Trends in the use of ICT in Asia and the Pacific May 29, 2010

The 90 ICT projects in education in the database provide the focus for this analysis, as all too clearly, they show how countries in the region are at different stages of development in this area. Basically, countries in the region can be roughly categorized into three types: those which are already integrating the use of ICT into the education systems; those which are starting to apply and test various strategies; and those which have just begun and are more concerned with ICT infrastructure and connectivity installation. Needless to say, there are countries, especially in the Pacific, which have not started at all.

1. Advanced countries (integrating ICT into the education system)

The countries at the advanced stage include Australia, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore. What are the characteristics of these countries as far as ICT use is concerned? In terms of connectivity and ICT penetration, almost all classrooms have been equipped with computers and other ICTs; have a high student/computer ratio; and have a high level of Internet access to all schools – South Korean schools, for example, have universal access to Internet. In terms of ICT policy, their ministries of education have formulated a national ICT policy in education, as well as a master plan to implement policies, with provision of adequate budgets to ensure effectiveness. As far as the use of ICT in teaching/learning is concerned, all of these countries have revised their curriculum to ensure that ICT becomes integral nationwide. Furthermore, the delivery of education is increasingly online, with e-Learning greatly facilitated by wide access to the Internet and connectivity.

Professional development also forms a major part of the ICT programme in the advanced countries, with incentives offered for regular activities training educators, administrators, headmasters and teachers, both in-service and pre-service. Like e-Learning, the delivery of teacher training is rapidly going online, going beyond training on computer literacy to aid genuine integration of ICT in the curriculum and in the teaching of various subjects. Training courses also develop the teachers’ skills in putting their classroom online; developing websites, participating in SchoolNet; in communicating and participating in professional electronic discussions, teleconferencing, and telecollaboration. The main concern of teacher training is to develop criteria, standards and benchmarks for beginning and existing teachers to underpin effective use of ICT in curriculum practice. These countries are also far ahead in terms of evaluation, monitoring and in the development of indicators to measure the impact of ICT use in education.

With the basic concerns of ICT penetration and connectivity out of the way, fresh challenges arise, including: 1) improving and strengthening online learning; 2) making Internet access and hardware/software replacement more affordable; 3) upgrading connectivity and Internet connection by making broadband more widely available; making ICT more affordable, available nationwide, and better managed; 4) further improving and enhancing the skills of teachers in integrating the use of ICT in various subjects; 5) more training on the use of the Internet (South Korea); 5) development of local software; 6) digital rights management and copyright issues; 6) promoting equity (while the ratio of students-to-computers in Australia is extremely good, inequalities exist, particularly with respect to indigenous Australians and those in rural and isolated areas); 7) solving technical support problems; and 8) developing and refining indicators and conducting more evaluative studies and research.

The database in the ICT for Education website includes 17 countries in the region which have started to use ICT in education. It can be seen that in Australia, ICT has become fully integrated within the primary school teaching of English, Mathematics, Science, the Arts, Health and Physical Education, Languages, Society and the Environment. In secondary schools, ICT is either taught as a separate subject or is also integrated into the different subjects. Teacher training is ongoing and each teacher is provided with a notebook for ease of use. Various government budgets have been allocated for different projects to provide computers to remote areas; to make e-learning more accessible in secondary schools; to provide grants to government schools supporting ICT; or to provide free or reasonable access to the Internet, videoconferencing and satellite television.

In South Korea, as of April 2001, all schools have access to the Internet, with free access to the Internet until 2005. Furthermore, the computer/student ratio is high, with an average of 10 students per PC at primary school; 7 students per computer in middle school and 5 students per computer in high schools. All classrooms are fully equipped, most with multimedia. ICT is integrated into the curriculum, with 10-20% usage of ICT in every subject aimed at enhancing higher order thinking skills. Training of educators is an ongoing and regular activity where 33% of teachers are trained annually with teacher ICT literacy certification.

2. Countries with national ICT policies and master plans, applying and testing various strategies but not fully integrating ICT within education

These countries include China, Thailand, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines Indonesia and India. Even among these countries, there remain variations. Common features are: all have both developed national ICT policies in education, and established goals and objectives in introducing ICT in various aspects of education, from teacher training to teaching/learning. Most policy goals are linked with overall national ICT policies – that is, to introduce ICT in education in order to contribute to the knowledge society for economic development; fostering creative industrial manpower; construction of total performance support systems, bridging the digital divide and promoting equity in access, etc. The more micro-oriented goals deal with the improvement of the teaching and learning process; to produce students who are confident, creative and productive users of new technologies; to learn how to use ICTs as enabling tools to access information and gain knowledge; to link all educational institutions to the wealth of resources that are online; and to use ICT for distance education for all citizens, regardless of age, profession, distance or geography.

Connectivity and ICT penetration is growing, but not yet to the level of the more advanced countries. In Thailand, only 22.5% of secondary schools and 1.19% of the primary schools are connected to the Internet; while the ratio of PCs per school at the secondary level is 24, and at the primary level it is only 2. Out of 358,781 primary school teachers, 71,442 have been trained and out of 125,983 secondary school teachers, 25,000: in short, only around 21% of the teachers have received training to date. In the Philippines, 81% of the schools has no access to the Internet.
As far as integration of ICT use in the curriculum and in teaching/learning, experiences also vary. While there have been efforts to integrate the use of ICT in the teaching of certain subjects (as in the case of Malaysia, China and Japan), efforts are isolated and have not yet reached systematic nationwide proportions. Generally, teachers are using ICT mostly for word processing, for presentations and for spreadsheets. It is also usually introduced as one component or as a class period within a subject area, rather than becoming actually infused within lessons. In the Philippines, a report pointed out that currently, ICT is not integrated at all into textbooks. In India, ICT is usually taught as a separate subject, with ICT education currently being introduced through a multi-layered approach. First, ICT is integrated in textbooks for computer subjects such as Introduction to Computer Science, Informatics Practices, and ICT Systems. Similarly, ICT is used in face-to-face learning, but is not yet integrated into textbooks of specific subjects. In Thailand, ICT is used for many purposes, such as for word processing, to write and present students’ work; using a spreadsheet to enter data collected in investigations, creating charts and interpreting the results; creating databases as part of investigations; using hypermedia to write, lay out and present work for publication on the Internet; and using the Internet and CD-ROMs in research and investigation. But to what extent and how widespread these functions are practiced is another issue.

The same is true for professional development and teacher training. The majority of teachers being trained on ICT are being trained in computer literacy. Training on the use of ICT for teaching specific subjects has begun, but is not yet fully systematic. Most of these countries offer pre-service and in-service training. In the Philippines, most teacher training institutions offer computer education as a required course. Usually, public schools send a few teachers to computer literacy training, who would then pass on their learning through peer teaching. Private schools usually hire ICT service providers to give training to their teachers. Very often also, only selected teachers are given priority attention – those teaching English, Science, and Mathematics. Most of these countries are also being helped by the private sector in the training of teachers. Intel, IBM, Microsoft and Coca Cola have all funded massive teacher training in India, the Philippines, Thailand and Malaysia, among others.

With regard to online learning, these countries are still in their infancy. Only Malaysia has started to launch numerous projects promoting online learning, both in-school and out-of-school. However, SchoolNets are becoming popular in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and to a lesser extent, the Philippines. Needless to say, indicators and performance benchmarks are almost non-existent in these countries. Though some have undertaken surveys of the use of ICT in education, they focused mostly on quantitive, rather than qualitative aspects.

Many problems still plague countries in this phase of development, including:

• Accessibility and affordability (high cost of Internet connection, etc.)
• Integration of ICTs in the curriculum
• Shortages of trained manpower
• Teachers’ fear of the technology and lack of motivation;
• School principals’ closed mindset to and lack of appreciation of ICT in education;
• Budget constraints – most investment being for hardware, rather than for improving teacher’s skills and content production
• Maintenance of ICT resources and lack of technical staff;
• Sustainability; and
• Limited availability of educational software and courseware.

3. Beginning countries, either with national policies, but not enough resources to implement their policies and work plans, or without policies, but running pilot ICT projects

These countries include Myanmar, Lao PDR, Viet Nam, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Maldives, Bhutan and the Pacific Islands, among others. While some have already developed their national policies, they do not have effective work plans, while others may not have a national policy, but ICT projects are already ongoing on a small scale. Whatever the case may be, all lack the budget to implement their policies and work plans, with infrastructure and ICT penetration as the main concern. In Lao PDR, a current project has begun with wiring some four or five schools. In Cambodia, the introduction of computers in a rural school is being helped through solar energy-run panels in order to reach an area without electricity. Many schools have received donated computers, often which are not functioning properly. In Viet Nam, the World Computers Exchange and SIEMENS have introduced a project that will equip many schools with second hand computers, while in the Solomon Islands and other Pacific islands, the main concern is to connect with e-mail and the Internet and to install telecommunications. Bangladesh has also announced that it has acquired 10,000 computers to equip schools, many of which are girls’ schools. An indicative example of ICT penetration in these countries is from Viet Nam, where statistics from studies reveal that only 2.59% of lower secondary school students and 11.52% of upper secondary school students are trained in ICT. Clearly, these countries still have a long way to go in terms of ICT accessibility and connectivity.

ICT use in schools and out-of-school is also in its infancy. ICT courses are often introduced as a separate offering, such as those in Indonesia and Viet Nam, rather than as an integral part of subject teaching. Sometimes, ICT is an extra-curricular or optional subject, while many have not really developed an adequate and satisfactory ICT curriculum even as a separate offering. Teacher training has just begun, mostly focusing on computer literacy in basic software such as Winword and Excel, PowerPoint and basic programming.

The private sector has also begun to facilitate or spur the use of ICT in education in these countries. Intel, IBM, Siemens and Coca Cola have made efforts in this area. Clearly, these countries require intensive help in policy and master plan development; in strengthening their infrastructure and connectivity; in teacher training and use of ICT in the classrooms. While the most common problems still relate to infrastructure and telecommunications development, further challenges include language difficulties (most ICT-related software and contents are in English), disparity in the accessibility of ICT between urban and rural areas; lack of motivation and technophobia among teachers; shortage of trained teachers; and the like.

Sepatah Kata May 6, 2009

KePadA ReKaN2 PeMbacA BloG ini,

Blog ini bertujuan mengajak kita semua untuk mengikuti perkembangan ilmu pengetahuan tentang dunia learning dan agribisnis terutama berkaitan dengan teknologi informasi.  Disamping itu ilmu pengetahuan harus diimbangi dengan keimanan dan ketaqwaan pada Allah SWT, agar bermanfaat bagi umat manusia. Oleh karena itu blog ini menyediakan Islamuna. 

Mengenai ilmu pengetahuan dan teknologi, blog ini mengkhususkan tentang perkembangan penerapan ICT (Information communication Technologies) dalam dunia pendidikan (e-learning) maupun dalam dunia pertanian (e-Agribusiness) baik dalam scope nasional, regional maupun global.

Islamuna membahas tentang bagaimana supaya kita menjadi muslim yang selalu menjaga keimanan dan ketaqwaan kepadaNya. Sebagai seorang muslim penulis berharap bisa menjadi hamba Nya yang memiliki ilmu Kauniyah (IPTEK) dan Qouliyah (IMTAQ) secara seimbang. Semoga….Amiin.

SaLaM PeNuLis,

My Article May 6, 2009

Percepatan pembangunan pertanian Indonesia dengan teknologi informasi

Oleh : Sutrisno Hadi Purnomo

 Seiring dengan kemajuan teknologi informasi dan komunikasi (TIK), pemanfaatan TIK seharusnya bisa membantu percepatan pembangunan sektor pertanian. Pada era globalisasi, pemanfaatan teknologi ini terutama penggunaan internet adalah suatu hal yang tidak bisa dihindari. Hal ini seiring pula dengan program pemerintah yang melalui Menkominfo Muhammad Nuh yang mentargetkan awal 2010 internet akan masuk seluruh desa sejumlah 71 ribu desa di Indonesia (Detiknews, 12 April 2009). Disamping itu departemen pertanian pun mempunyai program penerapan TIK melalui proyek yang disebut FEATI (Farmer Empowerment through Agricultural Technology and Information Project) yang didukung oleh IBRD (International Bank for Reconstruction and Development). Hal ini merupakan suatu sinergi yang harus segera ditangkap oleh stakeholder komunitas pertanian di negara kita baik oleh pemerintah, swasta maupun lembaga lain yang berkaitan.

Teknologi informasi dan komunikasi adalah relevan untuk beberapa strategi bagi pembangunan pertanian dan pedesaan, termasuk memperbesar akuntabilitas publik dan desentralisasi pelayanan yang bisa merespon kebutuhan orang-orang dikawasan pedesaan (Hafkin and Odame, 2002). Lebih lanjut Alex et.al. (2002) menambahkan bahwa revolusi teknologi informasi dan komunikasi saat ini memperluas media pengiriman informasi ke petani baik secara langsung maupun tidak langsung melalui para penyuluh teknis baik dari pemerintah maupun perusahaan agribisnis swasta.

 Saat ini sektor pertanian sedang berubah menjadi lebih kompetitif. Dalam situsi ekonomi global, pertanian di negara Asian termasuk Indonesia berkompetisi dengan pertanian dari segala penjuru dunia untuk memperebutkan pasar. Pasar menjadi semakin kompleks dan menjadikan negara-negara berkembang sulit bersaing dengan negara maju. Sebagian besar negara berkembang hanya mengandalkan keunggulan komparatif sumber daya alamnya, padahal negara maju sudah menggunakan keunggulan kompetitifnya. Salah satu syarat yang harus dipenuhi untuk berkompetisi di persaingan global adalah penerapan teknologi informasi dan komunikasi. Penerapan TIK dalam pertanian yang paling mendasar adalah teknis budidaya, proses pengolahan dan pemasaran.

Penerapan TIK dalam transfer ilmu pengetahuan dan teknologi saat ini dikemas dalam metode e-learning. Di negara kita, e-learning sudah mulai banyak digunakan terutama di dunia pendidikan terutama di perguruan tinggi. Di dunia bisnis, beberapa perusahaan publik dan swasta sudah menggunakannya bahkan pemerintah setiap tahun menyelenggarakan pemberian “The best award” bagi perusahaan yang sudah menggunakannya. Tercatat perusahaan besar seperti BNI, Bank Mandiri, BII, Indosat, Telkom, Garuda Indonesia dan beberapa perusahaan lainnya sudah menggunakan teknologi ini dalam training karyawannya (e-training). Salah satu faktor mengapa perusahaan-perusahaan ini menggunakan e-learning adalah diperolehnya banyak keuntungan sistem ini seperti efektifitas waktu dan biaya training.

Di negara Asia seperti Jepang, Korea Selatan dan Taiwan petani sudah menggunakan e-learning untuk menerima transfer teknologi dan informasi dari pemerintah maupun dari perusahaan swasta penyedia sarana produksi pertanian. Sedangkan di kawasan negara Asian seperti Malaysia, Thailand, Philipina sudah mulai mengadopsi sistem ini meskipun masih dalam tahap awal. Metode e-learning bisa dilakukan secara synchronous (langsung) dengan menggunakan chating, video conference streaming maupun kombinasi keduanya. Bisa juga dilakukan dengan ansynchronous (tidak langsung) seperti email, penyediaan materi yang bisa di download di website provider e-learning. Di Jepang, Korea dan Taiwan e-learning ini dilakukan dengan kelompok-kelompok tani  bisa berupa materi manajemen praktis, paket budidaya komoditas tertentu misalnya paket budidaya melon, budidaya ayam petelur, proses pengolahan papaya dan lain-lain.  Sedangkan informasi dan ramalan pasar selalu di update tiap hari di website provider e-learning, sehingga petani bisa mengatur masa panen dan tanamnya pada saat yang tepat.

Yang menjadi permasalahan adalah sudah siapkah petani kita menggunakan e-learning yang berbasis internet (e-petani). Mengingat mereka sebagian besar berada di pedesaan dan berpendidikan rendah. Hal ini sebenarnya juga merupakan stereotype negara-negara Asia yang maju, sebagian besar petani  mereka juga berada di pedesaan dan relatif lebih rendah pendidikan dibanding masyarakat kota. Namun mengapa mereka bisa mengatasinya ?. Hal ini disebabkan penggunaan internet ini hanyalah merupakan ketrampilan yang tidak sulit untuk dipelajari, seperti handphone yang saat ini digunakan hampir seluruh masyarakat kota maupun desa dengan berbagai strata pendidikan. Oleh karena itu tidak mengherankan kalau Microsoft dalam uji cobanya di CTC (Community Technology & Learning Center) di Desa Pasir Waru, Kecamatan Mancak, Kabupaten Serang, Propinsi Banten cukup diminati masyarakat disana.  CTC Mancak memberikan pelatihan keterampilan berkomputer pada petani di Desa Pasir Waru dan sekitarnya. Yang akhirnya menunjukkan secara langsung ilmu yang bisa didapatkan melalui computer atau lebih tepatnya ilmu yang bisa didapatkan dari internet. Informasi dari Detikinet.com (6 Juni 2008) memberikan beberapa ilustrasi dari para petani yang menggunakan internet. Pendi, seorang petani kelapa di Pasir Waru, mengaku menjalankan usaha pembuatan minyak kelapa dengan fermentasi basah setelah mempelajarinya di internet. Pak Entus, petani ini meminta anaknya untuk belajar ke CTC dan  mencari cara-cara beternak ikan lele. Dia bilang, “awalnya saya nggak langsung percaya. Saya lakukan studi banding ke wilayah lain yang telah sukses (mengembangkan ikan lele dumbo-red). Ternyata sama caranya dengan yang di internet” papar Pak Entus. Satu lagi, peternak kambing bernama Santari justru berani belajar komputer meskipun usianya sudah terbilang cukup tua. Lewat akses internet di CTC, Santari mengaku bisa mengetahui cara-cara menangani ternaknya yang bermasalah, misalnya terkena penyakit tertentu. Meski sudah bisa memanfaatkan komputer, Santari mengaku masih belum terbiasa. “Kalau saya sih (latihan komputer-red) paling satu bulan lah. Bahkan saya kalau pegang itu mouse-nya juga bergetar-getar, ” papar Santari.

            Ilustrasi diatas menggambarkan bahwa adopsi TIK ke petani bukanlah hal yang tidak mungkin untuk dilaksanakan saat ini. Hal ini menuntut keseriusan dan kerja keras stakeholder komunitas pertanian secara utuh. Oleh karena itu sepatutnyalah kita dukung bersama Menkominfo yang mencanangkan internet masuk desa awal 2010 dan Departemen Pertanian yang melaksanakan program FEATI untuk implementasi TIK bagi para petani (e-petani). Majulah petani Indonesia.

My Business May 6, 2009

Dibawah ini saya ingin memperkenalkan peluang bisnis barangkali tertarik.
Saya udah ikut menjadi member bisnis ini. Bisa di klik di link dibawah ini :
http://www.mandirikita.com/?id=aqilla

Bisnis ini seperti model MLM, caranya dengan mencari downline kita lewat internet. Pertama2 kita setor uang Rp 50 rb an ke 4 orang upline kita total 200 rb, sesudah itu kita mendapat website replika seperti saya ini. Setelah kita mendapat web replika, maka tugas kita selanjutnya adalah mencari downline kita. Agar supaya downline kita juga sama seperti kita setor 50rb x 4 upline termasuk ke rekening kita (oh ya rekeningnya Bank Mandiri ya). Kuncinya ya rajin mencari downline dengan menyebar link web replika kita begitu. Dari bisnis ini banyak yang sudah mendapatkan RATUSAN JUTA rupiah, hal ini tergantung usaha kita. Semua cara kerja, tanya jawab, kesaksian dan keterangan lain tersedia di website replika.