Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is basically an umbrella term that encompasses all communication technologies such as internet, wireless networks, cell phones, satellite communications, digital television etc. that provide access to information. During the past few decades, ICT has provided society with a vast array of new communication capabilities and has fundamentally changed the way we live now. We find a world of difference in the practices and procedures of various fields such as medicine, tourism, banking, business, engineering, etc. as they operate now in comparison to how they operated two decades ago. In contrast, the impact of ICT on education in India, however, has been far less and slow.
The most fundamental cause seems to have been the deep-seated belief that teaching is an art or at best an imperfect science with no role of technology in the design or delivery of instruction. But now times have changed and the paradigm of education and learning has changed from art or science to technology-mediated instruction and learning. ICT can, therefore, be perceived as a big change agent for education.
In order to use technology to help achieve the goals of education in a better and more effective way, one has to be first of all clear about what our expectations are from the education system, what and how do we want our students to learn and what type of individuals our classrooms should produce - rote learners or those with an analytical mind having an in-depth understanding of the subject?
India has the third largest system of education in the world, next only to USA and China, with more than 500 universities and around 30000 colleges. To introduce ICT-enabled education in such a large system one needs to have high quality multi-media enriched content in different disciplines for various courses including its multilingual conversion, capacity building of teachers and students in ICT skills and state-of-the-art infrastructure along with networking and internet connectivity via Virtual Private Network (VPN) / broadband connectivity for disseminating the content and affordable access devices so that it reaches the doorsteps of the learners. The ongoing National Mission on Education through ICT (NMEICT) is a major initiative of the Govt. of India in this direction with an aim to leverage the potential of ICT in providing high quality personalized and interactive content, free of cost, to all the learners.
ICT, if used creatively, can make a big difference in the way teachers teach and students learn and can help students acquire 21st century skills like digital literacy, innovative thinking, creativity, sound reasoning and effective communication. ICT can help in enhancing the quality of education through blended learning by supplementing the traditional talk and chalk method of teaching. ICT-enabled education can also be a solution to the growing demands for enrolments in higher education in India and thus help increase the gross enrolment ratio (GER) which at present is very low ( about 12%) as compared to the world average of 23%. In case of open and distance education (ODE) system where “Anyone, Anywhere and Anytime”, that is, 3A’s is the main philosophy, ICT- enabled education can do wonders that no one can imagine and help pave way for the creation of virtual universities in the long run. ICT can also significantly contribute in efficiently managing the governance in the universities and colleges.
The content is the basic element of ICT-enabled learning or e-learning which must be blended with suitable technological tools using appropriate pedagogies, to generate e-content. E-content which is highly interactive and multimedia enriched can play an important role in the knowledge gained by the learner through self learning and assessment. In this Information Age, the tremendous growth of knowledge in different disciplines is posing a great challenge for researchers. Here too ICT tools can provide great assistance in the form of searchable electronic databases.
The development and increasing use of ICT in education is however likely to be accompanied with a bitter contradiction–the digital divide which refers to the digital gap between people with effective access to ICT and those with limited or no access at all. This gap includes the imbalances in physical access to ICT (whether at home, college, work place or cyber café) and the resources and skills needed effectively to use the full capabilities of ICT. Major factors contributing to this digital divide include quality and cost of physical infrastructure, lack of knowledge about full capabilities of ICT and lack of availability of high quality content uniformly across the country. One can transform this digital divide into a digital opportunity by giving top priority to the development of ICT and telecommunication infrastructure (computers with internet access and broadband connectivity) in order to provide universal and affordable access to information to people and institutions in all geographical areas of the country.
To promote computer literacy and build capacity in ICT skills, ICT courses should be integrated to curricula from the school level itself. Computer literacy classes in public libraries can also be used as a means of promoting and propagating ICT awareness. Since most of the time our computing facilities remain underutilized (about 30% of their potential), efforts should be encouraged to harness the full potential of our computing resources with the help of shared resources and innovative technologies. This could obviate the problem of physical access and connectivity.
ICT in education is the need of the hour. It has the potential to provide solution to many of the challenges higher education faces today. The common fear that ICT shall replace a teacher is totally unfounded. Realization now seems to be slowly dawning on the teaching community that ICT is primarily to empower them and not to replace them. ICT is, therefore, not to be feared but to be embraced so as to empower our future generations by providing them high quality ICT- enabled education.
