Module Assignment: Information Technology and Education

The Role of Information Technology in Education

Tutor: Dennis Sale

An assignment submitted by Ng Hwee Kiat

to the Division of Education The University of Sheffield

in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Education (Higher Education) Degree

7 April, 2023

The Role of Information Technology in Education

The 21st century has been called the Information Age. With the rapid proliferation of the

Internet and computer technology in the last few years, an information explosion has

pervaded our lives. Information Technology (IT) has dramatically transformed the

workplace, communications and commercial activities. It is only in education that the status

quo remains. The attention is now on the use or rather lack of use of IT in education.

Education practitioners have debated the merits and drawbacks of IT in education and it is

interesting that on this singular issue, there are totally diverging views from researchers and

visionaries. While Seymour Papert (1993, 1996), Nicholas Negroponte (1995), Bill Gates

(1996) and Perelman (1993) advocated the use of IT in education, Clifford Stoll (1995) &

Oppenheimer (1997) questioned the effectiveness of IT. Russell cited close to 250 research

reports, summaries and papers that concluded that IT in education made “no significant

difference” (Russell, 1997). At the same time reports abound with the effectiveness and

possibilities of IT in education (SPA 1996, OTA 1995a, OTA 1995b & Dearing 1997,

Chapter 13)

Despite all these controversial findings, it is inevitable that with the declining costs and

increased capabilities of IT, education will be changed in the coming years through IT and by

IT. There are still lingering questions regarding the use of IT in education such as: What role

can IT play in education and how can IT affect learning positively?

This paper will attempt to answer these questions by looking at IT and how education can be

affected positively and negatively by its use. Information Technology means different things

to different people. Some practitioners extend the scope of IT to include communication

networks and the Internet while others may restrict their definition to computer based

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technology. One definition for Information Technology as found on the World Wide Web

(WWW) is as follows:

Information Technology (IT) is a term for encompassing all forms of technology used to create, store, exchange, and use information in its various forms (business data, voice conversations, still images, motion pictures, multimedia presentations, and other forms, including those not yet conceived). Among other uses, IT includes both telephony and computer technology in the same word.

(http://whatis.com/it.htm)

I would like to take the view that the definition of information technology is not limited to

computer technology alone. The use of the word technology here encompasses all types of

information technology, including video, video-conferencing, audio and voice technologies,

satellite and broadcast technologies and any new and emerging technologies that support

learning.

Education is defined as the transference to others of knowledge and values accumulated by

humans, and the development of skills allowing students to integrate this knowledge and

those values into their lives. I would like to take the broad perspective that education and

learning takes place all the time through our daily experiences and even through reading

newspapers and watching television. Thus, education is not restricted to schools but also

occurs during work and play. However due to the limitations of this paper, I would like to

restrict education in this discussion to formal schooling biased towards the Singapore

context.

What are the attributes of Information Technology affecting Pedagogy?

The most obvious strength of IT is in data manipulation. It is able to perform data collection,

data storage, data processing, complex calculations, data display & presentation very well.

In relation to pedagogy this translates to customisation or personalisation of learning based

on individual needs. We are also able to get rapid feedback on performance, which is an

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important criterion for learning. Another result of this data manipulation is the availability of

simulation systems and virtual systems that allow the students to explore phenomena that

would be too expensive or impractical in the real world.

Another strength of IT is its consistency. Computers do not become bored, angry, tired,

irritated, hungry, impatient or error prone - all attributes of human fatigue and weakness.

Computers are also non-judgmental, non-personal and infinitely patient. This can help to

eliminate the problem of subjectivity in educational assessments and evaluations.

IT can overcome the barriers of distance and time resulting in “anytime, anywhere”

education where education can be delivered without the constraint of time and space. In

addition IT enables access to more resources through the World Wide Web (WWW) and CD-

ROMs.

With all its merits there are fears that IT would soon replace the teaching profession. The

above arguments showed that while IT is extremely good at undertaking routine functions, it

could not perform functions that require creativity or the ability to respond to complex or

unpredictable circumstances. It cannot evaluate values and ethics. It is unable to make

autonomous judgements or interpretations and it lacks interpersonal skills. And these are

important aspects of being a professional teacher! If we accept the idea of the teacher as a

professional is a Reflective Practitioner (Schön, 1983), then we have to accept that IT will

never be able to replace the teacher effectively. We should then look at how the strengths of

IT can be harnessed to improve the effectiveness of teaching & learning.

…

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What then is the role of IT in education?

There are 2 well-worn arguments for the use of IT in education; “one concerning the needs of

society and one concerning the need to foster the development of children’s minds”

(Underwood 1990, p. 5). The first argument is the preparation of students for working life in

a society that is increasingly IT oriented. However, due to the rapid change in IT, the

equipment and software that today's school students use would be quite different from those

they will use when they enter the work force! The second argument asserts that the use of IT

in education will introduce students and teachers to a new paradigm of learning where

information literacy, problem solving and knowledge transfer are valued far more than the

knowledge itself. I believe the second argument to be more acceptable to educational

practitioners.

In addition to the above arguments, IT can be a “powerful tool for helping teachers with all

the different parts of their job: enhancing instruction, simplifying administrative tasks, and

fostering professional growth activities” (OTA 1995, p. 54). From the student’s perspective,

the use of information technology “as a learning tool can make a measurable difference in

student achievement, attitude and interaction with teachers and other students” (SPA 1996, p.

1). It would be convenient to discuss the roles of IT in education under 4 categories as

follows: for access, for pedagogy, for learning and for administration.

IT as a Tool for Access

When used as a tool for access to learning, IT facilitates “anytime, anywhere” education.

There can be different degrees of this access (Caviedes, 1998) in the educational perspective.

At the simplest level, access can be local, i.e. same place at the same time. This can be in the

form of an electronic classroom of which the main technology drivers are multimedia

authoring tools, multimedia classroom technologies and CD-ROMs.

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At a more advanced level, access can be synchronous where learning takes place at different

places at the same time. The main technological drivers for synchronous access are the

WWW, videoconferencing and broadcast video.

The next level of access is asynchronous, i.e. at different places at different times. The main

technological drivers are interactive TV, groupware, e-mail, newsgroups and virtual worlds.

This is where distance education is holding its own and where most universities are looking

at in order to shore up declining enrolment.

In the arena of research, IT allows for faster access to more on-line resources such as the

World Wide Web and electronic libraries both within and outside the school. Much of the

research for this paper was done electronically supporting the case for the use of IT.

However, the WWW has resulted in anybody with a WWW access to be an information

provider instead of just an information consumer. The resulting information explosion

means that it would require more skill in locating, retrieving & evaluating resources from the

WWW due to the wide range in accuracy, reliability and value of the information (Harris,

1997).

The use of IT for access helps to facilitate the teacher’s communication and collaboration

with colleagues as well as people inside and outside the school system. This helps to open

the horizon as well as dispel the myth of teaching as being the second most private

occupation.

IT as a Tool for Pedagogy

When used for pedagogy, IT affects all aspects of education from curriculum planning,

curriculum development and curriculum delivery to assessment.

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Teachers usually spend considerable time preparing teaching materials and assignments.

When used for curriculum planning and development, IT helps to provide access to lesson

plans, lesson materials and resources. A good example of this can be found in Hewlett

Packard’s Education Web Site

(http://www.tmo.hp.com/tmo/iia/edcorner/English/index.html) which provides resources

such as interactive tutorials and experiments for electronics engineering educators. There are

many other such resources on the WWW. Teachers can also develop and share instructional

resources as well as support each other in the use of these materials through the use of

information and communications technology.

In the area of curriculum delivery, IT enables education be delivered world wide on CD-

ROM or over an Intranet directly to the individual desktop. This eliminates the cost of

travelling and classroom space resulting in virtual schools or colleges. Interactive learning

applications can be delivered on demand - where and when they are needed. Another benefit

of IT is its ability to accommodate individual working and learning styles, putting students in

control of their own time and learning processes. Interactive applications can be created to

simulate work, laboratory, or field environments that may be inaccessible for on-site training

demonstrations. Students can safely master skills before applying them in potentially

hazardous situations. With IT comes new delivery methods such as simulations, discussion

groups, email, presentation tools and diagnostic tools. Teaching can be paced to suit the

different needs, abilities, interests and backgrounds of students.

When used for assessment, IT can be used “at various levels ranging from the management

of the assessment information to a fully automated assessment system” (Mogey & Watt,

1996). The most obvious use of IT to assist the assessment process “is in the recording,

analysis, storage and management of results” (Mogey & Watt, 1996) which can significantly

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reduce the burden of administration. IT can be used to create a question bank that allows

students to be tested with different questions of the same standard. It becomes possible to

implement immediate marking and feedback with the use of IT – one of the rudiments for

effective use of assessment! Tests can now be conducted at the students’ convenience and

readiness. IT also facilitates easy analysis of results and enables the presentation of

information in different ways so that the needs of different audiences - students, parents,

teachers and managers - can be met.

IT as a Tool for Learning

Researchers have much to say on the effects of the use of IT on learning. Positive effects

such as stimulating the development of intellectual skills, showing greater spontaneous

interest in a learning activity, better attention span or concentration and promoting

cooperation among students (Bracewell & Laferriere, 1996) were observed.

When used for learning, IT affects all areas of the student’s learning experience - from what,

when and where the student learns, whom the student learns from and learns with as well as

how and why the student learns.

IT affects what students learn. With the information explosion, knowledge will be viewed

less and less as something that the students have to store inside their heads. Rather they will

need to learn information literacy - knowing where and how to find the information they

need. Simulation through the use of IT encourages analytical and divergent thinking with no

risk. The availability of groupware, email, discussion groups and the WWW widen the

options available to teachers and students. One of the aims of IT based education, as spelt

out in the Masterplan for Information Technology in Education by Singapore’s Ministry of

Education, is that

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pupils will develop competencies in accessing, analysing and applying information, and develop habits of independent learning. IT-based learning strategies will also seek to develop pupils' ability to think innovatively, to cooperate with one another and to make sound value judgements.

(MOE, 1997a)

IT affects where and when the student learns. With the advent of virtual colleges, IT

overcomes the limitations of time & space enabling the students to learn beyond the

stipulated classroom time and beyond the classroom. It offers the learner more control over

what, when and how they learn - the pre-requisites of open learning and distance learning. It

is particularly suited for adult continuing education where the working adult cannot afford

the rigidity of formal education.

IT affects how students learn. It helps students to be more active and independent learners,

taking charge of their own learning through direct exploration, expression and experience.

This promotes a constructivist or constructionist (Papert 1996, p. 47) view of learning, which

purports that learning happens best when it is self directed. “While a significant part of

learning certainly comes from teaching … a major measure comes from exploration, from

reinventing the wheel and finding out for oneself” (Negroponte 1995, p. 199). IT enables the

student to access information from other learning resources such as CD-ROMs and

interactive videos without having to depend on the teacher. Not everyone learns in the same

way or at the same pace. The effective use of IT helps in “making us more able to reach

children with different learning and cognitive styles” (Negroponte 1995, p. 198). This

accommodation of different learning styles helps to personalise learning for the students,

which can in turn lead to more effective learning than mass lecturing. With its visual and

auditory reinforcement of information and responsive feedback qualities, IT based learning

can significantly reduce the time required to master information (Bracewell & Laferriere,

1996). Difficult ideas can be visualised through the use of IT.

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IT affects whom the students learn from or with. Using the WWW, students can be

connected globally to collaborate on projects, learn from one another giving rise to

multicultural, multilingual, multimodal approaches to learning.

The use of IT adds the element of “edutainment” to education making learning more

enjoyable. This is evident from the deluge of multimedia edutainment software available

from all sources. IT affects why students learn and the attitudes and motivation for learning

“Students felt more successful in school, were more motivated to learn and had increased

self-confidence and self-esteem when using computer-based instruction” (SPA 1996). Pilot

projects in Singapore schools “reveal that the use of computers can motivate pupils to be

more interested in their studies. The brighter pupils used IT to go beyond curricular

objectives and become more independent learners. Less able pupils showed greater interest in

their studies and, encouraged by hands-on lessons, performed better” (Teo, 1997). “Student

attitude toward learning and student self-concept were both found to be increased

consistently in a technologically-rich environment across the studies” (SPA 1996). “Most

students show greater spontaneous interest in a learning activity that uses a new technology

than in the traditional approaches in class” (Bracewell & Laferriere, 1996).

IT as a Tool for Administration

Of all the various ways of using IT in education, perhaps the least debated and most obvious

is the productivity improvement when IT is used for educational administration. Few would

argue against the fact that IT helps to eliminate paper work and when properly coordinated

improves administrative workflow.

Email and workflow applications have been used to facilitate the effectiveness of

administration and communication within the school and with external bodies. The ready

access to online data and information can help to support effective decision-making.

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Tool, Tutor or Tutee

In addition to being used as a tool where it helps the student or teacher with their tasks, IT

can be used in supplemental roles such as in Intelligent Tutoring Systems (Shute & Psotka

1996) where it is being used as an intelligent substitute or supplemental tutor.

From another perspective, computers can be thought of as tutees where the students learns

through the process of teaching (or programming) the computer. Some examples are

Microworlds and Logo (Papert 1993, p. 20).

What are the types of IT based tools in Education?

Traditionally, IT based tools can be categorised into the following types: Instructional (skill

& drill), Revelatory (discovery), Conjectural (modeling & simulation) and Emancipatory

(labour saving) (Opie & Wellington 1997, pp. 6-9).

However, from a pedagogic perspective, the educational uses of IT can be grouped into

media categories based on all of Dewey’s categories of learning: Inquiry, Communication,

Construction and Expression (Bruce & Levin, 1997) as shown in Table 1.

Inquiry Communication Construction ExpressionTheory Building Document Preparation Control DrawingData Access Communication Robotics AnimationData Collection Collaborative Media CAD Multimedia CompositionData Analysis Teaching Media Drafting Design

Table 1 Educational Uses of IT based on Dewey’s Learning Categories

This classification allows us to directly see the role of IT based tools in the educational

perspective. It also suggests that IT can be used to support the whole range of learning.

However, it is interesting to note that the ubiquitious lecture and class tutorial has little or no

place in the educational uses of IT based on Dewey’s Learning Categories.

How will the use of IT affect teaching, schools and learning?

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With information readily and easily available, teaching and schools would have to change.

The teacher would no longer be regarded as the knowledge domain’s expert but would have

to fit into the role of guide, mentor and facilitator. The emphasis would then transit from the

teaching of the “knowledge that” and “knowledge how” to the teaching of the “knowledge

why” (Opie & Wellington 1997, pp. 12-15). Pedagogy is likely to become less didactic and

students would have to develop more self-regulation and accept greater responsibility and

control over their own learning. This will change the role of the teacher from ‘sage on the

stage to guide on the side’.

Schools would be returned to their traditional roles of forming values and character. To

balance the dehumanising aspects of IT, Landauer speculated that in the future technological

based society, “the “human”, “social”, and cultural aspects of education may be in greater

need of cultivation” (Landauer 1988, p. 23). This need can also be seen in Singapore’s

education system as the “The Desired Outcomes of Education” (MOE, 1998). This

recognises the need for a holistic view at education to balance the dehumanising aspects of

technology.

Students would have to learn to cope with the information explosion (MOE, 1997b).

Knowing a large number of facts about a subject becomes increasingly unimportant when

knowledge is changing so rapidly, while knowledge of techniques for selecting and

evaluating information become more important. Information Literacy would become a

necessary component of learning. This would comprise the fundamentals of doing research:

searching, retrieving, processing (including manipulation, analysis and interpretation),

recording and communicating. IT can remove the “inauthentic labour” in learning, such as

the chore of searching and processing data manually. Students can then be freed to

concentrate on the “authentic labour” of analysis, interpretation and use of data.

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What are the effects of IT in Education?

Clifford Stoll, in his book Silicon Snake Oil, is cynical that the advent of the information

superhighway brings with it better lifestyle. He worries about the electronic library replacing

his library next door (Stoll 1995, pp 174-216), the demise of social interaction (p. 137) and

the deterioration in the quality of education (pp. 116-154). I suspect Stoll had so much

difficulty accepting the use of IT is due in part to his trying to replace or find an equivalent

in all things traditional with all things electronic! IT is a tool to be used and not an end to

itself just like a hammer is a tool for carpentry. How well or how badly it is being used

reflects on the knowledge and skill of the user.

There are however, real effects of the use of IT in education. These include social effects,

cultural effects cognitive effects and psychological effects. Although these effects are related

to the roles of IT in education, they are beyond the scope of this paper and I shall only dwell

on each effect briefly.

Social effects - Entities from individuals to whole countries can participate, on almost equal

terms in any discussion. Inequalities caused by distance, disabilities or languages can be

reduced. There is no discrimination in terms of gender, race, age, etc. as can be seen in the

New Yorker classic (in Figure 1).

On the other hand, greater inequalities in knowledge and skills may arise due to the

differential access to IT among different groups of students. There is also the concern of the

opening up the classroom to the outside world via the Internet. This exposes the unwary

students to questionable or dangerous elements such as pornography.

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Figure 1. “On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.” (Steiner, 1993).

Another social effect is the elimination of the constraints of “space” and “time” through the

WWW. Students can take advantage of the flexibility in time and space of education. The

distinction between learning in school and outside of school would then be blurred. With the

increasing use of IT, there is also bound to be less human to human interaction resulting in

lower social competency.

Cognitive effects - Technology is developing so fast that a number of concepts that we think

we are familiar with will have to be re-thought. The traditional paradigm of education, in

which those who know impart knowledge to those who do not yet know, is becoming

obsolete, because information is increasing so fast that, in effect, everyone is becoming a

life-long learner. But while information is becoming more voluminous, it is also becoming

easier to store and retrieve. More and more environments are becoming learning situations.

We are becoming a society of ongoing learners (Perelman, 1993). The end result is that

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schools are no longer the “custodians” of knowledge and Perelman even questioned the

relevance of schools and the traditional textbook in today’s information rich culture

(Perelman, 1993). The roles of students, teachers and schools would have to change to

accommodate this development.

Cultural Effects - Social norms may help dictate where IT in education can go. Change is

threatening and difficult. There is a big inertia we all have in changing our practices and

habits, even when the technology is there to support new practices. It does help if there are

proactive national bodies or even if there is a committed government that sets the direction

for IT growth and development. Another important cultural effect of the use of IT is the

dominant and de-facto use of English. The computer and the WWW have been designed to

be used based on the English alphabet. It is only recently that other languages such as

Japanese, Chinese, Arabic, etc., have become more “technologically literate”, albeit

inefficiently.

Psychological effects - Among other things, the computer encourages an appreciation for

efficiency, measurability, objectivity, rationality, progress, and the accumulation and

manipulation of data - lots of data. These are all traits noted by computer advocates and their

critics. These traits may cause us to lose sight of the human side of learning, just as the drive

for productivity in the industrial revolution has turned workers into efficient operators. The

need for values and character education would become more and more important in such a

scenario.

Cost effects - Implementing an IT-based learning system requires time, training, and

technology, which are all costly items. On the other hand, IT based systems would eliminate

or reduce other expenses - such as lost work time, commuting, and books which would

actually lower students’ overall costs. There are, however, many other intangible benefits

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which has been described earlier in this paper. This is one balance sheet where the Return

On Investment would not be apparent immediately.

Despite all these possible side effects, there is no doubt that IT is here to stay and its effect

would be extended to a bigger scale as nations compete in the Information Age.

IT will play a critical role in fostering creative thinking, and the skills for lifelong learning. IT literacy has already become a basic competency in today's workplace. Everyone must feel comfortable with it in order to make his way in the 21st century world. And a country cannot make the leap unless most of its citizens are IT-comfortable.

(Teo, 1998)

Conclusion

Looking at the future – Information Technology will be advanced to a state where true

personalisation of information delivery is possible. The education system will evolve to cater

to a wider range of cognitive styles, learning patterns and expressive behaviours

(Negroponte, 1995). Even then I do not foresee that IT will replace teachers completely.

Among all the development is the recognition that

computers cannot replace principals and teachers. Computers are tools for the principal, for teachers and for the students to enhance their work and facilitate learning.

(Teo, 1997)

There is also the recognition that human teachers are required to balance the dehumanising

aspects of IT. There are much that IT simply cannot achieve where the teacher hold his/her

own. Teachers better exercise judgment on values and worth (e.g. of original ideas).

Teachers are role models for children. Teachers’ involvement with students helps to develop

interpersonal skills. Teachers are creative and can develop new and better ways to teaching.

Teachers’ influences are often beyond intellectual knowledge and all of us can probably

remember a teacher who made a positive impact on our lives. Most educational practitioners

take pride in acknowledging that teaching, as a profession, is more an art than a science that

can be easily replaced by a computer. However, we have to accept that the teacher’s role

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would have to change to that of a mentor-coach instead of the bastion of knowledge.

Teachers would have to apply a holistic view of education to counter-balance the negative

effects of IT.

We also have to recognise that IT is not a panacea for the ills of education. It does not

automatically lead to more, better or cheaper learning. It does not compensate for poor

teaching. This is especially so when it is introduced to perpetuate traditional ways of

teaching and learning. In my previous job as a consultant in Computer Integrated

Manufacturing, I have learnt that when companies try to increase productivity by the use of

technology without a complete systems analysis, they will often end up with the same poor

results, only faster! Using IT as “a polished-up version of the old ways ... promotes to

greater heights their worst and most mechanical features” (Papert, 1996, p. 19).

It is becoming increasingly clear that technology in and of itself does not directly change teaching or learning. Rather, the critical element is how technology is incorporated into instruction.

(OTA 1995a, p. 57).

Information technology can definitely bring about a revolution in learning but it has to be

used in conjunction with a new understanding of learning and teaching. We have to look at

new ways of teaching and learning through IT. Sir John Daniel, Vice-Chancellor of the

Open University, in referring to successful universities, pointed out that “these universities

owe their success to technology. They owe it, however, to the new applications of technology

rather than to the applications of new technology” (Daniels, 1997). Without developing new

principles of teaching and learning for Information Technology, we would end up with T. S.

Eliot’s lamentation that with all the technological advances, we would still not be getting any

wiser:

Where is the wisdom lost in knowledge?Where is the knowledge lost in information?

(Eliot, 1948, p. 107)

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