You may recollect that in Section 1.2 we looked at "Malaysia's National ICT Strategic Plan" along with its road map. In that road map, much emphasis was given to education. As a follow up to the road map, the Ministry of Education in association with the MSC designed an ICT Policy framework for education for our country. The policy framework has four major thrusts, which are as follows:

1. The first policy for ICT in education is based on the Government's recognition of knowledge as a necessary basis for sustainable human capital development. This first policy therefore seeks to define the roles of all parties in the new partnerships between the public, private and community sectors required to drive the far-reaching changes needed to achieve knowledge for all in the new Information and Digital Age.
2. The second policy for ICT in education focuses on deploying ICT as an enabler for education through four main pillars of delivery - human capital, budget, digital learning resources and infrastructure.
3. The third policy for ICT in education focuses on the adoption of value-added management tools and advanced concepts from global best practices such as total cost of ownership, public private partnership, lifecycle approach and central programme management.
4. The fourth policy for ICT in education focuses specific attention on various groups including juveniles, aborigines, and students with special needs to give them equal opportunity as Malaysia progresses towards a high-income nation.

The policy framework also identified five major pillars as the mission of the MOE. These are:

1. To continuously develop ICT as an enabler for education.
2. To cultivate the culture of embracing 21^st century skills among all stakeholders in the education ecosystem.
3. To streamline and optimise the process to fully leverage the benefits of ICT in education.
4. To monitor and provide rewards and recognition for outstanding performance in the use of ICT in education.
5. To promote the creation and sustainability of an environment favourable for invention of new ideas, creations and solutions through the use of ICT as an enabler in education.

The aspirations expressed by our government are not too dissimilar from those of many countries in the world. It is guided by our belief that the future well being of communities can only be guaranteed by the community's knowledge of and ability to use ICT effectively.

In one of its recent reports the Asian Development Bank (2009) remarked that ‘information literacy' sustains the health and robustness of any knowledge dependent society as "it empowers individuals in all walks of life to seek evaluate, use and create information effectively to achieve their personal, social, occupational and educational goals." Over the last thirty years we have begun to believe and even accept that technology has the potential to vastly improve our lives especially in the way we deliver education. But experience tells us that this has not always been the case. There are those who would argue that educational standards have slipped rather than improved (What is your view as a practicing teacher?). If expectations have not been met, is it because the promise of ICT has been overstated, or is it because of something else in the ecosystem that has inhibited teachers and learners from making full use of the potential and promise of ICT?

The potential of any innovation is not met automatically. It requires thoughtful planning driven by clear policy directions at the national and school level. Increasingly many ASEAN countries have put in place policy documents that spell out their approach to intensifying the use of ICT within their educational systems. The Asian Development Bank (www.adb.org) published a short review on ‘Good Practice in Information and Communication Technology in Education' in 2009. Please take time to read this publication before proceeding further.

Global experience dictates that there are at least six or seven factors that must be considered in establishing a successful ICT plan for education. In their book Technology for Education: Potential, Parameters and Prospects (2009) Haddad and Dexler provide a lengthy description of these issues. Below we present a somewhat abridged version of that description.

1. Educational policy: Technologies are supporting tools; they cannot fix bad practice; neither can they reduce the negative impact of ill-thought and badly managed educational systems. Therefore nations and their schools have to make choices about national goals and objectives, their approach to achieving those goals, the methodologies they will adopt, and the role of teachers and expectations of students before technology solutions are considered. In the context of our country, as an example, if teaching is telling and demonstrating and learning is memorizing and regurgitating, using multimedia, the web and other tools and facilities will not have the desired impact of improving the learning environment. The effectiveness of ICT depends on policy elements which demand that teachers and students work collaboratively to enquire, search, discover and turn information into knowledge and use that knowledge to further enhance their skills or understanding.

2. Approach: Our classroom environments and the overwhelming ‘control' of curriculum by a central authority often work against the full use of the freedoms that technologies present. By and large, our educational environments still limit us to using the technologies almost in the same way as the chalk and board. Examples include "'putting on screen what can be found on the page of a book," using material from the Internet to "support conventional teaching practices," and employing didactic software to rehearse basic skills. The above examples merely replicate existing learning methods in technological form. If ICTs are to fulfil their potential, "innovation and change are called for at all levels of the school environment." And that requires "a far reaching review of teaching policies and methods." The challenge, therefore, is to rethink learning objectives and teaching methodologies, and to align learning technologies with them. It was never satisfactory merely to be efficient in helping learners to achieve mastery of content and basic skills, but the issue has now become vital. As knowledge in itself becomes a perishable item, the ability of learners to think independently, exercise appropriate judgment and scepticism, and collaborate with others to make sense of their changing environment is the only reasonable aim for education. Perhaps the most profound shift is from systems of teaching and supervision of learning to systems of learning and facilitation of learning. These shifts will be difficult in different ways for both rich and poor school systems. In advantaged communities, change is an upheaval for established authorities, systems, and capacities. In disadvantaged communities, the infrastructure must be put into place along with serious attention to pedagogy. There is also a basic difference between using technology as an add-on to make the current model of education more efficient, more equitable, and cheaper, on the one hand, and integrating technology into the entire education system to realise structural rethinking and reengineering, on the other. It is the difference between a marginal addition and a radical systemic change.

3. Infrastructure: The application of each technology falls over a wide spectrum, from the simplest to the most sophisticated. It is important, therefore, to identify the most appropriate, cost-effective, and sustainable technology as well as the appropriate level of application for the different educational objectives. Next, the prerequisite hardware infrastructure needs to be in place, along with the supporting elements, such as electricity, maintenance, and technical services. In the case of computer infrastructure, questions about what is appropriate are more complicated and should include the following considerations:

• Where and how should computers be distributed, connected, and used in schools? Different educational and institutional objectives are served by different configuration options: computers in classrooms, on wheels, in computer rooms or labs, or in libraries and teachers' rooms. Should computers be stand-alone or connected to form a network? If the latter, which network option is the most cost-effective: peer-to-peer, client/server, or thin-client/server? Finally, should computers be connected by wiring the classroom or school, or should they be wireless?
• Turning computers into powerful communication tools requires access to the Internet; however, getting a school online, particularly in a developing country, is not a straightforward task. First, schools need to figure out why they need an Internet connection and what type of connection they should use. The next problem is communication infrastructure. In many areas, it is either nonexistent or expensive to use. Some forms of terrestrial wireless and satellite technologies are being introduced that do not require installation of wired line networks and are ideal for remote and isolated areas. Finally, schools need to find out whether they have the resources to implement their decided course of action, in particular, for the period beyond the initial investment, such as in covering future operating costs.
• Computers are not dying of old age; however, every so many years they need to be replaced because they cannot handle new operating systems or application software. This creates a major problem for schools and national governments with limited financial resources. In fact, school systems spacing the introduction of computers over a period of time longer than the life of a computer will never be able to cover all of their schools. Some organisations are trying to address the problem by providing software packages that can be run on any computer, from a x86 to the newest dual core i7.
• ICTs in schools require supporting infrastructure that includes electricity, communication, wiring, and special facilities. Just as countries are experimenting with wireless connections, some in Africa and Latin America are using solar energy to run computers (and radios) in remote and isolated areas.

4. Skills: People involved in integrating technologies into the teaching/ learning process have to be convinced of the value of the technologies, comfortable with them, and skilled in using them. Therefore, orientation and training for all concerned staff in the strategic, technical, and pedagogical dimensions of the process is a necessary condition for success.(In Unit 2, you would have read about the professional development of teachers)

5. Budget: Acquiring the technologies themselves, no matter how hard and expensive, may be the easiest and cheapest element in a series of elements that ultimately could make these technologies sustainable or beneficial. Computers, in particular, need highly skilled, costly and frequent maintenance to operate. Yet, in almost all cases, schools invest in buying and networking computers but do not budget sufficiently for their maintenance and technical support. It is important, therefore, to plan and budget for the total cost of ownership. Elements contributing to the total cost of ownership include:

a. acquisition of hardware and software;
b. installation and configuration;
c. connectivity;
d. maintenance;
e. support, including supplies, utilities, and computer training;
f. retrofitting of physical facilities; and
g. replacement costs (in five to seven years).

6. Integration - The success of ICTs in education depends on how they are introduced into the system. Here are some strategic options:

• ICTs may be used as an additional layer of educational input, which leaves the current system intact but adds hardware and software for enrichment. The problem here is that both students and teachers may not take the additional materials seriously or know how to relate them to the current program. Such a position may result in a failure to realise the full potential of, and, consequently, returns from, ICTs.
• ICTs may be treated as an integral part of the existing instructional system. Here, the process involves articulating learning objectives, translating objectives/standards into teaching/learning activities, producing multimedia curricular materials, training staff, establishing a distribution communication network, assessing learning achievements, and evaluating the program. Here, ICTs are not a substitute for the classroom setting; rather, they enhance the role of the teacher as a facilitator and the role of the student as a learner.
• ICTs can be used to develop a structured multimedia program that covers a particular course-similar to a textbook-plus that is followed by all students in all schools in the same way. Many publishers have evolved their textbooks into packages of printed (or digital) text plus related slides, videos, audiotapes, and CDs.
• ICTs can be multimedia modules that are constructed in a flexible way so as to serve as building blocks of different curricula and teaching practices. Here, each module is broken down into educational sub-objectives to be met by specific technologies, such as video, animation, simulation, real-life exploration, etc. Not only can the modules be put together in different ways, the sub-modules can be reconfigured to form different versions suitable for different teaching styles and learning needs.