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| APPLYING
NEW TECHNOLOGIES AND COST-EFFECTIVE DELIVERY SYSTEMS IN BASIC
EDUCATION |
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Hilary
Perraton and Charlotte Creed
International Research Foundation for Open Learning February
2000 |
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| EXECUTIVE
SUMMARY |
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There are three starting assumptions for a review
of the use of information and communication technology to support
basic education. First, there is no practical substitute for
primary schools so that the role of the technologies is to support
primary education, not to replace it. Second, the technologies
may, however, play a part in meeting the needs of children or
adults who cannot get to school or conventional class. Third,
it makes sense to look at the technologies together, from print
to broadcasting to computers. |
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| DEFINITIONS |
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We have used the following working definitions:
Telematics is the combined use of telecommunication
and computer technology. New information technologies, and information
and communication technologies, are synonyms for telematics.
Distance education is an educational process in which
a significant proportion of the teaching is conducted by someone
removed in space and/or time from the learner.
Open learning is an organised educational activity,
based on the use of teaching materials, in which constraints
on study are minimised in terms either of access, or of time
and place, pace, method of study, or any combination of these.
Open and distance learning is an umbrella term covering
distance education, open learning, and the use of telematics
in education.
Computer-based learning is the use of computers in
education either to provide programs that deliver instruction,
or to facilitate communication between learner and tutor, or
to enable students to have access to remote sources of information.
It
is useful to distinguish between a variety of different applications
of the various technologies to basic education. Computers have
been used within schools both to support teaching and for school
linking. Radio and television have been used in various formats
for education within school. Open and distance learning has
been used for two main purposes: to offer an out-of-school alternative
to junior secondary education and for teacher education, where
computer technologies are also beginning to be used. Broadcasting,
and other technologies, have been widely used for the nonformal
education of adults. |
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| THE
POSITION IN 1990 |
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At the time of the Jomtien conference it was argued
that the potential of the new communication technologies had
not been fully realised although there was, by that date, well-documented
experience of their use for a range of educational purposes.
This included the work of out-of-school institutions, notably
in Latin America, which were providing an alternative to formal
schooling; the use of radio and television to raise school quality;
the use of radio, with other technologies, for adult education
and extension; and teacher education through open and distance
learning. At that time some open universities, notably in Asia,
were beginning to work in basic education; computers were coming
into classrooms in the north; the two new specialised agencies,
the Commonwealth of Learning and the Centre International Francophone
de Formation à Distance, were beginning to promote international
cooperation in and through distance education. |
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| THE
PRESENT ENVIRONMENT AND THE LAST DECADE |
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Educational expansion and constraint over the last
decade form the backdrop to any examination of the role of technology.
The constraints on expansion mean that there remain large numbers
of children outside school, especially in subsaharan Africa
and south Asia, and large numbers of adults who missed schooling.
One remarkable and consistent pattern is important: that, in
all parts of the developing world, female enrolment in education,
at primary secondary and tertiary levels, has been growing faster
than male. |
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The environment within which technologies are applied
to education has also been changing. The process towards digitisation
has brought a convergence between different media and technologies.
Schools and colleges all round the world have begun to use the
Internet. At the same time, the process has been far from uniform
and there is a widening gap between those with, and without,
access to computer-based technologies. In many parts of the
world communications have also been deregulated and privatised,
offering new kinds of access to communication technology but
sometimes reducing the free access previously enjoyed by educators.
Within the world of development communication there has been
a new emphasis on participatory methodologies which has affected
programmes of basic education, especially in out-of-school settings.
One significant change in the formal sector has been the new
legitimacy of open and distance learning, marked by the establishment
of open universities in many countries but affecting education
at all levels. |
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| TECHNOLOGIES |
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Despite the convergence between technologies, it is
convenient to distinguish between the various uses of computers,
broadcasting, and distance education. |
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Computers have been used in the classroom for five
different reasons: to build up a workforce with skills in information
technology; to educate all future citizens about the technologies;
to change the curriculum often by using computer-assisted learning;
to promote change in education; to give access to the Internet
and email. The last of these has achieved particular prominence
and attention in the last few years. The choice of rationale
determines the level in the education system at which it is
appropriate to invest in telematics. All rationales demand adequate
investment in staff training and in software, both often under-emphasised
in early planning. Whereas industrialised countries are moving
towards the provision of computers to all classrooms, alternative
strategies for providing computer access include the use of
mobile units, the sharing of computer facilities with other
agencies, and mediated access where a third party seeks information
through computer networks on behalf of a school. |
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Broadcasting has been used to offer direct teaching
in schools, to provide enrichment programmes, and for general
children's programming. One variant of direct teaching, interactive
radio instruction, has been widely adopted, most often with
funding support from USAID. |
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Distance education, which is likely to rely on other
technologies - print, broadcasts, and now sometimes computers
- is being used for two main purposes in basic education: to
offer an alternative form of junior-secondary, and more rarely
primary, education, and to support teacher education. |
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| AUDIENCES |
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Technologies have been used in-school, mainly to raise
quality, for out-of-school adolescents and adults, and for the
inservice training and updating of intermediaries such as teachers
and extension agents. |
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In-school much attention has recently been given to
the use of computers. Some computer projects have been designed
as part of a programme of curriculum development. Increasingly,
attention has gone to providing access to resources through
the Internet, the development of skills in using the Internet,
and school-linking projects in which email or computer conferencing
techniques are used for school-to-school exchange. As these
developments have add-on costs they increase the total cost
per student. |
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Broadcasting has not been eclipsed by computers and
both television and radio continue to be used in schools. A
series of interactive radio instruction projects, in which students
are active in the classroom, responding to the radio teacher,
have been run in many parts of the world. The projects have
been successful in increasing student learning. Interactive
radio demands heavy investment in curriculum development and
its costs mean that the projects have not always been sustainable
once initial donor funding has been withdrawn. |
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Various communication technologies have been used
for audiences outside school. The unsatisfied demand for junior
secondary education has led to a number of open and distance
learning programmes. Telesecundaria in Mexico is a television-based,
rural, system offering secondary education which has been running
for more than a quarter century and is a regular part of the
national system of education. In Asia, open schools, relying
more heavily on printed materials, have been established, notably
in India and Indonesia, and have plans for large-scale expansion.
Education out of school is not limited to the formal curriculum
and also includes community-based educational projects, some
of them beginning to use small-scale community radio, health
campaigns and a wide range of projects for adult basic education.
Some have used group study; many have been supported and organised
by NGOs. Many have worked well with small audiences but have
had difficulty in moving to scale or establishing the links
with government agencies that would be necessary for this kind
of expansion. The establishment of telecentres, open access
centres at which, for a fee, individuals can get access to computer
technologies and use the Internet, may provide new opportunities
for informal and nonformal education. |
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The new technologies have been used in various ways
to meet the needs of deprived and marginalised children , from
those in remote areas to street children, refugees, and war
victims. Within industrialised countries Internet-based approaches
have been used to meet the educational needs of migrant children.
Radio and distance education have been used for the education
of refugees. Broadcasting has been used for children in war
zones on, for example, the hazards of land mines and to provide
health education. |
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A variety of technologies have been used to provide
inservice education and training for teachers, and to a lesser
extent for agricultural and health extension agents. Some programmes
are designed to make resources available to teachers, without
a formal teaching structure. In other cases formal programmes
have been run, in most parts of the world, using distance education
for teachers. Programmes have usually engendered high motivation,
especially where linked with improved qualifications and increased
pay. Distance education for teacher training has proved to be
effective, both in terms of examination pass rates and in raising
teachers' capacities in the classroom. |
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| OUTCOMES
AND COSTS |
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Outcomes may be assessed in terms of widening access,
of improving quality, or of changing the curriculum. In principle
the use of mass media should widen access and there are examples
of alternative systems of education that reach students who
would otherwise be deprived of education. At the same time,
the use of information and communication technologies may have
the opposite effect, allowing the privileged access to learning
through computer technology that is denied to others. There
is evidence of qualitative improvement from programmes using
distance education for teacher training and from the use of
broadcasts in the classroom. Projects using both broadcasts
and computers have been successful in helping a process of curriculum
change . We have, however, few evaluations of the use of computers
in the classroom, even from industrialised countries with significant
national investment. |
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Comparison between the costs of conventional and technology-based
education is necessarily complex. The balance between fixed
and variable costs is different in these two sectors. Economies
of scale may be achieved in broadcasting or distance education
so that, to determine the unit cost of a programme, we need
to know the number of students. At the same time many uses of
technology demand elements of individual support to which these
economies do not apply. Programmes to raise the quality of education
generally increase costs: they are not usually designed to reduce
conventional staffing so that the costs of providing broadcasts
or introducing computers are normally additional to regular
educational costs. |
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Differing levels of salary make international comparison
of costs difficult but, for what it is worth, evidence from
a number of countries suggests that interactive radio annual
costs per student are likely to be in the range $3 to $8, for
student numbers in the range of 100 000 to 1 000 000. A small
number of studies of the costs of computers in schools, where
economies of scale are unlikely to apply, are several times
as great with figures in the range $18 to $63. The evidence
is consistent in showing that television has higher costs than
radio - sometimes ten times as high - and that computer-based
learning is likely to have markedly higher costs than radio.
Out-of-school distance-education projects have compared favourably
in cost per student with conventional schooling; only if their
success rate is adequately high do their costs per successful
student compare favourably. The limited data available on adult
basic education suggests that the costs compare favourably with
face-to-face education for adults but are usually significantly
higher, if measured in cost per learning hour, than the costs
of primary education. Inservice education of teachers using
distance-teaching methods has often cost only between one-third
and two-thirds those of conventional teacher education. |
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| CONDITIONS
FOR SUCCESS |
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The evidence, from television to computers, is that
projects are likely to be at risk if they are at the leading
edge of technology; education is likely to do better, in terms
of costs and servicing of equipment, if it follows entertainment
and commerce rather than leads it. If technological innovation
is to be sustainable it needs to generate a sense of ownership
among all the stakeholders. Innovation is also likely to need
an organisational location which allows adequate freedom for
the innovator while remaining close enough to the work of conventional
education and its decision makers for it to achieve integration
with the regular education service. Sensitive issues of language
and gender are the norm rather than the exception. |
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Many innovative projects have suffered from underinvestment
in training and in software, whether in the form of radio scripts
or computer software. Training is generally needed both for
specialists involved in the development of teaching materials
and for teachers who are using them in their schools or adult
educators or extension agents in the field. |
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| FUNDING |
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The application, and level of cost, of new technologies
is likely to lead to a search for new sources of funding. Where
new technologies increase costs there is likely to be a tension
between attempts to take advantage of their capacity to widen
access and the search for ways of funding them: access may be
possible at a price only the more privileged can pay. One consequence
of adopting telematics may be to shift responsibility for funding
from the teaching institution to the learner, or from a central
institution to an individual school or college. Downloading
materials electronically, rather than buying them commercially
or receiving them through a ministry of education, shifts the
location of costs and may in fact increase them. At the same
time, may sometimes be possible to locate community funds by
decentralising. |
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Many technology projects have been launched with external
funding. Often this has excluded recurrent costs and led to
problems of sustainability when neither learners nor governments
are able to meet running costs. |
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The funding of out-of-school education has often been
on a different basis from in-school education. Students outside
school, often politically powerless, are often asked to pay
a higher proportion of the costs of their education than those
in school, sometimes in the expectation that they will be earning
while studying. This sometimes means that those who receive
what they perceive as being an inferior education have to pay
more than those who get the superior model. |
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| FUTURE
LINES OF DEVELOPMENT AND POLICY OPTIONS |
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The main challenge in applying telematics to basic
education is to find ways of achieving potential benefits without
widening the gap between the information-rich and information
poor. In many countries the new technologies are of limited
application in primary schools where other needs take priority.
In contrast, they are of major potential benefit for teacher
education and for strengthening the rapidly expanding junior-secondary
cycle. Broadcasting, linked with community-based activities,
and distance education have a role to play in adult basic education,
because of their potential reach and modest cost, whether for
a formal curriculum or for nonformal purposes. National campaigns
on AIDS prevention are an obvious and high priority. Distance-education
methods have a record of success in supporting extension agents
but have so far been under-exploited for this purpose. |
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Use of new communication technologies will not allow
developing countries to leapfrog the industrialised world by
introducing a technology-based form of basic education. Children
need to learn in a school, while the need for technical infrastructure
and training all limit the extent to which the technologies
can replace conventional education. For most ldcs the cost of
computer-based education far exceeds the cost of conventional
education. |
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Sound decisions about the use of information and communication
policies will be facilitated where there is a national communications
policy, and a policy for educational communications within it.
This will embrace linguistic and cultural issues. It will need
to take account of the use to be made by the education service
of the new technologies and education's role in providing education
about them. In developing such a policy a key need, as yet unmet
by research, is for full and disinterested information about
the costs and effects of the various technologies available
for education. |
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| CONCLUSIONS |
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Eight main
conclusions follow from the evidence and analysis.
There
is no alternative to primary school. Technology-based alternatives
have not thrived.
Computers
have been used in primary schools but in a modest way, sometimes
mainly for games. They are more important higher up the educational
system.
Radio
can enrich and extend basic education at costs much more modest
than those of television or computers.
The
demand for junior-secondary education, and the potential of
the technologies, suggest that their use should be expanded
to raise quality and widen access at junior-secondary level.
There
are promising models for out-of-school equivalence at this level.
Despite
the mixed record of nonformal education, the social and educational
needs of adults are so great that there is a case for continuing
and expanding use of the technologies here.
National
policies need to be developed that seek to use new technologies
cost-effectively while avoiding widening the gap between the
information-rich and the information-poor.
The
use of communication technologies for teachers and extension
agents, with its multiplier effect, merits investment as a cost-effective
way of raising educational quality. |
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