Why to save $46 billion (US$41 billion) on ICT

Evaluating 30 years: computers do not yet live up to their (full) potential in education. In rich countries investments in computer labs proof to be productive. However, it seems like digital teaching and learning tools in optimal situations improve, but in many cases bring down learning results - nationwide.  Governments have started to reverse policies: from technology to better teachers.

Policy effects of digital tools in classrooms in rich countries as summarised recently:

United Kingdom.  Evidence on the positive impact of ICT on standards remains unclear in 'PS Public Service' on 22 July 2010: "The most fundamental application of technology in schools is the way in which it enables teachers to concentrate on what they do best – teaching. Too much of the education budget in recent years has been spent on getting technology into the classroom with a view that the mere injection of technology itself will contribute to raising standards. However, it is the case that the evidence on the positive impact of ICT on standards remains unclear. The focus on the use of technology in schools, therefore, should be to support teachers' professional needs".

USA.  Obama's revolutionairy low budget Reform in Education 
focuses on quality teachers to turn the tide
in 'The Financial Times' on 28 July 2010: "In the last generation, America’s “K-12” (primary and secondary) public schools system has gradually fallen behind other developed countries (during the era that digital teaching moved centre stage at the expense of trillions of US$ - VT). 
American pupils come 31st in a worldwide ranking of proficiency in mathematics and even lower down in some of the sciences.

On some measures US pupils have a lower level of literacy in English than in some northern European countries where English is the second language.
Thirty years ago (before computers) the US regularly came in the top five on such measures."

With an eye on low-income countries: note that quality decline parallel with the introduction of digital teaching, occurred especially on weaker and on deprived schools (in USA one-third of public schools). 

Australia.  Computers alone provide a low-level of learning in 'Computerworld. The Voice of Management' on 23 July 2010: "The existing program is quite targeted around computers in schools. The coalition could very well look more broadly at supporting software and learning aids, because computers alone provide a low-level of learning.” Therefore the planned investment of $46 billion for National Broadband Network, the "Digital Education Revolution" is considered to be cancelled.

These are "Frameworks for Interpreting the (negative results in) Romania and North Carolina Home Computer Use Studies" were Wayan Vota looks for in the Edutech-debate. They underpin the relevance of the August discussion of InfoDev (World Bank/UNESCO) about long-denied evidence that access to computers in many circumstances leads to poor educational attainment.

These evaluations feed the wider debate that is now surrounding Nicholas Carr's book The Shallows (2010). Carr argues that the Internet is leading to a short-attention-span culture. He cites a pile of research showing that the multi-distraction, hyper-link world degrades people’s abilities to engage in deep thought or serious contemplation. Digital teaching might increase motivation of students - the stimuli used by teachers and the information is so diverse that it is merely processed in the short-term-memory. Like watching good National Geographic documentaries: after seen and understood: soon forgotten. Teaching becomes "edu-tainment". Knowledge that pupils have to learn does not get connected to or stored in the long-term-memory, which is the basis of secure learning.

Effective digital teaching. We obviously do not know yet how to use new technologies to really optimise learning processes. For established school subjects, teaching with digital equipment involves more than offering knowledge in understandable and interesting formats - the premises on which most ICT enthusiasts promote computer use by pupils.  From various studies we learn that the approach has to be holistic. To start with: pupils need varied and relevant exercises to fixate information into their long-term-memory. In neuro-physiological terms, to develop new neuron-clusters and the lasting neurological pathways to link new understanding to existing knowledge. What it takes to achieve this is gravely underestimated - joyful exercises commonly used in e-learning software turn out to be not good enough.
Secondly: digital equipment, being so flexible in offering so much, has proved to be a double-edged sword. Teachers must have clear lesson targets, know how to reach those and do so in a disciplined manner, otherwise learning suffers.

Thirdly, for high school students digital learning involves the need for personal interaction, role-models and teachers. Learning as part of growing up is a social process in which technology can help but cannot assume centre stage. 'Social learning' has become a high priority on the agendas of rich countries' educational practices. But creating a productive balance using a simple model with appropriate variation in activities is still a major challenge for 'the new digital pedagogy'. Not to mention how to prevent distraction and pupils just entertaining themselves.

A 'pedagogic leap' is needed for digital teaching to become truly effective. How will the average teacher develop - and how to be trained? We are now much more aware of the missing link between computers being motivational and engaging for youngsters and their role in developing effective, durable learning in school. This gap may take a generation to bridge. More sophisticated pedagogical understanding of digital teaching has to be developed and applied before students of the average teacher in rich and in developing countries can benefit from this type of technology in their classroom. There is, however, plenty of evidence, for instance from independent OECD studies in Europe, that the use of computers in computer labs and libraries has a positive impact - contributing to teaching and to learning. An area to prioritise in countries where budgets are low.

1899 Jean Cote's vision of a classroom in the year 2000: a teacher transmits books to pupils via a kind of 

mechanical micing device. It illustrates the long history of technological fantasies about education. 

Image in David Buckingham: 'Beyond Technology - Children Learning in the Age of Digital Culture'

Startling rhetoric  Considering its results the marketing of educational technology is startling. From the start it doesn't want to see any problems but only "practical solutions". True: the debatable effects could not have been foreseen 20 years ago, although negative results time and again were brought forward in independent studies (see menu-bar: Sound pedagogy). But up till today the marketing messages are relentlessly upbeat. Digital tools… motivate, inspire and stimulate teachers and students; the latest technology is Engaging - Enriching  - Empowering; IT transfers the learning experience by lightning the flame of learning. ICTs inspire creativity in the classroom, share knowledge, spark brilliance and transform the future.

Technology is about creating opportunities, realizing potential, achieving excellence. The effects of this rhetoric, and other aspects of the marketing of this trillion dollar saga, are evaluated in 2007 in the opening chapters of 'Beyond Technology' by Prof. Buckingham of London Institute of Education - a study in the United Kingdom, arguably world leader in digital education.
In low income countries with a poor educational infrastructure in all respects, a similar rhetoric is used by the ICT industry and experts to introduce the one-laptop-per-child concept after 2005 and other digital tools as the (only) solution.
 

"ICT as a teacher substitute"  
ICT rhetoric can explain Ugandas' Minister Bitamazires' hope in 'technocentric' solutions as expressed in her statement on a symposium with "experts tipping the region over importance ICT" in Kampala on 29 of June 2010:
"Students learn more on their own when they interact with ICT than with their teachers".   (Photo Bitamazire © Uganda news-net)  

The new promise  Mitras' and Negropontes' philosophy of 'self-learning' of pupils in low income countries promises "… to leap-frog decades of development… (with computers giving access) to illimitable knowledge and to their own creative and problem solving potential". Experiences in rich countries where children over the age of four are surrounded by computers do not confirm this for the established school subjects and bring to light that reaching learning targets has become more difficult than before.     "OLPC pupils will educate themselves"  
That is why John Spencer in "Computerworld UK" (August 5 2010) concludes under the title "ICT as a teacher substitute": "CAL (computer assisted learning) and the VLE (virtual learning environment); don’t make me laugh. Never has so much money and time been wasted on such delusional nonsense. No amount of theorising about ‘constructivist pedagogy’ or ‘creating independent learners’ from the apologists can change this". As ICT specialist Spencer recognizes the importance of computers in education but not yet in the classroom. That can change in the future after a 'pedagogical leap' forward.

ICT aid   promoting unproven ICTs (the mediaeval approach)

Test and make it work first (the scientific approach)
Below: cure with leaches (untested for 3000 years)

TEST first!  Clever ICT investments for donors 
as advised in Esther Duflo's TED talk (see post May 29)
After 30 years this is clear for classrooms: before advising any unproven technology - InfoDev/World Bank, UNESCO, ICT4D and the others better invest and experiment with promising IT tools in two or three settings until these really work in poor environments. Implementation procedures have to be developed to make it all sustainable, also money-wise. Until then investments can safely be concentrated on computer labs and building up the infrastructure needed.

In the mean time for in classrooms: teachers used to 'chalk and talk' need robust and reliable tools which give them full control and immediate support. To improve learning achievements there is innovate 'achievable ICT': click for possibly the best way to modernise teaching.

Read full articles:

'PS Public Service', 22 July 2010

'Computerworld. The Voice of Management', 23 July 2010
'Financial Times', 28 July 2010

Larry Cuban about: Nicholas Carr, The Shallows 2010 (23 August 2010)

Wayan Vota 'Edutech-debate' 16 July 2010 
OECD 'Country case studies on digital learning resources as systematic innovation' 2008-2009

for more, see earlier blog posts and
see: 20 yrs IT - a reality check 
see: Sound pedagogy
see: ICT-IT harmonised

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In the mean time:

How to explain 'infrastructure'? Below one of the 2500 visuals: "Put on - take off" - and ask:

Teachers in developing economies need in their classrooms robust and reliable tools.

The Nationwide Visualisation Project introduces on highschools simple to use teaching aids.

Avoid only "worst practice ICT use in education"?

Highlighting the Delhi debate in April/May 2010 organised by InfoDev/World Bank:

"Most Investments in Educational Technology are Wasted"

Three guest speakers defend the way computer technology has been introduced in middle and low income countries so far, and three opponents argue that much of the money could have been better used. Here is a response to that last position.

Michael Trucano, Senior ICT and Educational Policy Specialist at InfoDev/World Bank has seen it happening around the world, over and over again:

"Given that many initiatives seem immune to learning from either 'best' or even 'good' practice in other places or contexts, it may be most practical to recommend 'lots of practice', as there appears to be a natural learning curve that accompanies large scale adoption of ICTs in the education sector in many countries - even if this means 'repeating the mistakes' of others".

from:Michael Trucano on Fri, 04/30/2010
Worst practice ICT use in education

Next Trucano raises the question: "But do we really need to repeat the mistakes of others?" and concludes that maybe only "worst practice in ICT use in education" should be avoided. A statement like this from a top researcher at the World Bank reveals a lot about the common acceptance of the waste of investment in educational technologies. And "we" refers directly and correctly to the role of the IT community itself.

On a regular basis I talk to top management at government ministries in middle and low income countries and meet their influential IT advisers - mostly from abroad and paid by donor facilitating organisations. Ministers listen carefully to them. To me, it appears like these advisers are responsible for many of the policies subsequently adopted: it is at their level - and not the lower levels in the educational hierarchies - that decisions about the amount and destination of investments in educational technology are made. Outcomes have not been good and so for IT advisers and aid facilitating agencies a fundamental re-think is urgently needed.

Here Trucano's list of nine 'worst practices in ICT'         photo Trucano © World Bank 

(mostly directed by enthusiastic IT specialists and the computer lobby) -

1. Dump hardware in schools, hope for magic to happen

2. Design for OECD learning environments, implement elsewhere

3. Think about educational content only after you have rolled out your hardware

4. Assume you can just import content from somewhere else

5. Don't monitor, don't evaluate

6. Make a big bet on an unproven technology

7. Don't acknowledge total cost of ownership/operation calculations

8. Assume away equity (fairness; justice) issues but which need careful proactive attention

9. Don't train your teachers (nor your school headmasters, for that matter)

I'd like to add:

10: ignore the benefits of achievable ICT to modernise teaching at low cost and no risk (click)

There is a false dichotomy in the "Delhi - Waste debate". Are those who think too much money is wasted really against computers? I don't think so. There is a common understanding that computers have to be integrated in developing economies as fast as possible, wherever it makes sense and especially in education. That is why donor facilitators have established IT-task forces to promote and assist this strategy. But there is an enthusiasm within the IT community which makes them regularly overlook (for instantce) points 5 to 8 in Trucano's list. This oversight leads to unrealistic policies for middle and low income countries. The IT advisers reject 'waste' as an appropriate description of what is going on, as if they don't have to be cautious regarding the financial consequences of the implementation strategies they advise be taken.

Implementation strategies which advisers promote should become longer term, spending 3 to 7 years creating a stable infrastructure before teachers start using IT in their classrooms.
Analysis followed by evaluation based on research elsewhere is simply not being effective in most places, partly because researchers and opinion-makers who report to the IT community are too eager to get computers into classrooms as a first priority as the key measure of success. Conclusions are reported to 'the home front' in optimistic terms and tend to obscure the shortcomings or failure of programs - holding up the cheap promise of 'computers enriching education' as a cover, instead of concluding that a firm step-by-step approach dealing first with critical barriers is far preferable.
Being pragmatic is essential. Instead of implicitly allowing similar mistakes to be repeated, annalists, government consultants and education leaders should note carefully Trucano's observations and the Delhi debate outcomes and question themselves about the value and appropriateness of their future implementation advice.


Role of ICT conferences

5th African e-Learning Conference
Zambia May 2010

Photos by Inzy Studios Lusaka, © ICWE GmbH

ICT conferences are important places to promote and present sensible implementation plans, concentrating first on preparation (and to raise voices against investment schemes doomed to failure). But ICT conferences, like the one recently held in Zambia, traditionally celebrate the arrival of computers in education as if this will bring immediate blessings - no matter where and even when failure is highly predictable. Also and especially, the 'professional advisers' at such events ignore the downsides of computer technology in the classroom and set out false expectations for visiting educationalists and policy makers who want rapid progress in their schools and who are in positions to get money flowing quickly. Instead of being warned about doubtful investments (as listed by Trucano), they go home with unrealistic IT policies in their minds - a side effect of these over-optimistic gatherings which the organisers and guest speakers should plan to prevent.

How to come up with blueprints for success? How to replace misleading over-optimism with common sense? You do not have to be Einstein to understand that the highest priority is to promote solutions to critical barriers first - like developing a solid infrastructure, preparing the teachers and only introducing educational technology which has already proved its worth in low or middle income countries. With smaller spending limits, much more can be achieved when wastage is minimised. Researchers, opinion-makers and computer-industry promoters have much responsibility to exercise in this process. Consider Trucano's Point 8, the equity issue: developing economies have no money for experiments. Loans, taxes or donor money gets wasted and is lost for basic needs such as salaries, furniture to sit on, school lunches or schoolbooks. Here realism in setting goals is imperative to foster progress.

A new, scientific approach is required from infoDev, US-Aid, UNESCO ICT4D, GeSCI and others who promote implementing expensive IT in education. Novelties which seem promising, like Negroponte's new eBook Being Digital, can be experimented with in a few regions or small countries until a complete working model is capable of implementation at manageable and accountable cost. In the 21st century the approach of 'trial and error' should be left behind, especially by the IT community. If they really want to close the digital divide they by now have to come up with blueprints for success. Here's an eye-opener on this subject, courtesy of Chris Blattman who did put this speech on his blog a few days earlier:

Esther Duflo's TED talk

Prof. Duflo is development economist at M.I.T. and has been awarded the John
Bates Clark Medal for "the most significant contribution to economic thought
and knowledge.” This award is regarded as a step up for the Noble Prize.


To close the digital divide systematically,
see: ICT-IT harmonised
see: Beyond chalk and talk
see: Nationwide Visualisation Project

original post Trucano 
 

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In the mean time:

Teachers in developing economies need in their classrooms robust and reliable tools.
The Nationwide Visualisation Project introduces on highschools simple to use teaching aids.
How relate rain, static electricity and lightning? Below one of the 2500 visuals: "Put on - take off".

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Step up: "What is happening to the ice-cubs in the circle?

Investment research concludes: First Debug the Child

Computers on schools can and will 'electrify education' (as Negroponte evaluated his OLPC projects) but only when implemented in a sensible way.  When brought into the classroom too fast, they might not enrich but damage education. This happens in rich countries as well as in middle and low-income countries. Some recent reports:

Research in Romania, comparing families having computers with those families without found that computers had a negative effect on students’ grades and educational goals.

Home Computer Use and the Development of Human Capital

In Colombia: with increased numbers of computers in schools, and curriculum support provided plus training for teachers, no positive impact on student outcomes was found.

The use and misuse of computers in education

In India: using computers during school hours - essentially substituting computers for teachers - actually damaged learning.

Some annotated observations, including the research findings above, from:
Atanu Dey, a contributer of the April 2010 Delhi debate
"Most of Technology Investments in Education is Wasted" 

First Debug the Child
My interest in the use — and misuse — of technology in education is a natural extension of that basic interest in development and growth. The One Laptop Per Child comes in for special scrutiny because the implications of such a program are phenomenal for a poor country like India. I have long argued that there are simpler, more affordable and more urgently needed interventions that is needed than is provided by the OLPC program. Here’s one that I recently became aware of. Timothy Ogden writes about "the glitzy One Laptop per Child program.” It’s clearly a well-written and well-researched article and is a must read. Here’s a bit:

Despite the instinctive appeal of distributing laptops to schoolchildren, there is precious little evidence that making computers available to children improves educational outcomes. The circumstantial evidence that exists certainly doesn’t buttress the one-laptop-per-child approach.
. . .
Two other recent studies (2010 and 2009) conducted in the developing world are even more telling. Economists Ofer Malamud and Cristian Pop-Eleches studied a program in Romania that distributed discount vouchers for the purchase of home computers to low-income families. When they compared the families that used the vouchers to acquire computers with families that were just above the income cut-off to receive the vouchers, they found that computers had a negative effect on students’ grades and educational goals. Leigh Linden, an economist at Columbia University, and Felipe Barrera-Osorio of The World Bank studied a program in Colombia that increased the number of computers in schools and provided curriculum support and training for teachers — and found no impact on student outcomes. “In this case, despite the curriculum support, it was clear that the teachers simply weren’t using the computers,” Linden says.

Linden also led one of the few experimental studies to show a positive impact from the use of computers — a project in India that provided computers and education software to schools and randomly assigned some schools to use the software during school hours and others to encourage computer use after hours. This study found that using computers during school hours —essentially substituting computers for teachers — actually hurt learning, while using them after hours as a supplement to traditional classroom teaching had dramatic positive effects on the weakest students. Even this outcome doesn’t really support the OLPC mission, though; the software evaluated is very much in the “drill and practice” model that Negroponte has explicitly derided.

Ogden further on in the article mentions a few more effective means of improving educational outcomes. There are a number of simple, cheap programs that have been proven successful at getting children in developing countries into school and helping them learn more while they are there.

Deworming
The simplest and least costly of these programs is deworming. Nearly 2 billion people around the world are affected by parasitic worm infections, with children disproportionately affected. While each variety of parasitic worm affects a person differently, they all take a substantial toll on growth, energy and attention, with entirely predictable impacts on school attendance and learning. Harvard economist Michael Kremer has studied the impact of mass deworming in Kenya and India. Delivering deworming medication costs 50 cents per child per year in Kenya but yielded a 25 percent increase in school attendance; a similar program in India cost $4 per student per year and yielded a 20 percent attendance gain. “This is a simple, cost-effective and yet tragically not-done program. It’s a scandal that [deworming] hasn’t been addressed,” Kremer says. There are spillover effects as well. “The most surprising thing about the study in Kenya was the widespread impact,” Kremer says. The program drove down infection rates for several kilometers around the schools, he says, and there were significant improvements in attendance for untreated students, in the treatment schools as well as in nearby schools not in the program.

Go read it all here

To close the digital divide systematically,
see:  Beyond chalk and talk
see:  20 yrs IT in reality
see:  Sound pedagogy

Does IT Improve Academic Achievement?

A point made by these researchers: recent large-scale efforts to increase computer access for disadvantaged children around the world happens without paying sufficient attention to how parental oversight affects a child's computer use.

Home Computer Use and the Development of Human Capital
By: O. Malamud, Univ. of Chicago / C. Pop-Eleches, Colombia Univ.

Key findings from the 2009 report include the following:
Computer use was mostly focused on games displacing the time for home work and reading:
- significantly lower schoolgrades in `Maths, English and Romanian
- significantly higher scores in computer skills and fluency

Find a downloadable pdf here
And a review in Slate web magazine here

Alex Tabarrok posted on the website Marginal Revolution, September 11, 2009, on the issue First debug the child, then the computer. We quote from the comments:

High schools in South Dakota have had access to a state-aided program to provide kids with laptops for school use (they don't get to keep them). The school here tried to put as much of the curriculum as possible on them. They've found out that (surprise) kids may not take proper care of them or use them approriately; in fact the first year of the program at our school saw a huge increase in kids failing classes because they were using the computers for everything but homework. Maintenance costs have also proven to be a budget buster; replacing a broken computer is a lot more expensive than replacing a damaged book, and some parents have said "you're making them use it; you pay for it".

Posted by: mikesdak at Sep 11, 2009 3:16:51 PM

Read it here

To close the digital divide systematically, see:

• 20 yrs IT in reality
  
• Sound pedagogy
• Visual teaching

Key constraints & waste in educational technology

Please check the Key constraints on pages 10 to 18, see below some key constraints. Will they be prominent in the debate and final policy advice, or just be ignored? Should these constraints be targeted first in every systematic strategy to bridge the digital divide?

from:
Survey of ICT in Education in India and South Asia
Price Waterhouse Coopers India - commissioned by InfoDev, 2010

Launched in New Dehli with the debate: 'Most investment in technology in schools is wasted.' A live debate web-casted around the world 20-21 April. A InfoDef - UNESCO event
Curriculum & Content Development

e.g. page 10
Key constraints in developing relevant content:
• lack of IT professionals in the country
• lack of funding, infrastructure and resources
• lack of local content development initiatives
• no clear defined standards for digital educational contentno focus on digital content • in traditional curriculum areas

e.g. page 12
Key constraints in effective use of ICT for professional development:
• teacher attitudes towards ICT
• lack of relevant content
• lack of access to computers and the Internet after school
• lack of adequate funding and resources
• lack of training focusing on pedagogical innovation and learner-centered strategies

Here preliminary results Survey ICTs for Education
in India and South Asia

To close the digital divide systematically, see:

• ICT-IT harmonised
  
• 20 yrs IT in reality
• Sound pedagogy