences. An example of the integration of VR in
professional training of surgeons can be found in the DIME[14]
project. The ongoing research
focuses on a learning environment for vascular interventions and the
Liechtenstein technique for ventricular operations.
Mobile learning will change
dramatically institutional learning practices. Several developing projects in the U.S. demonstrate the more
longitudinal trends in learning cultures.
Learners with wireless-connected PDAs balance between traditional curricular agendas and nomadic efforts to find the ultimate communities for sparring their actual level of understanding (E. Soloway 2001)[15].
Portable Digital Assistants in Learning
|
New low-cost devices like the mobile telephone, the digital agenda, the watch and the photo-camera; they will all be WWW-connected. The spread of information is then no-longer a burden for learning. Teachers' role is to orient students in how to find relevant and reliable information and apply it in social and economical ways. For the developing countries, this access offers huge potential to advertise local rural productions. |
PDAs have the reputation
of luxury gadgets with the functionality of electronic agendas and an address
database. Current low-cost PDAs have much more powerful equipment than the mainframes in the early eighties. Current educational projects
aim at providing hardware and software to Secondary School students. The price of a basic varies between 100
and 500 US$. The more complete versions are constantly on-line via GPRS[16]
or Wireless Local Area Networks.
The book "A Hands-On Guide to Using Palm Computers in K-12" by Mike Curtis and Elliot Soloway shows how educators can now afford to have a computer in each student's hand and let them participate searching and analyzing large databases, let them visualize complex relations, and work in groups of students on a common topic in any curricular domain. Available free software for didactic
usage is on PDA Resources[17]. |
Continuous and Flexible learning with the on-line PDA
Multimedia and recently virtual reality have brought new interaction capabilities and more diverse scenarios for the delivery of information. The more effective learning is the creation of new understanding and the construction of new solutions to recognized problems and new production methods. Crucial to this process is the communication of intuitive ideas and the synergy between experts with adjacent specialties. The on-line PDA becomes a very practical way to allow students to participate in other virtual communities. The teacher then coordinates the learning between students in the local classroom and the online learning experiences abroad. Education becomes "experiential learning" rather than intellectual learning. Certificates still are milestones for the student. But we see many indicators of existential learning. Media are crucial in the process of curiosity and motivation. Projects that provide students with PDAs show the use of simulations and gaming in the process of understanding complex issues such as physics, math and economics. New services need to be developed: Radio/TV broadcasters and book publishers will gradually undertake narrow-casting. Telecom providers will offer a wider variety for various types of connectivity.
ICT for Socio-Cultural Experiences in Education
In contrast to mass media such as TV, books, and glossy mass-media journals, the fine-tuned WWW-based access allows schools and individual learners to participate in rather than only witness other cultures. The
study of Comparative Media leads to the examination of new media technologies
and their cultural, social, aesthetic, political, ethical, legal, and economic
implications. At Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT), students are trained to think critically about
properties of different media and about the shared properties of different
media and about the shared properties and functions of media more
generally. Comparative Media Studies
(CMS) is the research and educational projects that explore a wide variety of
traditional media and their uses in education, entertainment, communication,
politics, and commerce. A number
of projects in MIT are indicative for the new potentials for media in Secondary
School curricula. (See its main
projects in http://web.mit.edu/cms/)
|
ICT in education is much more than the use of computers; it is the opportunity to connect learners and teachers. ICT helps to reshape learning into "living" and "surviving." While factual memory was once vital for solitary citizens, it is now the skill to survive in information overload. Secondary Education is the critical period to make the younger generation sensitive for "connectivity." While a number of Western Countries still train youngsters to memorize history, it is important that developing countries memorize their future. Learning with ICT opened our eyes: knowledge is not only in the persons, it is between the persons. |
The WWW-based media like multi-media and highly immersive virtual realities, allow Secondary School teachers and students to participate in highly sophisticated and high-tech environments. It seems opportune however to give extra attention to the fact that we know through long traditions, that "receiving the right information" is only a small first step towards learning. The WWW allows us to provide 'just-in-time' and 'just-for-you' information. It also allows students to work closely
together with peer students, even with those in other countries, belonging to
different cultures and participating in different types of courses. From a multi-cultural point of view, this access and communication is quite vital to make progress in bridging parts of the worlds. Also for teachers these global facilities help very much in becoming a "learning organization." ICT for Secondary
Education in the coming years will evoke a rather drastic evolution as both
learners and teachers will discover the access to experts and learning
partners all over the world.
Special attention is drawn by the ongoing trends in allowing learning
to become more individualized, more authentic and distributed along several
learning networks via the WWW.
The fast introduction of online computers in all sectors of societal
life has boosted the full integration of ICT in Secondary Education in the
last five years. Secondary School learning
is the age of understanding complex processes and mastering foreign languages. Constructivism is a paradigm that highlights the need for learners to 'build' one's own concepts. How students should prepare
themselves for the 21st century?
We need new didactics in order to motivate the new generation to
invest and participate in technology and stimulate economies and social integration. The overall conclusion is that the
knowledge economy will not develop by just integrating ICT in the traditional
schools. Learning and teaching become a process of "developing" rather than "transferring" knowledge. Teachers get the role of leading
students in its pedagogical sense.
Students will participate in several learning communities at the same
time. We expect learning
networks for best practices among teachers. Larger organizations like UNESCO, the OECD, UNICEF and the World Bank will further demonstrate initiatives to propel these WWW-based mechanisms. |
Note:
All URL of web sites in this paper are accessed on August
14, 2003.
Author
Biographical Sketch
Piet KommersPh.D. and Ass.
Prof. in Educational Technology University of
Twente Faculty of
Behavioral Sciences Division of
Educational Instrumentation P.O. Box 217 7500 AE
Enschede The
Netherlands Tel. +31 53
4893576 or 3611 Fax +31 53 4894580 E-mail: Kommers@edte.utwente.nl |
|
Dr. Piet Kommers is Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Educational Science and Technology at Twente University in the Netherlands. His research field is the design and application of media in learning situations. His courses are Multimedia Design, Virtual Reality and Societal Effects of ICT. Concept mapping and metaphoric design stages play an important role here. Projects are undertaken in the field of multicultural communication. The learning processes at individual and societal levels manifest in terms of existential expressions and awareness. Media play an ever more important role in it.
Conceptual representations for meta-cognitive awareness become a default language for identity and road maps for changing oneself. The
high saturation of communication infrastructure offers the opportunity to
participate in learning communities.
Sharing experience and finding the right sparring partners for exploring alternative approaches in one's job and continuous learning becomes realistic and offers a more dynamic personal development. Schools, Professional Training and Human Resource Management
face the challenge to include and build upon personal growth and
attitudes. The priority in
learning is not restricted to the access and assimilation of knowledge and
skills. Finding ways to convey one's own further learning is priority number one. The WWW, adjacent to the face-to-face communication, is a valuable support facility. The art of designing WWW-based facilities and procedures is keen on both the nature and culture of the human mind. We may
expect that education in the new era will have less and less to do with the
transfer of knowledge on the shelf; the key issue is to facilitate the new
learning modalities of the younger generation. We can hardly fall back on proven methodologies if it comes
to media design. In a certain way it is a self-organizing process where prior goals undergo evolution continuously. As new media appear daily, it is vital
that those who are responsible for learning, communication and cooperation are
willing to play with its potential; they will soon discover that a sense of
pragmatism helps to attain the higher missions as well.