Since the theme of this research is to investigate the anticipated prospects and challenges of integrating ICT into the TVET system of the Gambia, this chapter outlines key issues that are fundamental to the study: Literature review on the definition of ICT integration, Planning Model for ICT integration, Current Status of ICT in Sub-Saharan Africa, ICT in the Gambia, the Gambia National Training Authority, Taiwan ICDF, and the Gambia scenario of Human Resource Development through TVET.
Integration of ICT into TVET System Defining ICT Integration
Though not impossible, but difficult to give a direct and consistently applied definition of ICT integration in spite of been an aim of educational systems and one of the increasing contemporary interests for a while. The integration of the term ICT covers a range of learning situations from a stand-alone computer in a classroom to a situation where the teaching is done by the computer through pre-packaged teacher-proof courseware (Lloyd, 2005). Literature has revealed that the term integration is often anciently interchanged with use. In this context, it may generally refer to or reflect a change in pedagogical approach to make ICT less related to schooling and more focus on student learning. In some situations, it is considered to be one of a set of typologies referring to how ICT can be integrated in TVET system (Lloyd, 2005). The popularity of the term “integration” in relation to ICT in education is explained by two influential U.S. teacher education texts. One of which is, Integrating Educational Technology into Teaching (Roblyer, 2004), and the other one, Integrating Technology for Meaningful Learning (Grabe & Grabe, 2004).
Although none of these texts gave a concise definition of the term “integration” but both of them had a lengthy discussion on the term. For instance Roblyer (2004, p. vi) globally offered that “like teaching itself, integrating technology into educational practice is a challenging work, full of exciting possibilities and complex problems”. People tend to be divided regarding integration;
others view it as critical, challenging and exciting while others view it as confronting or ill-conceived terms. Finally, to integrate is not to loosely combine components, parts or elements into a complex but into a harmonious whole (Lloyd, 2005).
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Planning Model for ICT Integration
Effective integration of ICT into TVET system as ICT-mediated learning needs a careful planning since there are many ditches to fall into such as:
Allowing decisions to be driven by technology;
Jumping into the “everybody’s doing it” bandwagon;
Overlooking existing educational and ICT systems;
Underestimating the front-end and ongoing funding requirements;
Unclear statements of objectives to be achieved;
Raising unrealistic expectations;
Failing to keep stakeholders briefed and involved in the decision process (Farrell, 2001, p. 152).
According to Chinien and Kotsik (2003), The Conference Board of Canada has developed an all-inclusive planning model for the integration of ICT as a tool for e-learning in workforce development that covers up the ditches stated above. The model includes four distinct phases:
Planning, Building, Improvement, and Integration each one of which is reviewed in this section based on the explanation of Chinien and Kotsik (2003).
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Model of Integrating ICT into TVET System
E – Learning Planning Process Phase 1: Planning
Develop team
Assess organizational need
Define learner’s needs and expectations
Understand how e – learning is difficult
Define work process to be involved
Assess and leverage existing ICTs
Define budget Education And Training, p. 134. Copyright 2003 published by The Russian Federation.
Plannin g
Building
Improvement Integration
Phase 2: Building
Assess vendors and products
Research options by content, technology and service
Develop measures
Involve employees in content development
Response content with caution
Leverage equipment supplier training
Partner with other organizations
Don’t bite of more than you can chew
Integrate, don’t implement
Develop e-literacy
Provide adequate ICTs
Train the trainers
Track, link and measure
Provide time to learn
Develop mechanism for content management and up dating
Communicate
Build communities
9 Planning.
At this stage, the needs of the organization as well as learners’ needs are assessed in relation to the capacity of learning through technologies. The planning phase includes the following steps:
Development of a team: This requires bringing together all relevant stakeholders to ensure effective decision-making.
Assessment of organizational needs: Review experiences of previous e-learning and the support available, and determine the anticipated benefits.
Definition of learners’ needs and expectations: Set a target regarding computer literacy, language skills, access to information and communication technologies, and learning needs.
Understanding of how e-learning is different: Scrutinize and analyze the differences between e-learning and other traditional delivery approaches such as classroom-based, instructor-led training.
Definition of the work processes to be involved in e-learning: Clearly state the work processes, programme, or courses in which e-learning will be integrated and how technology will be used.
Assessment and leveraging of existing ICT: Assess existing infrastructure, equipment, courseware, e-learning experience, and trainers and employee ICT literacy.
Definition of the budget: determine the cost as well as source of funding.
Get seated at the center of information technology system table: Build excellent rapport and good working relationship with IT colleagues.
Build or buy? State clearly Your Model of e-learning: Be clear if you are going to buy services, content, and technology externally, or else develop them internally, or use combination of both.
Building.
The ultimate aim of this phase is to develop complete e-learning model in consultation with external vendors and suppliers, and outcome measures to assess programme success as describe:
Assess the vendor market and products: Put in place criteria for assessing vendors of e-learning products.
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Research e-learning options by content, technology, and service: Carefully review proposal of content providers, technology providers, and service providers. Study the requirements of the program to ascertain if content should be developed internally or externally.
Develop measurement: Map out key success factors and build up an evaluation plan
Involve employee in content development: It is important to engage employees in the content development. They can be provided with a model that they can enhance their knowledge.
Repurpose content with caution: Read through existing instructional materials that can be used and kept in records in order to fully benefit from the interactive possibilities of e-learning delivery.
Leverage equipment supplier training: Build partnership with equipment supplier to gain access to existing e-learning packages.
Partner with other organizations: Don’t operate in isolation be partnered with other institutions/organizations to gain access to existing e-learning packages.
Don’t bite off more than you can chew: Cut your coat according to cloths; don’t be over ambitious. Start in accordance with your ability and expand as you move on.
Integration.
The integration phase of the model is designed to promote e-learning to administrators, instructors, and learners, by providing professional development as required and collecting data as the process evolves.
Integrate, do not implement: Because there is a big difference between the two. As implementation is said to be a top-down approach, integration is a more collaborative approach with wider involvement that can assist in building a successful e-learning community.
Develop e-literacy: E-literacy programme should be developed to assist learners in becoming conversant with ICT.
Provide adequate ICT: Make sure that there is accessible sufficient quantity of ICT
Train the trainers: ICT integration process requires a unique set of skills; therefore, the instructors need to be provided with adequate training.
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Track, link and measure: Put into use all data collected to monitor the success of ICT integration.
Provide time to learn: Time is a barrier to ICT integration. It is an indisputable fact that sufficient time is needed for successful ICT integration.
Develop mechanisms for content management and upgrading: Establish a system for managing and updating content.
Communicate: Communicate the importance of ICT integration to all stakeholders.
Build communities: Build ICT communities on the basis of specific knowledge or content areas to solve problems, learn together, and construct and share knowledge.
Improvement.
This phase of ICT integration Model concentrates on improvement by discovering new technologies, strategies, approaches, and techniques.
Check and evaluate: Use the data collected to conduct SWOT Analyses of the integration process.
Determine improvements: Map out areas of ICT that need improvement.
Assess and integrate new technologies: Keep abreast of technological development in e-learning and integrate technologies that facilitate and enhance e-learning.
Scale up or out: Successful organizations or institutions can at this point build up external relationships to sell their training programs in order to recover their e-learning investments.Important Aspects for Integrating ICT
It is a consensus among scholars that there are different factors which influence the effective integration of ICT into education (Saud et al., 2011). It is almost impossible to successfully integrate ICT into TVET system without assessing and determining the following readiness: organizational readiness, pedagogical readiness, strategic readiness, and technical readiness. Kotsik et al. (2009) further argued that, each and every aspect stated above has a great significance for effectively integrating ICT into TVET system. The four aspects were further described by the authors as presented below.
Organizational readiness refers to taking steps that are required to implement the integration of ICT which among many other things include: ensuring that TVET stakeholders possess the necessary ICT competencies. However, this study went further to include the current existing organizational structures of the concern organizations as well as their human resource
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capacity as part of organizational readiness. Furthermore, financial cost related to hardware and software, connectivity, maintenance as well as staff training, missions and visions were moved from strategic readiness as stated by Kotsik et al. to organizational readiness.
Strategic readiness is a preparatory phase achieved by establishing a broad master plan for the integration of ICT into TVET system. At this stage, the strategies, objectives, timeframe and the evaluation scheme for ICT initiatives should be stated. The plan should clearly describe the objective of ICT-mediated learning with respect to current practices. The process would be a great success if it has been widely disseminated amongst all the relevant stakeholders.
Pedagogical readiness concentrates on the connection between ICT and current state of imparting and acquisition of practices of knowledge. It further includes steps like assessing the training needs of teachers to ascertain their ICT comfort level, implement minimum training standards, put in place training plans and establish necessary mechanisms for effective monitoring of training results. For the institutions to be ready pedagogically, they must finish compatibility assessment of ICT with the current philosophy of learning, a proper scrutiny of different opportunities of including ICT into TVET system, an assessment of the technological proficiency requirements for teachers and learners, making sure that ICT meets the educational needs of learners, and assurance that teachers are competent to facilitate ICT-mediated learning. On the other hands, Technical readiness focuses on matters related to infrastructural requirements for effective ICT integration into TVET. To determine the technical readiness of an organization, the following questions should be answered; “Has an overview of existing technologies been established? How well does the current technological infrastructure meet the basic requirements for coordinating ICT integration in terms of connectivity, educational software, systems maintenance and staff training? Is it necessary to develop a plan for a new technological infrastructure? Has the existence of technological support systems been communicated to all key stakeholders” (Kotsik et al., 2009, pp. 180-181).
Prospects and Challenges of ICT Integration
The importance of integrating ICT into various fields of education and training has been a point of discussion by educational researchers (Gulbahar, 2007), because different sectors of the economy such as finance, and other professional development sectors have been benefiting from it for decades. As Know-how and education have a great influence on the development of the country, integration of ICT into education system holds a lot of benefits for a nation. The
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authors emphasized that ICT in education will undoubtedly help to reduce poverty as it aims to provide skilled and qualified workers who are well prepared to meet the needs of the labor market thus improving their earning capacities which without iota of doubt, will impact positively on their living standards. The advent of broadband communication services; the telecommunications with the use of computer and current advancement in the field of communication protocol through World Wide Web (WWW) have drastically changed the world scenario of business, commerce, education, research, governance, entertainment and various aspect of economic activity (Basu & Majumdar, 2009).
UNESCO also continues to put more emphasizes on integration of ICT into TVET system.
This is premised on the opinion that technology does not only help learners learn things better, but also to learn better things (Roschelle, Pea, Hoadley, Gordin, & Means, 2000), and that better learning will not only come from finding better ways for teachers to instruct but, from giving the learners better opportunities to construct (Harel & Papert, 1990). Furthermore, in an increasing world of technology, ICT makes individuals in all walks of life to look for, evaluate, use and create information effectively and efficiently to achieve their personal, social, occupational and educational goals (UNESCO, 2008).
Furthermore, Information and Communication Technology is making meaningful changes in society; it is influencing all aspects of life including school system. This is because it provides both students and teachers with relevant skills as well as opportunities in adapting different learning and teaching methods which in fact makes it more prospective thus forcing schools to competently respond (Mikre, 2011); “emerging technologies have brought about innovation and flexibility in instructional delivery systems resulting in improved online and distributed learning, mobile computing and learning, engagement in multimedia instruction, use of wireless communication, and an increase in interactive and collaborative instructional tools” (Nworie &
Haughton, 2008, p. 53).
According to Tinio (2002), integrating ICT into education system will yield benefits such as greater access and improved quality education especially in developing countries. Tinio further states the potentials of ICT in education as follows: ICT greatly facilitates the process of acquiring knowledge and its absorption, providing developing countries new opportunities to enhance educational systems, improves policy formulation and execution, and broaden the range of opportunities for business and the poor. Among the difficulties face by the poor and so many other
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people who live in the developing countries is the isolation from education which with successful integration of ICT into TVET system can become a history within a short while (Mikre, 2011).
ICT has modernized the way people work today and is now on the transformation process of the education systems (Watson, 2001). Consequently, products of educational systems that are glued on the seats of yesterday’s training methods may not be effective and productive in this modern generation. This indeed is enough a justification for ICT integration into TVET system to gain a global recognition and deserved attention. The reason being, ICT’s roles in attaining some of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) such as achievement of universal primary education by the year 2015 as well as eradication of extreme hunger and poverty are indisputable facts. Kofi Anan, the former United Nations Secretary General, one of his speeches says, for the world to attain the goal of Universal Primary Education by the year 2015; we must ensure that information and communication technologies open up the door of education systems across the globe (Mikre, 2011). This shows an unabated demand and important roles of ICT in today’s education system.
“Even though ICT plays significant roles in representing equalization strategy for developing countries, the reality of the digital divide- the gap between those who have access to, and control technology and those who do not, make a huge difference in the use of ICT. This means, the introduction and integration of ICT at different levels and into various types of education is the most challenging undertaking. Failure to meet the challenges would mean a further widening of the knowledge gap and deepening of existing economic and social inequalities among the developed and the developing countries”
(Mikre, 2011,p. 2).
Another notable challenge for integrating ICT into TVET system is the differences of views between academics and the students. Experience has shown that teachers’ intention for introducing ICT into TVET is to further student’s education and get them well prepared for workforce readiness; On the contrary, students view technology as a source of entertainment.
Together with this and other factors make the use of ICT as an effective instructional tool to a diverse group of students a night mere. Young (2005) argues that, the true question that business educators face is not the question about whether to integrate ICT, but how can ICT be integrated in the most possible effective manner. In the opinion of Ertmer (1999), there are two basic barriers to integrating ICT into TVET system, which he describes as first-order and second-order barriers:
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First-order barriers to technology integration are described as being extrinsic to teachers and include lack of access to computers and software, insufficient time to plan instruction, and inadequate technical and administrative support. Second-order barriers are intrinsic to teachers and include beliefs about teaching, beliefs about computers, established classroom practices, and unwillingness to change (Ertmer, 1999, p.48).
Zirkle (2002) shares a similar concept but with focus on institutional challenges to ICT integration which have been documented in literature. Zirkle identified the following as some of the institutional barriers:
Lack of equipment and support
Difficulties in scheduling
Lack of adequate resources
High cost of programme development
Instructional difficulties
Difficulties in recruiting qualified instructors
Difficulties in maintaining reliable technical assistance and support
Finally, the process of coming up with ICT-mediated learning materials for TVET has been slowed compared to that of the general education sector cause of which may be attributed to lack of wide variety of occupational specific software in TVET. “Specifically, technology applications used in various occupational fields are not available to educators” (Allen, Walker, & Morehead 1999, p. 6).
ICT as an Instructional Tool in TVET
Information Communication Technology in these modern times is revolutionizing education by bringing it ever closer and making it more accessible. Despite this significant role ICT plays in girding TVET, yet there is paucity of literature and research regarding its integration into the TVET system.
According to Ime (1998), there are different purposes for using ICT application in adult education some of which are discussed below:
Technology as Curriculum
The focus of using technology as curriculum is to build ICT literacy skills for learners, which is divided into two sets: The first is common ICT literacy skills such as keyboarding, word processing, using databases, using spreadsheets, desktop publishing and using the Internet for
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research and communication. The second ICT skill sets include possession of occupationally precise ICT literacy skills such as: the ability to use a machine tool that uses programs to automatically execute a series of machining operations otherwise referred to as (CNC) equipment and operate them with digital system controls (Wohleb, 2011).
Technology as a Complement to Instruction
Using ICT to complement instruction would mean, creating opportunities to put into practice, skills taught and intensify learning by working with specific software applications (Kasworm & Londoner, 2000). Mostly in TVET, at the beginning stage of training, simulators are used for safety purpose.
Technology as an Instructional Tool
Despite years of research on education, getting clear picture to determine how people
Despite years of research on education, getting clear picture to determine how people