“Knowledge Maps: ICTsin Education”prepared by MichaelTrucano for infoDevPublication: InfoDev,2005
infoDev’s series of Knowledge Maps on ICTs in education is intended to provide a sanpshots and summary of research literatures related to ICT and ducation.This book is an attempt to limn the general shapes of a very large body of knowledge and highlight certain issues in a format quickly is accessible to busy policymakers.It meant to point out key general assertions and gaps in the knowledge base of what is known about the use of information and ommunication technologies (ICTs) in education, which especially as such knowledge may relate to the education-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
The “Knowledge Maps” presents a clear picture of what is known and what isn’t about information and communication technology (ICT) use in education. Inspite of large investment in ICTs to benefit education and increasing use of ICTs in education in developing countries, important gaps remain in the current knowledge base. This book has been divided into ten topics (impact of ICTs on learning and achievement; monitoring and evaluation; equity issues; costs; current projects and practices, specific ICT tools, teaching and ICTs, content & curriculum; policy issues, and school-level issues) grouped into four major themes (Knowledge Maps: Impact, Knowledge Maps: Costs, Knowledge Maps: Current implementations of ICTs in education, Theme: Planning). These “Knowledge Maps” attempt to outline where important gaps in received knowledge exist, and were utilized in the formulation of recommendations in support of a series of related research projects and workshops at infoDev.The knowledge mapping exercise relies totally on existing research and literature. A full listing of useful resources consulted during the knowledge mapping exercise is also presented in a bibliography. infoDev’s series of Knowledge Maps on ICTs in Education are a work in progress. The Knowledge Maps will be updated on a regular basis to reflect new developments and research. The impact of ICT use on learning outcomes is unclear, and open to much debate(Topic1 and 2). There is an absence of widely accepted standard ethodologies and indicators to assess impact of ICTs in education. There is a disconnect between the rationales most often put forward to advance the use of ICTs in education (to introduce new learning practices and to foster 21st century thinking and learning skills) and their actual implementation (predominantly for use in computer literacy and dissemination of learning materials). There is very little useful data on the cost of ICT in education initiatives, especially those attempting to assess total cost of ownership, nor guidance on how to conduct cost assessments. ICTs are being increasingly introduced in education, and interest in their use appears to be growing, even in the most challenging environments in developing countries(Topic 4). There are emerging best practices and lessons learned in a number of areas, but with a few exceptions (notably on ‘schoolnet’ development and general lessons learned), they have not been widely disseminated nor packaged into formats easily accessible to policy makers in developing countries, and have not been explicitly examined in the context of the education related MDGs(Topic 10) . While much of the rhetoric (and rationale) for using ICTs to benefit education has focused on ICTs’ potential for bringing about changes in the teaching-learning paradigm, in practice, ICTs are most often used in education in LDCs to support existing teaching and learning practices with new tools. While impact on student achievement is still a matter of reasonable debate, a consensus seems to argue that the ntroduction and use of ICTs in education can be a useful tool to help promote and enable educational reform, and that ICTs are both important motivational tools for learning and can promote greater efficiencies in education systems and practices.
