Survey of Ict in the Cbbean1

7/29/2019 Survey of Ict in the Cbbean1

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Inormation orDeelopment Program

www.inoDe.org

An inf De PUBLICATION PREPARED BY:

Edmond Gaible, PDTe Natoma Group

ICT AND EDUCATION SERIES

SERIES EDITOR:Micael Trucano

A Summar Rprt Basd n16 Cuntr Survs: Anguilla,Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba,Barbads, British VirginIslands, Caman Islands,

Dminica, Grnada, Jamaica,Mntsrrat, St. Kitts and Nvis,St Lucia, St. Vincnt and th Grnadins, Trinidad and Tbag, Turks and CaicsIslands, U.S. Virgin Islands

SURvEY Of ICTAND EDUCATION

IN ThE CARIBBEANVoLUMe I: ReGIoNALTReNDS AND ANALySIS

+ MAINSTREAMING ICT and educatin Sris





Survey o ICT

and eduCaTIonIn The CarIbbeanVolume I: RegIonalTRends and analysIs

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a i d PubLICaTIon PrePared by:

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ICT and eduCaTIon SerIeS

SerIeS edITor:Micl Tc



©2009 The International Bank or Reconstruction and Development/The World Bank 1818 H Street NWWashington DC 20433Telephone: 202-473-1000Internet: www.worldbank.orgE-mail: [email protected]

All rights reserved

The ndings, interpretations and conclusions expressed herein are entirely those o the author(s) and do not necessarily refectthe view o info Dev, the Donors o info Dev, the International Bank or Reconstruction and Development/The World Bank andits aliated organizations, the Board o Executive Directors o the World Bank or the governments they represent. The World

Bank cannot guarantee the accuracy o the data included in this work. The boundaries, colors, denominations, and otherinormation shown on any map in this work do not imply on the part o the World Bank any judgment o the legal status o anyterritory or the endorsement or acceptance o such boundaries.

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Cover design by Patricia Hord Graphic Design, Inc.Typesetting by The Word Express, Inc.

T cit thi pbicti:Gaible, Edmond. 2008. Survey o ICT and Education in the Caribbean: A summary report, Based on 16 Country Surveys.Washington, DC: info Dev / World Bank. Available at hppt://www.inodev.org/en/Publication.441.html





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Caribbean Knowledge and Learning Network (CKLN) and E-Link Americas 30

UWIDEC Blended Learning Project 31

Caribbean Association or Distance and Open Learning (CARADOL) 32Virtual University o the Small States o the Commonwealth (VUSSC) 32

Chapter 5. Regional and national EMIS initiatives 35

Summary 35

Overview o EMIS in Caribbean SIDS 63

EMIS milestones in the Caribbean 37

Regional pilot projects 39

Chapter 6. Proles o selected projects 43

Project prole HEAR rust National raining Agency (HEAR rust/NA), Jamaica 43

Project prole VOIP elephone Network, US Virgin Islands 45

Project prole School o omorrow, Aruba 46

Project prole Eduech 2000, Barbados 47

Chapter 7. Conclusion 55

Key observations 55

Re-assessing the potential o curriculum integration 56

Works Consulted 59

Glossary 65



ABHI Antigua and Barbuda Hospitality raining Institute ABII Antigua and Barbuda International Institute o echnology ADSL Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (also DSL)BSSEE Barbados Secondary School Entrance ExamsBVI HS British Virgin Islands High SchoolC & W Cable and Wireless CorporationCAI Computer-assisted InstructionCAPE Caribbean Advanced Prociency ExaminationCARADOL Caribbean Association or Distance and Open Learning CARICOM Caribbean Community CASE College o Agriculture, Science and EducationCDB Caribbean Development Bank CIC Community Inormation CenterCKLN Caribbean Knowledge and Learning Network CMC Community Media CenterCOL Commonwealth o Learning COS Commercial O-the-Shel CREMIS Caribbean Regional Education Management Inormation SystemCSEC Caribbean Secondary Education CerticateCUPIDE Caribbean Universities Project or Integrated Distance EducationCXC Caribbean Examination Council

DBMS Database Management SystemDE Distance EducationDFID Department or International DevelopmentDOE Department o EducationECCB Eastern Caribbean Central Bank EDF European Development FundEEC Education Evaluation CenterEFA Education For AllELJAM e-Learning Jamaica EMIS Education Management Inormation SystemsERC Education echnology Resource CentreFCC Federal Communication CommissionGCE General Certicate o Education

GeSCI Global e-Schools InitiativeGIS Geographic Inormation SystemGOB Government o BarbadosGER Gross Enrolment RatioGZ Deutsche Gesellschat ür echnische Zusammenarbeit GmbHHDI Human Development Index (UNDP)HEAR rust/NA Te Human Employment and Resource raining rust/National raining Agency HLSCC H. Lavity Stoutt Community CollegeICCI International College o the Cayman Islands

Acronyms

acr



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ICDL International ComputerDriving LicensesIC Inormation and Communications and echnology IDB InterAmerican Development Bank IDRC International Development Research CentreIGCSE International General Certicate o Education

IEARN International Education and Resource Network IP Internet ProtocolIPA Pedagogical Institute o Aruba ISENES International Society or echnology in Education National Education echnology

StandardsI Inormation echnology *

IALIC Improving eaching and Learning in the Cayman Islands JCSEF Jamaica Computer Society Education Foundation JSAS Jamaica School Administration Sotware JSEP Job Skills Education ProgramLAN Local Area Network LDC Least Developed Country LRC Learning Resource CenterLMS Learning Management SystemMI Massachusetts Institute o echnology MOE Ministry o EducationMOE Barbados Ministry o Education, Youth Aairs and SportsMOEY Ministry o Education and Youth (Jamaica)MOEYC Ministry o Education, Youth and Culture (Jamaica)MOEYS Ministry o Education, Youth, and SportsNCU Northern Caribbean University NIHES National Institute o Higher Education, Science and echnology NHP New Horizons ProjectNQR National Qualications RegisterOAS Organization o American States

OCAD Ontario College o Art and DesignOCW Open CourseWare ProjectODL Open and Distance Learning OECS Organisation o Eastern Caribbean StatesOER Open Education ResourceOERU OECS Education Reorm UnitOISE Ontario Institute or Studies in EducationOLPC One Laptop Per ChildPBL Project-based Learning PBX Private Branch ExchangePDU Proessional Development UnitPSEP Primary Education Support ProjectPM Perormance Management ool

PPP Pillars or Partnership and Progress: Te OECS Education Reorm Strategy 2010PPMR Project Perormance Monitoring ReportPA Parent eachers Association

* While the acronym “ICT” is the term o art used most commonly among do-nor and development agencies, MOEs and other educational institutions in theCaribbean (and elsewhere) use “IT,” especially in relation to curricula, exams,departments within ministries, and technology teachers. To the extent pos-sible, IT will be used similarly in this report. ICT will be used more generally.



acr ii

SALCC Sir Arthur Lewis Community CollegeSASI School Administrative Student InormationSBA School-based AssessmentSEMP Secondary Education Modernization ProgramSEAR Servicio di elecomunicación di Aruba

SIDS Small Island Developing StatesSIF Schools Interoperability Framework SIFA Schools Interoperability Framework AssociationSIES M2 Second Inormation echnology in Education Study: Module 2 reportSJPP Samuel Jackman Prescod PolytechnicSMU St. Mathews University CO otal Cost o OwnershipIMS raining Inormation Management SystemLI ertiary Level InstitutionPD eacher Proessional DevelopmentVE echnical and Vocational Education and raining UCCI University College o the Cayman IslandsUNDP United Nations Development Program)UNICEF United Nations Children’s FundUNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientic and Cultural OrganizationUS United States o America USAC Universal Service Administration Company USAID United States Agency or International DevelopmentUSED United States Department o EducationUech University o echnology UVI University o the Virgin IslandsUWI University o the West IndiesUWIDEC University o the West Indies Distance Education CentreUWISCS UWI School o Continuing StudiesVIDE US Virgin Islands Department o Education

VOIP Voice Over Internet ProtocolVSA Very Small Aperture erminalVC Video teleconerenceVUSSC Virtual University o the Small States o the Commonwealth

WAN Wide Area Network

Please note that a glossary o technology-related and educational terms appears at the end o this volume.



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Te ollowing limitations should be noted:

Te data presented in the individual■ Country Reports should be regarded as illustrative ratherthan exhaustive. Tis Survey was not an exercisein primary data collection. Te guidelines givento country researchers regarding report length

were deliberate in order to ensure a ocus on themore salient inormation and to enable thecompletion o the project within the establishedtime rame and the available resources.Focus on regional trends and national proles■

have no doubt ailed to identiy eectivesmall-scale projects. Review methodology ocused on secondary research and on interviews

with respondents in positions that enabled themto knowledgeably discuss system-wide aspects o Inormation and Communications echnology (IC) in schools and education systems, andrecent or signicant government projects andprograms.

Consideration o the cost eectiveness o IC■

use in education has not been undertaken in thecourse o the Survey . While such analysis iscritical to understand decision-making especially in relation to opportunity costs, this analysis isbeyond the scope outlined or the Survey .Te main ocus o research or the■ Survey hasbeen the use o IC use in primary and second-ary education, with additional investigation o

IC use in tertiary, vocational, and non-ormaleducation. Many important aspects o the use o IC in schools and in other learning-relatedcontexts have not been addressed in the Survey.Tese include topics that cover services orspecial-needs students, assistive technologies,and providing IC access to isolated andvulnerable populations, among others.IC use in education is at a particularly dynamic■

stage in the Caribbean, which means that thereare new developments and announcementshappening on a daily basis. Tereore, thesereports need to be seen as “snapshots” that werecurrent at the time they were taken; it isexpected that specic acts and gures presentedin the Country Reports may become dated very quickly.It is anticipated that these reports will serve as■

the building block or an on-line database that will be updated collaboratively over time, basedon additional research and eedback received

through the infoDev web site. It is expected thatindividual Country Reports will be updated in aniterative process over time based on additionalresearch and eedback received through theinoDev web site. For more inormation, and tosuggest modications to individual Country Reports , please see www.inodev.org/ict4edu-Caribbean.

Limitations o this report

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Many Caribbean countries, in addition, comprisearchipelagos or parts o archipelagos, meaning thattheir populations are distributed on several islands,requently with disparities o wealth and opportu-nity among them.

Itiw spts

Te ollowing people responded generously torequests or interviews regarding IC in educationin the Caribbean, and or review o the country proles that appear in Volume 2 o the Survey.

Cathy Augier-Gill■

Ministry o Education, Human ResourceDevelopment, Youth and SportsSt. Lucia

Worrell Brooks■

Deputy Principal, Curriculum Albena Lake-Hodge Comprehensive School Anguilla

Leo Cato■

Education Ocer, IMinistry o EducationGrenada

Albert Corcho■

Principal, arrant High School Jamaica

Jacqueline Cousins■

Assistant Chie Education OcerMedia Services UnitMinistry o Education and Youth

Jamaica

Averill Craword■

Chie Executive Ocer / Project Managere-Learning Jamaica

Jamaica

Susan Dougan■

Chie Education OcerMinistry o Education, Youth and SportsSt. Vincent and the Grenadines

Abraham Durand■

Director, IC DivisionMinistry o EducationDominica

Doristeen Etino ■

Assistant Director o EducationMinistry o Education

Antigua and Barbuda

Chris Gilbert■

Ministry o Education Jamaica

Soila M. Gomez-Vries■

Project leader, ICMinistry o Education and Labor

Aruba

Kathleen Greenaway ■

Director o EducationMinistry o Education and LabourMontserrat

Hon. Girlyn Miguel■

Minister o Education, Youth, and SportsSt. Vincent and the Grenadines

Hon. Dr. Carlton Mills■

Minister o Education, Youth, Sports and

CultureMinistry o Educationurks and Caicos Islands

Quinton Morton■

Director EMISMinistry o EducationSt. Kitts and Nevis

Marlon Narcisse■

Manager, I UnitMinistry o Education, Human ResourceDevelopment Youth and Sports

St. Lucia

Robert Phillips■

Education Specialiste-Learning Jamaica

Jamaica



Prjct bckr xiii

Keith Ramlakhan■

Education Ocer or Curriculum andechnology Ministry o Educationrinidad and obago

Mark Ray ■

Program DirectorEducation Sector Enhancement Program,Ministry o EducationBarbados

Dawn Reid■

Education PlannerDepartment o Education

Anguilla

Matthew Richardson■

Sr. Systems EngineerDepartment o I and E-Government Services

Anguilla

Richard Robinson■

Education PlannerMinistry o Educationurks and Caicos Islands

Lorna Rowe■

Executive Assistant to the CEOe-Learning Jamaica

Jamaica

Ilonka N. Sjak-Shie■

Founder, School o omorrow Pedagogical Institute o Aruba

Aruba

yrone Smith■

Education Ocer (IC)Department o EducationBritish Virgin Islands

Clinton Stapleton■

Directorerritorial Oce o Instructional echnology Department o EducationUS Virgin Islands

Hassan Syed■

PresidentUniversity College Cayman IslandsCayman Islands

Denzil West■

Director or Government Inormation SystemsMinistry o FinanceDominica



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8 srv ICT ecti i th Cribb – V I: Ri Tr ai

Caribbean IC capacity overall, current levels o implementation in schools are signicant, as is theirimpact on the development o at least vocational-level IC competencies.

Th ri cti virt Access to education within the region increasedduring the 1990s and ater, due to substantial eort.Universal primary education has largely beenachieved; matriculation to secondary schoolcontinues to improve, and exceeds 90 percent in

Aruba, Barbados, the British Virgin Islands, the USVirgin Islands, and other countries.7 At the primary level, eorts have been made in many countries toaddress antiquated acilities and shortages o trainedor certied aculty. Management o educationalinormation, while critical to systemic improvement,remains challenging.

Although secondary enrolment is increasing,secondary completion continues to be an issue inmany countries. In Jamaica, 20 percent o studentsleave school ollowing completion o grade 9, whileone in three students completing grade 11 do nottake CXC exams.

As implied in the preponderance o the region’seducation plans and strategies, the quality o instruction is not uniormly high, and instructionremains weakly linked to higher education, national

cultures, and the globalizing economy. Viewed interms o the CXC CSEC exams—the yardstick acknowledged at least implicitly by both schoolsand students—the eectiveness o instruction acrossthe region is moderate at best, and may be declin-ing. In 2004, 69.5 percent o returned examsachieved grades I through III (passing), while in2005 49 percent o returned exams achieved thesegrades. With equivalent numbers o exams returned(29,119 in 2005; 30,069 in 2004), studentperormance declined signicantly in subjects suchas biology, chemistry, English, and to a lesser degreemathematics.

Student perormance in the I portion o the CSECexam, however, improved rom 42 to 62 percent inthe same period.

Th CXC IT xTe high-stakes CXC I exams, administered to5th- and 6th-orm students exert signicantinfuence on teaching and learning activities in

OECS countries; the CXC I exams are a primary determinant o educational uses o IC.

Te CXC stages two levels o examination: theCSEC or 5th-orm students (11 years o schooling)

and the Caribbean Advanced Prociency Examination (CAPE) or 6th-orm and community college students.

Te CSEC I syllabus is intended to “provide a coherent view o the signicance o inormation in a socio-economic context.” Te syllabus oerscertication via General Prociency and echnicalProciency exams. Te ormer, the GeneralProciency exam, is designed or candidates continu-ing with post-secondary studies, the echnicalProciency Exam is or candidates who will bepursuing entry-level employment. opics include:

Fundamentals o hardware and sotware1.Introduction to programming 2.

Applications and implications3.Productivity tools4.

Word processing 5.Spreadsheets6.Database management7.Inormation processing 8.Programming 9.

General-prociency candidates are examined on

topics 1–4 and 8–9; echnical-prociency candi-dates are examined on topics 1–7. Any o eightintroductory textbooks can be used to cover most o these topics, with additional texts required orprogramming in most instances.

In the School-based Assessment (SBA) o practicalskills or the echnical Prociency exam, studentsare assigned activities designed by their teachers;each activity is to be based on “a cohesive scenario”requiring the use o oce-productivity applicationsto import graphics, sort databases, generate reportsand perorm similar activities. opics suggested as

examples or these activities include school enrol-ment or calculation o sick days, analysis o accidentdata, analysis o data derived rom sports.

SBA or the General Prociency exam engagesstudents in the use o programming and inorma-tion-management skills to develop computer-based

Based on gross secondary enrolment reported or 2002–2003 (UNESCO,72006, Education or All Global Monitoring Report).



Ri tr 9

solutions to meaningul problems. imerame orthe SBA component is 35 hours distributed over a 25-week period. Suggested topics include educationgames and drill-and-practice activities, crop-rotationsystems, hotel-reservations systems, and expert

systems in medicine and agriculture, among others.

As noted previously, student perormance in theCSEC I exam improved markedly in 2005 whileperormance in most other subjects declined orremained stable. CXC states that improvement incomparison with 2004 scores occurred primarily inthe practical or hands-on section o the I exam.Declining perormance typically occurred in essay orlong-answer sections o the exam, while scores onmultiple-choice sections were unchanged.

Trtir ctiertiary education is in short supply in theCaribbean. Capacity on many islands is limited tocommunity colleges, teachers colleges, andUWIDEC learning centers. Including the 12learning centers and its three campuses, UWIannual enrollment is approximately 36,000 stu-dents, with 5,800 graduating per year. A highproportion o students completing higher educationdo so outside o the Caribbean. UWI andUWIDEC, however, meet the needs o working proessionals in many communities on many islands.

Ts i ICT iCi cti

IC use in the education systems o Caribbeancountries exhibits several shared characteristics:

IC in primary schools■

Some but not all primary schools have comput-ers with Internet access. Tese are mainly usedor skill building with educational sotware, andor the development o basic computing skills.

eachers may have some computer skills, butrarely have sucient access or PD to make useo IC to improve teaching and learning.Computers are both older and in need o maintenance.IC in secondary schools■

All or almost all secondary schools have com-puter labs with Internet access, however neitherthe number o computers nor Internet band-

width are adequate to meet student demand orI classes. Preerential access is given to upper-secondary students, and i resources are severely constrained access is apportioned based onstudent exam scores in disciplines such as math

and science. Both upper- and lower-secondary students use IC to prepare or the CSEC Iexam, with some upper-secondary students alsopreparing or the CAPE exams.

School systems deviate rom these general prolesby, or example, using cart-based laptop computersand wireless networks to provide IC access inclassrooms or by introducing alternative technolo-gies, such as the digital white boards used in the USVirgin Islands. Although these technologies andcongurations may support some teachers and theirclasses as they explore innovative approaches toteaching and learning, they will be used in mostinstances to support traditional curricula andpedagogies.

Tr i prir cr ctiComplementing the preceding snapshots are threetrends directly related to IC inrastructure andcapacity:

Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL)■

Internet connectivity (with no cost to schools)

In most primary and secondary schools withcomputer labs, student computers are connectedto the Internet, typically via broadband ADSL.In countries in which rame-relay methods havebeen the norm or connectivity such as Barbadosand St. Lucia, these systems are in the process o being replaced. In most instances, respondentsconsidered the data-transer speeds provided by

ADSL to be adequate. Concerns about thecapacity o ADSL connections center on mainsecondary schools, which can have severalcomputer labs and higher levels o Internet use.

ypically, costs o Internet connectivity are paidby the MOE to Cable & Wireless (C & W).School budgets are not aected by connectivity costs.8

While connectivity costs are not typically passed on to schools—and8 while MOEs themselves may receive discounted rates or school connectivity—communications and Internet costs in the Caribbean remain high, at least inpart because o lack o competition. By impeding economic development,investment in communications inrastructure, and ICT adoption, these highcosts and the prevalent anti-competitive environment negatively infuence theuse o ICT by teachers, students, and school leavers.












access to technology and to courses. Despitestudents’ perormance on exams, these eortstypically ail to develop a strong base o technol-ogy skill and use among students. Focus on theI curriculum, then, does not deliver the value

expected and at the same time limits use o potentially valuable technology resources tosupport student learning in other subjects.Focus on exam preparation in■

all curriculum areas As discussed in the Introduction to the Survey,the tendency among the region’s educationsystems to equate education with preparation orexams, and the CXC exams in particular, limitsthe overall perormance o education systemsand also limits the potential contributions o IC. Te skills that computers and the Internetbuild among the general public—centering ondiscovery, development and exchange o inormation, and more elaborate resources—arenot captured in national assessments as these arecurrently structured. Te mastery o acts and o specic skills that are assessed in national examsis not well supported by IC.Lack o (or ineective) technology-ocused ■

PD or subject teachers Pre-service and in-service teachers rarely receiveeective PD in relation to basic technology skills or in relation to using technology toimprove student learning. In some instances,

such as Eduech 2000 in Barbados, the technol-ogy-ocused PD program does not ensureteachers’ participation; separation o basic skillsand teaching-related uses o computers and theInternet into separate courses increases thenegative impact o this separation. More broadly,a region-wide lack o standards or teaching withtechnology hampers development o eectivePD.Few initiatives ocusing on■

technology integration Few ministries have undertaken signicanteorts to support integration o IC on either

systemic or individual levels. Te level o ICresources in most Caribbean education systemsis adequate to support individual teachers andstudents integrating technology on an ad hoc basis. Several simple steps, however, could betaken to increase support or the integration o IC suciently to enable enthusiastic teachersand students to take maximum advantage o theIC resources available to them.12

I teachers limit use o technology in schoolsMany respondents, including Chie EducationOcers, heads o I departments and others,identied challenges to IC integration thatcentered on the role and capacities o I teachers.

Tese include:

Resistance to reducing the importance o I■

classesLack o capacity or willingness to collaborate■

eectively with other teachersLack o amiliarity with active-learning pedago-■

giesHigh turnover■

Scheduling conficts and limited interaction■

among I teachers and aculty

One respondent also suggested that I teachers

tend to expropriate new hardware intended orIC integration, using that hardware in their Iclasses.

Issues surrounding hiring, training, and schedul-ing o I teachers compound several o thechallenges discussed here. Scheduling and overallcollaboration among I teachers and non-Iaculty is problematic, according to several respon-dents, even in situations where computer use isintended to support learning in specic subjects.I teachers conduct the classes in computer labs;non-I teachers may attend i they wish, but they

can also use the period or lesson preparation or inother ways. In the labs, I teachers typically support other curriculum areas by assigning students educational sotware in a particularsubject, and that may be linked to speciclearning objectives.

In addition to the issues surrounding the I-teachersta position identied above, respondents identi-ed related issues. Hiring and retaining skilled Iteachers is dicult. o meet personnel needs, Iteachers may be hired who lack IC skills andknowledge. In smaller countries, in particular, the

majority o I teachers are expatriates rom largerCaribbean countries.

The importance o the emergence o a cadre o teachers who have suc-12cessully pursued ICT integration is debatable: “Leaders” such as those cited(Singapore, Costa Rica) have eected educational change through systemictransormation. In the U.S., in contrast, the primary impetus or technology integration rom the 1990s to the present has been generated on the level oindividual teachers, schools and school districts rather than state educationsystems or the national Department o Education.



Ri tr 15

sti i rti t th cti virt Tis section outlines suggestions that nationalgovernments or regional organizations might take to

address challenges in relation to the educationalenvironment. Tese suggestions are linked to twointerrelated approaches to educational improvement:integration o technology across the curriculum andsupport or active-learning pedagogies.

Te sine qua non o educational transormation ando eective integration o IC into the curriculumis the coordinated review and revision o curricu-lum, assessment, and PD to support active-learning strategies and the use o IC. In countries where IC has had the highest impact in educa-tion, such as Costa Rica, Chile, and Singapore, the

introduction o computers and the Internet hasbeen one part o the re-ocusing o all pedagogicalcomponents. Tese technologies have beenadopted and even exploited by teachers precisely because they help those teachers guide studentstoward new learning objectives and towardproducing knowledge rather than re-producing knowledge.

Several o the suggestions in this section have thepotential to acilitate the shit o teaching andlearning away rom memorization and test prepara-tion, however their eectiveness is dependent on the

overall structure and eective unctioning o national education systems. At the point that such a shit becomes an explicit objective—as it has inBarbados, rinidad and obago, and the U.S. VirginIslands, among other countries—ministries o education should commit themselves to whole-clothreworking o the relationship o assessment,curricula and the proessional development o teachers. While such reorms would open many more possibilities or the eective use o IC inschools, those possibilities are best positioned asobjectives in the service o the more proound goalo the transormation o teaching and learning.

Development o comprehensive approaches tosupporting the use o IC in the service o educa-tional change is a complex and ar-reaching task. A ew o the many possibilities include:

Identiy best practices in PD■

Proessional development o teachers, in relationto technology use and all elements o the

teaching proession, requires long-term commit-ment o resources and activities. Eectiveness o PD increases when workshop ormats aredeemphasized in avor o cluster-based modelsand communities o practice that link teachers

with their peers, and when teachers are engagedin activities such as action research. o increasethe eectiveness o IC-ocused PD, ministrieso education—and teachers themselves—mustbe well inormed about successul models andprogram designs.Identiy and adopt national or region-wide■

standards or teaching with technology IC-ocused PD should rely on comprehensiveand well-ounded standards or teaching withtechnology. Such standards might be newly developed or use in the Caribbean or adoptedrom a pre-existing set such as InternationalSociety or echnology in Education NationalEducation echnology Standards (ISE NES).Development, review, and adoption o suchstandards should take place in concert withreview (and development o standards) or Iteachers.

In some countries, it may make more sense toestablish robust standards or all teachers’technology skills and to deemphasize the role o the I teacher; in countries with well-establishedI sta in schools, standards or other teachersmay be less ocused on technical aspects.

Develop and disseminate lesson plans■

for active learning Among the obstacles that teachers ace whenthey attempt to integrate technology intolessons are limited inormation about Web andother resources, poor understanding o goodinstructional design, lack o appropriateassessment tools, and diculties connecting student activities to the established curriculum.Proessionally developed lesson plans thataddress these and other concerns will channelthe use o IC toward support o activelearning.

(Such lesson plans should introduce simpleprojects with short timerames and limited useo IC. Te eectiveness o such resources isdirectly related to the availability o in-servicePD, mentoring, and other inputs.)Conduct regular national events that ■

highlight ICT innovation in schools Leadership is critical. MOEs must demonstratetheir commitments to specic approaches to the













gb tr i cti ICT 21

other issues. Education-specic IC policy may infuence budget allocations, options or ensuring the sustainability o school-based computing, oraculty roles and stang.

In response to the importance o policy, develop-ment agencies and donor organizations, along withregional alliances o national governments, havelaunched policy-acilitation initiatives. Teseinitiatives have taken the orm o regional work-shops, technical assistance and consultancies, anddevelopment or aggregation o resources.

Several organizations involved in supporting governments’ eorts to introduce IC in educationhave provided assistance with policy development.In 2006, World Links conducted a policy work-shop or representatives o seven Central Americancountries participating in World Links pilotprojects. An ICT-in-education toolkit was launchedby the IC in Education group at UNESCO-Bangkok via consultative needs-assessment among Southeast Asian governments in 2003. In responseto demand and need, the project has been ex-panded internationally through a partnership o UNESCO with infoDev. Development o theoolkit has coincided with drating o IC policiesin education by more than 10 Southeast Asiangovernments. Tis initiative has broader scope andresources, but is similar in objectives to the OERU

IC in education policy template, discussed in thesection, “Selected regional IC initiatives ineducation.”

IC-in-Education oolkit UNESCO / inoDev

www.inodev.org/en/Project.11.html www.ictinedtoolkit.org

Etta, Florence E. and Laurent Elder, Eds. 2005. At the crossroads: IC policy making in East Arica . East Arican Educational PublishersLtd. http://www.idrc.ca/openebooks/219-8/

Prcrt vi iProcurement o hardware and sotware is challeng-ing or education administrators in all countries.

Among the challenges to successul implementationo IC in schools, nancing and procurementmanagement and subsequent costs is supreme. Tissituation refects the broader trend toward under-unding o education. In the United States, or

example, computer purchases in school districts may be unded by the sale o bond issues approved by voters; retirement o the bonds, however, may notbe scheduled until long ater the computerspurchased with bond-based capital have become

obsolete. In other instances, education unding issimply too limited to enable IC purchases.

Leasing supports procurement based on periodicpartial payments, enabling education systems tound acquisitions based on current appropriations oroperating budgets, rather “booking” IC as a capitalexpense.

Governments—including school systems andministries o education—increasingly procurehardware and sotware under lease or lease-to-buy programs. Hardware vendors (e.g., AppleComputer, Dell, Hewlett-Packard Corporation)operate dedicated units providing nancial servicesor large-scale leasers in education and othersectors.

Dell Financial Serviceshttp://www.dellnancialservices.com/solutions/leasing_programs.asp

Apple Financial Services Education Financehttp://www.apple.com/education/nancing/

Tt ct wrhip CO is a nancial model that aggregates direct andindirect costs in relation to purchase o computerhardware, sotware, or any other capital item. In thepurchase o computers or an education system,CO would include projected costs o installation,maintenance, training, electricity, recycling, and soon. CO, then, can be contrasted with analysisbased on the cost o acquisition alone.

In the education sector, and in the IC or develop-ment eld overall, CO has gained currency in partas a response to the tendency o technology-project

stakeholders to ocus on acquisition costs inisolation and to ail to grapple with total projectcosts or requirements or sustainability. Recently,organizations such as Global e-Schools Initiative(GeSCI) and infoDev have begun development o resources or estimating CO. Countries such asNamibia have stipulated that their nancialprojections be based on CO in their IC policiesin education.





gb tr i cti ICT 23

IC-related curriculum design, teacher educationand PD, student assessment, and other compo-nents o the education system. Schools in Singaporehave discovered the need to adjust time-tabling,teacher roles, lab and classroom congurations, and

other actors infuencing the ways that IC isaccessed and used by students in order to approachthe kinds o gains in higher-order cognition that aretargeted. Among the outcomes o this discovery hasbeen the “teach less, learn more” program (intendedto replace approaches that could be labeled “one sizets all.”)

National grade-level examinations used or promo-tion, graduation, and matriculation defects teachers’classroom practices toward enhancing test results. Inresponse to this situation, school systems in Swedenand other countries that are introducing active-learning pedagogies requently choose to de-emphasize “high-stakes testing.”

Te Second Inormation echnology in EducationStudy: Module 2 report (SIES M2) documents174 examples o classroom pedagogical innovationsupported by the use o IC. But SIES M2 alsonds that systemic barriers—such as nationalexams and I curricula—commonly limit bothinnovation and the diusion o innovativepractices.

(It bears mentioning that resources, capacities, andchallenges shape the possibilities open to eacheducation system, and contribute to determining

which initiatives and practices are “best.” Incountries in which IC access and use are not ubiquitous, or example, barriers to using IC inschools are higher than in IC-rich countries, whilethe economic and social value o basic IC skillsmay be greater. In such circumstances, initiativessuch as using IC to deliver new learning resourcesor to provide introductory computer courses may bepractical and deensible rst steps.)

SIES M2 Case-study searchhttp://sitesm2.org/sitesm2_search

Singapore Ministry o Education: EduMallhttp://www.moe.gov.sg/edumall/index.htm

Education Commissions o the States(on trends and research in testing)http://www.ecs.org

Cbrtiv i prjctStudent-to-student online collaboration has beenone o the more common methods o IC integra-tion by early adopters in schools. Since the rstemail-based projects launched by iEARN in 1988,

students in developed countries have taken advan-tage o the opportunity to communicate andcollaborate with others using email and theInternet. Beginning at least as early as 1996, withthe World Links pilot project in Uganda, studentsin developing countries have been collaborating

with other students in both the North and theSouth.

E-mail collaboration serves as a low-barrier point o entry to the use o IC to support learning in a range o subjects: E-mail tools are relatively simple

to use and require lower bandwidth Internetconnections; use o email, as opposed to the Web,minimizes need or teacher guidance and sitepre-selection, and maximizes students’ time on task;and e-mail-based collaboration complements localsmall-group collaboration, reducing barriers toactive learning.

Collaboration based on use o the Web connectsstudents to knowledge resources. In the case o competitions such as Tink.com, teams alsocollaborate to construct Web sites to rame knowl-edge that they have gained through research.

European SchoolNet www.eun.org

iEARN www.iearn.org

Tink.com www.think.com

World Links www.world-links.org

sch-t-ch twrki Within education systems, teachers—and wholeschools—adopt technology at diering rates. Whiledecision-makers at the ministry level must work toensure gains by all schools, innovative and early-adopting teachers and schools can draw signicantbenets rom participation in regional or nationalcollaborative networks.




SchoolNet organizations represent one o the chie mechanisms or school-to-school networking.SchoolNet Uganda, which has over 100 memberschools, with more than 80 percent o schools using broadband Internet connections,15 has worked

closely with a Ugandan VSA service provider toshit billing and pricing in ways that more closely meet the needs and revenue cycles o its memberschools. SchoolNet Arica operates a portal-style

Arica Education Knowledge Warehouse, withresources or learners, teachers, principals, andpolicymakers. European SchoolNet includes a largenumber o member schools, and is currently carrying out the Calibrate project, which is intendedto develop a highly searchable open-source environ-ment or sharing learning resources.

European SchoolNet Calibrate project www.calibrate.eun.org

SchoolNet Arica www.schoolnetarica.net

SchoolNet Uganda www.schoolnetuganda.sc.ug

“Bc” piIn the United States and other countries, debate hasraged or over a decade among advocates o “back tobasics” approaches, such as phonics, and advocates

o context-aware approaches such as whole-language, writer’s workshop, whole math, orexperiential science. Tat debate is moderating asteachers, ollowed by education researchers, weigh inon the benets o combining elements rom bothpedagogical camps. In reading instruction thisapproach is ramed as “balanced literacy.”

Educational sotware developers, in response, arestarting to refect (at least in their marketing)demand or resources that support teachers’ eortsto combine approaches.

Riverdeep www.riverdeep.net

Intelliools Balanced Literacy http://intellitools.com

B, wiki pct crt b tchr tt

A variety o tools that emerged rom the Web 2.0phenomenon have been switly adopted by the

education community. Web 2.0 reers to a “second-generation” o Internet tools that emphasizeuser-developed content and social networking.Popular Web 2.0 tools used in schools include blogs,

wikis, and podcasts.

Both Apple’s iunes website and Yahoo! list hun-dreds o podcasts created by students in kindergar-ten, primary, and secondary schools. Outcomes thathave been ascribed to podcasting include improved

written and verbal communication skills, improvedresearch skills, and increased motivation.

Blogs (or Web Logs) are websites with contentgenerated by individuals; entries appear in reverse-chronological order and resemble journals in thatthey reerence rst-person experience or thethoughts and opinions o the author. Most blogsenable readers to post comments, as well as com-ments about comments.

eachers use blogs in ways that support refection(a critical component o PD), as well as dialog and eedback with peers. Tey also may use blogsto publish class Web pages with inormation aboutassignments and links to relevant learning re-

sources. With their classes, teachers may also usegroup blogs, which enable many writers toparticipate, to stage asynchronous (and writing-based) discussions o classroom topics among students.

eachers engage students in blogging to promotethe development o writing skills and condencein writing, to enable them to publish the resultso Web research and other schoolwork, and to work together on projects via group blogs (and wikis, another orm o Web-based collaborationtool).

Te application Word Press is among the mostpopular o blogging tools or educational uses. Teopen-source Word Press application is download-able, meaning that school systems can use it to hostblogs on their own servers, and ree. School systemsalso use the application Movable ype to supportprivate blogs viewable only by one teacher and onestudent, or by groups o students.

This situation is current as o early 2005. Please reer to15 The Uganda rural schools VSAT connectivity project: Lessons in sustainability and educational impact (Gaible, E. and Nadel, S., in press, Washington, DC: inoDev / WorldBank Institute) or detailed inormation about SchoolNet and private sectorinvolvement in sustainable broadband or rural schools.



gb tr i cti ICT 25

Downes, Stephen. 2004. Educational blog-ging . EDUCAUSE Review. V39, n5: 14–26.http://www.educause.edu/pub/er/erm04/erm0450.asp?bhcp=1

Word Press www.wordpress.org

Podcasting in the classroomGeneric lesson plan or student podcastshttp://userwww.ssu.edu/~nshelley

SupportBlogging! Wiki promoting understanding o benets o educational blogging http://supportblogging.com

Best Wiki 2006 FinalistsTe Edublog AwardsFive award-nominated education-ocused wikishttp://incsub.org/awards/2006/nominations-or-best-wiki-2006

Prb, iic thr prir-rrch tOver the past 10 years, educators and educationresearchers paid increasing attention to the use o electronic probes and other data-collection tools.Probes measure various phenomena—light levels,voltage, temperature, motion, and chemical

composition, among others—and enable data to beuploaded to calculators, handheld computers andPDAs, or desktop computers.

Probes support hands-on inquiry-based learning by students in primary and secondary schools, strength-ening students’ skills at representing scienticphenomena and connecting scientic concepts toreal-world events. Because probes have beendeveloped to interace with mobile devices, not only desktop computers, their use may make it possibleto integrate orms o IC into classroom-basedlearning more aordably.

Challenges, however, to the use o probes in schoolsinclude: compatibility issues arising rom theprolieration o probe hardware and sotwareproducts alongside an even greater number o handheld devices; a lack o wireless networking standards or connecting mobile devices; poorlinkage between relevant curricula, teacher capaci-ties, and teacher development. (An experimental

use o probes in primary schools in Benin, West Arica, ound that teacher resistance and lack o education in the use o “innovative technologies”constituted major obstacles.) In all but the mostadvantaged educational environments, the promise

o probes may at this point be outweighed by theirattendant challenges. However, the eective use o graphing calculators, which are related tools withrelatively low CO, has been widely established inmath and science classrooms and could be eec-tively emulated.

Smithsonian Institution: Natural ScienceResources Center Guide to probeware andcomputer applications or science and technol-ogy concepts or middle school http://www.nsrconline.org/curriculum_re-sources/Probeware_Guides.html

Te Concord ConsortiumOpen-source and ree probe and other sotwarehttp://www.concord.org/resources/browse/172/

ati-piri t, rvic, ctiviti At both secondary and tertiary levels, orestalling and detecting plagiarism increasingly occupiesteachers’ attentions. Search engines that providestudents with access to a rich array o knowledgeresources also provide the means to plagiarize

these works (aided and abetted by cut and pastecommands). In many instances, students copy works without knowing proper practices inacademic citation, and without ully understand-ing prohibitions against copying and copyrightviolation.

Many teacher-resource sites now address plagiarismdirectly, providing lesson plans or teaching citationpractices and copyright, and tools or teachers (andstudents themselves) to use to detect plagiarizedpassages. Fee-based services will also check student

work.

Plagiarism stoppers: A teacher’s guideNaperville Central High Schoolhttp://www.ncusd203.org/central/html/where/plagiarism_stoppers.html








“scholarships” or disadvantaged children. Someresearchers, however, argue that the 1:1 ratio is notadvantageous or students, teachers, or schools.Research is now being planned and implemented toanalyze this situation; as o yet, however, measurable

results remain elusive.

Global 1:1 www.g1:1.org

Edutopia: One-to-one computing www.edutopia.org/onetoone

One-to-one inormation resourceshttp://www.k12one2one.org






exam. MOE capacity with regard to technology planning, procurement, and implementation is nothigh overall—despite the presence o capableindividuals in these ministries.

For these reasons, OERU support has been excep-tionally important. Te Model IC policy ineducation lays the oundation or educational ICprograms that are comprehensive and pedagogically progressive. In most o these instances, however, theimpact o policy on practice has yet to be eltsubstantially.16

Recent policy-related events include the March2007 meeting o Chie Education Ocers (CEOs)under the theme, “Educational Policy and Practicein the OECS—Integrating and Sustaining Nationaland Regional Initiatives.”

Ci uisitisPjct Itgt distcecti (CuPIde)

Te CUPIDE project was launched in 2003 as a partnership among ve o the region’s universities,

with unding through 2006. Its principal objective isto increase access to tertiary education through thedevelopment o Distance Education (DE) capacity

among these universities. While DE is not unusualin the Caribbean, e-learning penetration is low, withonline course oerings tending to originate inuniversities outside the region. (CUPIDE itsel is inact a mirror site or the Massachusetts Institute o echnology (MI) Open CourseWare [OCW]project.)

Originally conceived as a capacity-building project within UWIDEC, the project was expanded toinclude the University o Guyana, the Anton deKom University o Suriname, the University o Quisqueya, Haiti, and University o echnology (Uech) in Jamaica. Project impact has been limitedby disparate capacities among the partnering universities and by the more general dicultiesarising rom multi-lateral, multi-country collabora-tion among large institutions. Dierent levels o technical inrastructure (both nationally andinstitutionally) and human-resource capacity, inparticular, slowed response time and hamperedagreement on priorities. Tese diculties were

compounded by reliance on English as the project’sprimary language, complicating communication

with collaborators in Haiti and Suriname.

Outputs rom CUPIDE include:

Development o the CUPIDE portal (pilot)■

raining on CUPIDE LMS and Web portal■

Four-module pilot course, “Developing an■

online course using a team approach”Mirror-site agreement with MI OCW ■

Formation o CARADOL■

Overall, impact has been limited. Te CUPIDEportal has been launched as a pilot site, but is hasnot been populated with course content.

Ci Kwlg Lig ntwk (CKLn) e-Lik amics

Te CKLN was launched in 2004 by CARICOM with the support o the World Bank, EU, UnitedNations Development Program (UNDP),UNESCO, ICA, Canadian InternationalDevelopment Agency (CIDA)/ InternationalDevelopment Research Centre (IDRC) and theOrganization o American States (OAS). Broadly

presented, the CKLN mission is to enhance regionalcompetitiveness by acilitating networking, knowl-edge sharing, and instruction among CaribbeanLIs. Accomplishing the CKLN mission involvesthree start-up phases:

Strengthening the IC capacity o LIs■

Establishing a knowledge and learning network ■

Building capacity at the regional level■

University-level e-learning is to orm a key elemento the knowledge and learning network. CKLN hasconducted one or more workshops on the conversiono course materials or use in Moodle the open-source LMS, a ree sotware e-learning platorm.

Other accomplishments to date include the 2005assessment o inrastructure, IC competencies, and

Although many o the adopted policies have yet to be enacted in schools16and school systems, several respondents contacted or this study suggestedthat the OERU Model policy was becoming dated and would benet romrevision to address newer practices and tools.



sct ri ICT iititiv i cti 31

student administrations systems o nine LIsinvolved in a CKLN pilot project, and an overallassessment o the Caribbean labor market.

One element associated with CKLN—an element

considered primary by several respondents contactedor this report—was the provision o high-speed,satellite-based Internet connectivity to LIs throughpartnership with E-Link Americas. Te E-Link

Americas project, launched by the Institute orConnectivity in the Americas in 2004, was toprovide low-cost, high-speed connectivity through-out Latin America and the Caribbean.Unanticipated project delays, technical challenges,and cost overruns, however, led to decision to closethe project in January 2006.

In response to the ailure o E-Link Americas,CARICOM has endorsed a CKLN proposalrequesting roughly US$10 million or developmentand implementation o C@ribNE, an advancedhigh-speed network to connect the region’s LIs.17

o date CKLN impact has been limited. Teestablishment o knowledge and learning networksamong researchers, educators, students, and others,however, remains a critical objective within theregion, as does implementation o high-speednetworking. In May 2006, CKLN was awardednancing o €2 million by the European Union.

CKLN will launch a version o the Moodle LMS.

uWIdeC blLig Pjct

Since 1996, UWIDEC has provided DE to studentsthroughout the Caribbean using a combination o printed instructional resources, ace-to-ace tutorials,and audio conerencing. UWIDEC is currently transorming a portion o its DE instruction to a “blended learning” approach that combines

ace-to-ace instruction and print-based resources with the use o online learning resources anddiscussion, synchronous e-tutoring and/or email.

In the original combination o modes, UWIDECcourses rely primarily on printed resources andace-to-ace tutorials at its Distance EducationCenters and other sites. Tree or our audio-conerences per course are used to deliver uniorm

instructions regarding course administration, exams,and other issues. utorials are used to address coursecontent, conduct learning activities, provideeedback, and accomplish other administrative andinstructional tasks.

Te new, blended-learning structure will continue torely heavily on printed learning resources, but willuse IC to enhance student access to resources andthe possibilities or asynchronous learning. Students

will also connect to the UWIDEC LMS, running on the Moodle open-source LMS sotware, and willreceive CD-ROMs with presentations and othercourse materials. Tese resources will enable them toparticipate in online discussions, practice exercises,assessments, and other activities. For the next severalyears, ace-to-ace tutorials will remain integral tothe instructional design and the assessment process.

For the 2005–2006 academic year, UWIDEClaunched a pilot project18 to develop online course-

ware or 13 courses originating at its Mona Campusin Barbados. Courses covered introductory sociol-ogy, Caribbean civilization, math or social sciences,business and accounting, and education counseling,among other topics. Development o the CD-basedcontent encountered challenges chiefy related to theneed or additional stang with skills in video andonline resources.

Te change rom synchronous, ace-to-ace tutoring to e-tutoring brought other challenges into ocus,including the need to train and maintain a corps o skilled e-tutors, limited student access o materials(whether by choice or as the result o barriers), andlimited student interaction online. Additionallessons learned include the need or sustainable,clearly articulated incentives or e-tutors.

Less elaborate higher-education experiments withblended learning have been conducted in the regionas well: In Jamaica, in-service teachers are requiredto achieve the bachelor’s degree. o meet the needs

o VE teachers with limited release time and working at a distance rom the campus, the Uechused email to reduce these teachers’ needs to attend

In February 2008, CKLN received an additional $650,000 in unding17rom IDB to support C@ribNET.

Inormation about the blended-learning pilot project is drawn rom18Thurab-Nkhosi, D., “The challenges o blended learning at UWIDEC: A case oICT innovations in the developing country context,” (2006) a paper deliveredat the Commonwealth o Learning (COL) PCF4 conerence in Ocho Rios,

Jamaica.





sct ri ICT iititiv i cti 33

to oer e-learning courses that meet the needs o local residents and that contribute to the develop-ment o human capacity among SIDS.

nt ptti cbrti

-ri iititivCUPIDE, CARADOL, and CKLN are intercon-nected, Caribbean-centric initiatives that ocus one-learning to various degrees. VUSSC is an interna-tional initiative ocused on Commonwealthcountries, but which includes strong Caribbeanrepresentation. It may be instructive at this point toidentiy complementarities between these projects,especially in relation to their apparent strengths andlimiting actors.

o ocus on CUPIDE, the most developed o the

purely Caribbean initiatives: both CUPIDE and

VUSSC seek to increase capacity or the develop-ment o e-learning in the Caribbean. CUPIDE hasbeen limited by the challenges o collaboration;VUSSC is built on a oundation o collaborative(wiki-based, open-source) tools and environments,

but lacks adequate nancial support to achieve thescale and pace o content development necessary tomeet the demand or e-learning courseware targeting Caribbean concerns. Tere may be barriers to closercollaboration—such as ocus among CUPIDE andits partners on degree-based as opposed to certi-cate-based programs—but there may also beopportunities or eective partnership that deserveexploration.

(Note that all our e-learning-related initiativessupport use o the Moodle open-source LMS.)






Smm

EMIS has been the ocus o both national andregion-wide eort or over 15 years. Results,however, have been limited. Barriers cited by respon-dents include lack o unds, inadequate connectivity,and teachers’ limited access to computers in schools,and limited capacity and experience with EMIS. In

addition, without habitual collection, reporting,analysis, and use o education data, EMIS imple-mentation requires signicant change-managementmeasures in order to succeed.

Signicant regional and national initiatives include:

EMIS development in Jamaica, 1993–1996■

OERU dissemination o harmonized data-■

collection instructions, 1990s

OERU development and dissemination o ■

Excel-based Perormance Management ool(PM), 2000–2001

OERU pilot testing o EMIS sotware in St.■

Lucia, 1999–2000

Te impact o these projects has been incremental,not transormative. In the absence o computersupport or inormation-management, ministriesand education systems must all back on combina-tions o paper-based reporting, data entry at districtor central oces, and eventual, but limited,databasing o inormation. Such systems areinecient, generating needlessly repetitive localreporting, and those ineciencies limit the kinds o

inormation that are aggregated and analyzed.

In 2006 and 2007 at least our countries—Jamaica,Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda, and St. Lucia—conducted EMIS projects. Small-scale pilot tests inBarbados and Antigua used EMIS sotware newly developed in Barbados. St. Lucia tested EMISsotware currently used by over 2,000 schools inCanada. Te results o these tests should be used to

build relevant and timely knowledge about thecomparative advantages and risks o these twovendors.

Te collection, management, and use o educa-tional inormation is, along with development o IC policy in education, one o the areas in whichboth region-wide and national eorts have beenmade in the Caribbean. For the most part, eectiveEMIS—whether seen as an IC implementation,as a set o processes to be institutionalized, or as thecornerstone or ongoing organizational improve-ment—remains elusive. Commonly cited chal-lenges include inadequate network inrastructure,teachers’ lack o access to computers, and limitedavailability o unds or EMIS development. It isprobable, however, that in some cases lack o demand or the kinds o analysis enabled by eective EMIS shores up persistent inrastructuraland budgetary barriers.

Limited commitment to reporting and analysis,beore the introduction o IC, intensies thechallenges that ace EMIS. I data collection andinormation management have not been valuedpreviously, it is dicult to convince sta to devotenew energies to these activities. Well beore theintroduction o new objectives and tools (whetheror data or pedagogy), the school system has evolveda complex cluster o incentives, practices, eedback pathways, and responsibilities that resists change.

Attempts to integrate IC into teaching andlearning without changing curricula, studentassessment, and teacher evaluation lead nowhere.

Similarly, eorts to institute EMIS without support-ing data-driven decision-making by teachers, schoolleadership, education departments and policymakers

will be met with, at best, apathy on a system-widelevel.

As mentioned elsewhere in this study, there isevidence that Caribbean countries do not take ulladvantage o unding opportunities provided by

Chapter 5

Regional and national EMIS initiatives

Ri ti emIs iititiv 35




Overview o EMIS in Caribbean SIDS

Country

Anguilla

Aruba

Antigua andBarbuda

Barbados

British Virgin Islands

Cayman Islands

Dominica

Grenada

Jamaica

Montserrat

St. Lucia

Turks and Caicos

Islands

Trinidad and Tobago

EMIS history

Database Management System(DBMS) developed with OERU

No experience

Collaboration with OERU led touse o TPM sotware starting in2000

EMIS tools in place as part oInterAmerican Development Bank (IDB) reporting requirements

Trial o OERU prototype in 2000

Purchase o SASI (a PearsonEducation product)

In-service EMIS TPD or allsecondary teachers

—

EMIS included in drat ICT policyin education

No experience

EMIS processes launched in 1993

EMIS development completed in1996

No experience

Collaborated with OERU in 1999–2000 to develop regional EMIS

EMIS initiative led to purchase ohardware and local developmento sotware

Computers and sotware installedin some schools

No experience

Current situation

No activity (no data■

entered)

No activity■

2007 pilot test o■

abusSTAR sotware in3 secondary schools

Pilot test o abusSTAR■

EMIS in 7 schools

Implementation stalled■

Plans to implement when■

barriers are resolved

—

No activity■

No activity■

EMIS planning and imple-■

mentation o in processFunding provided by IDB■

No activity■

Pilot o o-the-shel EMIS■

product in 2007

Implementation stalled due■

to barriers

EMIS planning and imple-■

mentation in processFunding provided by IDB■

Perceived barriers

High cost, lack o avail-■

able unds

High cost, lack o unds■

Lack o technical capacity■

Primary schools lack ■

inrastructure; teachers lack capacity

—

Inadequate network ■

inrastructureTeachers lack routine ac-■

cess to ICT in schools

—


Inadequate inrastructure■

(hardware, network)Lack o technical capacity■

within MOE

Limited technical capacity■

within MOE

—


—

Inadequate network ■

inrastructureLack o central database■

architecture

—

donor and development agencies.24 Among thereasons cited is the pervasiveness o the view thataccessing nance sources involves cumbersome

processes. Te inormation generated by EMIS, theanalytical practices that drive inormation collection,and the decision-making that in turn drives analysisall have the potential to lower barriers to nancialresources that would otherwise be cumbersome toaddress.

Although implementation has been limited, theenvironment or EMIS appears to be growing more

avorable. echnical capacity within MOEs in theregion is growing. Broadband Internet connectivity or schools is becoming widespread. eachers

increasingly begin service having gained at least basic

Greenidge, M. 2006. Caribbean countries ailing to take advantage o24aid. The Barbados Advocate. 06Sept2006. http://www.barbadosadvocate.com/NewViewNewslet.cm?Record=27714 Accessed 8 September 2006.Statements about cumbersome processes and limited Caribbean use oavailable unding opportunities were made by Dr. Kathleen Gordon, Deputy Director o Ino rmation. Technology at CDB. Dr. Gordon also said, “We haveto show aid eectiveness; we have to show that what we have provided iseective in reducing poverty within the digital divide. We have to ensure that the unds are applied with those specic objectives and that the objectivesare met.”

Comparison o current status o EMISSource: The Natoma Group




computer skills. Demand—at least in the orm o policy statements—or inormation, analysis, andinormed decisions is strong. And, not the least o these considerations, experiences on the part o specic country governments and on that o OERU

provide a body o knowledge and lessons learnedthat has the potential to help countries establishunctioning EMIS.

Tis section briefy reviews several milestones in thehistory o EMIS eort in the region, summarizescurrent initiatives, then suggests ways those initia-tives can be leveraged or wider benet.

eMIS milsts i

t CiTis section describes three key processes in thedevelopment o EMIS practices in the Caribbean:early EMIS eorts in Jamaica, overall policy emphasis on EMIS in the Caribbean, and, addressedin detail, OERU eorts to develop a common EMISplatorm and harmonized data models. Althoughother attempts have been made, and are being made,these three events can be taken as representative o the overall movement to support development o EMIS within the region.

emIs i JicIn 1993, Jamaica launched one o the rstCaribbean EMIS initiatives. Funded by UnitedStates Agency or International Development(USAID), the overall goal o the project was tostrengthen inormation-based decision-making through improved access to school census data,system-wide introduction o computer-basedrecordkeeping, and development o a school-basedGeographic Inormation System (GIS) systemlinking school data to place. At the time, thisinitiative represented the leading edge o EMISdevelopment in emerging economies. Despite the

completion o EMIS development in 1996, bothinormation access and inormation utilization in

Jamaica remain limited. At a later point the New Horizons Project (NHP) proposed development andimplementation o a Jamaica School AdministrationSotware (JSAS) package—to meet local-levelinormation needs that had supposedly been metnationwide by the previous system. Although JSAS

was not completed in the 1990s, calls or its

development point to the signicant limitations inthe system developed earlier.

Eorts to establish EMIS in Jamaica continue. As o this writing, JSAS development has recently been

completed, and the platorm has been adopted by Ministry o Education, Youth and Culture (MOEY).Te 2005–2006 national budget anticipatedcompleting the “cascading” o JSAS into schoolssystem-wide; in 2006 plans included the moderniza-tion o hardware used by school administration, inlarge part to support its eort to improve EMIS.

EMIS implementation should not be seen inzero-sum terms: incremental steps along severalparallel pathways may constitute practical andsignicant achievements. Tese incrementalachievements may in turn allow decision-making processes to evolve along with data-managementsystems, pacing the transormation o the educationsystem rom one that practices data-ignorantprediction to one that demands data-drivendecisions. Although neither comprehensive norcomplete, the eort to attain EMIS in Jamaica stands as a benchmark or other countries in theregion.

Pic pprt r emIs Regional support or EMIS has been elaborated atthe policy level or at least 10 years, with the 1997

CARICOM meetings serving as an early milestone.Te Montego Bay declarations approved by theCARICOM heads o state emphasized education,human development, and preparing Caribbeancitizens to take part in the global knowledgeeconomy.25 Tese documents included the much-cited description o the “ideal Caribbean person.”

Among other humanistic statements, the descriptionstates that the Caribbean person should be placed“at the centre o the regional development process,”

with education playing a central, enabling role. Overthe course o the next ve years, this statementserved as a oundation or policy-level support o

EMIS.

Prior to the Dakar World Education Forum in2000, the UNESCO-sponsored Caribbean

Documents identiying specic measures emerging rom the Montego Bay 25meetings include Towards creative and productive citizens for the 21st century (which included the infuential depiction o the “ideal Caribbean person”), Hu- man resource development and science and technology within the context of the single market and economy, and Education and human resource development: Strategies for building a creative and productive workforce.




Community Secretariat released the Education For All (EFA) Caribbean Plan o Action 2000–2015 . Teplan begins by citing the prole o the idealCaribbean person, then goes on to set 2002 as thetarget date or the goal, “o establish Caribbean-

wide EMIS networking capacity by initiating CREMIS” (Caribbean Regional EducationManagement Inormation System).

Immediately ollowing Dakar, in December 2000,OECS issued its report, Pillars or Partnership and Progress: Te OECS Education Reorm Strategy 2010 (PPP). Te PPP also reerences the Montego Bay description o the ideal Caribbean person as a driving vision. Although it lists a wide range o objectives, the PPP strengthens the link to EMIS by stating that “[u]nderpinning all o these initiatives isthe recognition o the unprecedented pace o changeparticularly over the last ten years and an awarenesso the importance o systematic evaluation as a toolo eective implementation.”

Tese policy statements dovetail with OECSsupport or EMIS that had been gathering momen-tum throughout the 1990s, and that led to thelaunch o EMIS pilot testing in St. Lucia. A separateinitiative in which OERU developed a policy template to support the drating o national ICpolicies in education also emphasized EMIS.

oeRu pit tt emIs Starting in 1999, OERU engaged in activitiesintended to support region-wide implementation o EMIS. Chie among these activities was the pilottesting o a Commercial O-the-Shel (COS)EMIS system in St. Lucia. Te pilot test did notbuild eective EMIS practices, and did not lead tothe intended recommendation o an EMIS productor region-wide adoption. Te OERU EMIS pilottest, as described in this section, is best understoodas one initiative among a group o measuresspanning more than 15 years, all aimed at improv-ing management o education data in the

Caribbean.

Troughout the 1990s, OERU supported eorts toimprove data collection and management by regional education systems. Funded primarily by Deutsche Gesellschat ür echnischeZusammenarbeit GmbH (GZ), these activitiescentered on development and distribution o regionally harmonized survey instruments and

reporting ormats. In the mid-1990s evaluation o these eorts suggested that considerable work remained to be done. (Tis evaluation in actormed part o the rationale underlying the pilot testo EMIS by OERU.) However, by 2003, harmoniza-

tion, data collection, and reporting had progressedsuciently to enable comparative analysis o transversal indicators in 10 countries in the regionand identication o a set o common indicators orthe region addressing coverage, completion, andquality o education.26

Concomitant with the St. Lucia pilot test o EMIS,OERU developed and disseminated a PM,essentially a series o data-entry templates and reportorms in Microsot Excel, to acilitate data collectionand data-supported decision-making at the schoollevel. At least two schools in seven countries madeuse o the PM. Tis project encountered pre-existing obstacles, including schools’ ailure in somecases to keep other records adequately paper-based.In addition, although the PM was much simplerthan the GPI Integrated School Managementproduct previously pilot tested in St. Lucia, users insome schools did not have sucient technical skillsto use it. A revision to the PM was proposed in2001. In any case, widespread dissemination o thetool did not take place.

(Several schools in Antigua continue to use the

original version o the PM—support or the idea that eective data-collection practices combined witha usable data-management solution may stimulatedemand among school leaders or consistent locally generated data-driven decision support.)

Te EMIS pilot-test process began in 1999.Sotware selection was ollowed by selection o thepilot country, St. Lucia. Installation was completedat the end o 1999, ollowed by leadership orienta-tion, technical training, and sta training early in2000. Te project suered delays in relation to theproposed schedule, as well as diculties that arose

rom:

Inadequate connectivity ■

eachers’ limited access to computers in schools■

Limited computer skills among teachers■

Poor sta retention o trained teachers■

Gropello, E. di. 2003. World Bank Working Paper No. 6: Monitoring26educational perormance in the Caribbean. World Bank.




Aspects o the pilot-test design compounded thesesystemic problems. wenty-three schools in St. Lucia participated in the test, roughly 25 percent o thetotal number o schools. Te relatively large scale o the pilot test increased challenges arising due to

inrastructure and personnel limitations. Andalthough they were made responsible or data entry,school personnel were given neither release time norincentives or participation, increasing the impact o barriers such as low skills, limited computer access,and a rustrating network experience.

Most critically, the EMIS sotware product selectedor the eld trial was not endorsed or adoption atthe end o the project. Tat product, GPI IntegratedSchool Management sotware, developed by theSociété GRICS in Montreal, Canada, has proven tobe eective in Canadian schools, notably in Quebec.Te tool was selected by OERU in part because o its support or o-network or asynchronous data entry. Localization or use in St. Lucia, however, wasnot complete and did not yield a product suitableor use by St. Lucian teachers: some display items(e.g., pull-down menus, etc.) were not translatedrom French to English; the interace was notperceived as easy-to-use; and, user manuals weredicult to understand.

Factors in St. Lucian schools (connectivity, person-nel, etc.) intersected with the design o the pilot test

and the product selection to stall the OERU EMISpilot test.

It may, although well ater the act, also be valuableto point out that underlying these problems was theproject’s approach to procurement. At all stages, theselection process was designed to identiy a suitablesotware product rather than a sotware vendor.

Although Société GRICS is a well-respectedCanadian organization, sales, service and supportoutside o Canada are not part o its core business:Société GRICS is cooperatively owned by theQuebecois school systems that the organization was

ounded to serve. Although Société GRICS doesmarket its services outside o Quebec, its attention isprimarily to Francophone markets (per its corporatebrochure), and the majority o its sales or adoptionsare Quebecois. Te sta o roughly 300, whilereplete with expertise in school-ocused technology,is small in relation to the more than 70 productsthat the organization has developed. Although notdenitive by any means, these characteristics suggest

that Société GRICS was not well suited to meet theopportunity presented by potential region-wide salesand implementation in Caribbean schools.

rgil pilt pjcts

At present at least our countries in the region havelaunched or have rm plans to launch EMISinitiatives. Barbados, Antigua, and St. Lucia con-ducted pilot EMIS projects, which got underway in2006 and 2007; Jamaica, with its older EMIS inplace, has revised its EMIS sotware and has planneda capital expenditure to enhance school inrastructure.

For many other countries, barriers remain intrac-table. Beyond the lack o unds, commonly acedbarriers include:

Limited teacher access to computers, in both■

primary and secondary schoolsInadequate or unreliable Internet connectivity ■

Limited technical capacity within MOE■

Limited experience with EMIS within MOE and■

among school stakeholders

Respondents rom countries with more experiencein EMIS implementation also note a signicant“cultural” barrier: the absence o demand oraccurate, up-to-date and eectively analyzed studentinormation. Although most education systemsrequire schools to record inormation on paper, theailure o many systems to enter that inormation inDBMS, to analyze that inormation, or to shareresults with school leadership has reinorced poorreporting practices at many levels.

In combination, the three 2007 EMIS pilot projectshave the potential to yield results that can be o benet throughout the region. Each o the threecountries conducting tests—Barbados, St. Lucia,and Antigua—has experience with EMIS. Te three

pilot projects have somewhat dierent parameters,but share key actors in common. Focused analysiso these projects may yield inormation that that canbe easily built upon by other countries in the region.

Brb emIs iititiv: IdBtb bsTaR emIs Because the Eduech 2000 project, Barbados hassignicant experience with EMIS used to satisy the




reporting requirements included in project unding agreements. In addition, Barbados has more recently completed a seven-school pilot test o EMISsotware developed by a Barbadian company. Tissolution ocuses more tightly on needs o school

leadership and the MOE Barbados.

Early in the Eduech 2000 project, IDB contracteddevelopment o a project-monitoring databaseaggregating inormation rom Barbadian schools. Asconceived by IDB, the database enables rapidevaluation o progress in relation to project indica-tors, such as math perormance. Te database that

was developed or Eduech 2000 was among therst to be contracted by IDB as a project compo-nent; databases o this type have since becomeregular components o IDB projects.

During development o the database, MOE Barbadosexpanded its mission and scope to integrate second-ary-school entrance (11-plus) exam results, CXCexam results, and other data streams. Te goal is tocombine reporting on project indicators withautomated data collection and analysis, and querying capacity that is both user-riendly and Web-accessible.

In 2007, the MOE Barbados has also launched anEMIS project using sotware developed by a Barbadian company specically to meet bothministry and Eduech requirements. Te abusSAR

EMIS has been developed by abusechnology, Inc.,a sotware development and Web consulting company that currently oers six products serving businesses and schools.

Whereas the IDB database tracks aggregate indica-tors o student perormance, the abusSAR EMIStargets management and administrative inormationsuch as attendance, student biodata, grades, andother categories typical in EMIS; and, the sotware

will enable MOE Barbados to track students romentry into primary school through secondary-schoolcompletion.

Te 2007 pilot test in Barbados was roughly concurrent with a smaller pilot test o abusSAR in

Antigua and Barbuda.

AbusSAR is a new entry in the EMIS eld: In bothcountries, teachers and administrators in thesecondary schools used the rst release o abusSAR EMIS sotware.

Eduech program director Mark Ray characterizesthe decision to test a locally developed EMISapplication: “Te thing that made us engage in thispilot is that, once a presentation was made o a demo version o their application, we recognized

that although they were a young company they didtheir research well, specically ocused on theCaribbean context, aligned to the way we reerencedthings in our schools, the way we carried outassessments in our schools.”

Mr. Ray’s comment points to the criticality o correlation o the data model and the pre-existing schema used or cataloguing data. However, whiledesign-related actors may align in avor o locally developed solutions such as abusSAR, consider-ations o business viability may indicate that moreestablished solutions might be preerable.27 TeBarbados abusSAR pilot test represents a signi-cant business opportunity or the developer.Delivering strong results in terms o sotwaredevelopment, support, and training will be highpriorities during the pilot test. Clearly, the potentialor product customization, support, and revisionbased on the needs o the Barbadian MOE oerssharp contrast to the prior OERU EMIS pilot teston St. Lucia. However, the small size o the localvendor also generates business-related risk such asthe possibility o business ailure or re-directionresulting rom sales o other products to a larger

corporate or government client. Te vendor’s limitedhistory and limited experience in EMIS may beattended by a lack o technical or human-resourcecapacity. Additional risks, then, arise rom theimmaturity o the abusSAR product. In thiscontext, the pilot test undertaken by Barbados (andthe concurrent pilot test in Antigua) should belooked to or inormation about the unctionality o the abusSAR system and about the company’sability to support smaller-scale installations. Otherconsiderations, ranging rom the company’scommitment to rene abusSAR to the nancialviability o a regionally ocused Caribbean EMIS

enterprise, may emerge over a longer period.

Without proper business planning and modeling, small-scale start-up27companies run the risk o introducing state-o-the-art or custom tools that target extremely small, price-sensitive markets. In the case o EduTech, theproject already experienced these risks in the project’s NetSchools initiative.NetSchools relied on a limited-production school-specic laptop computer andinrared network. The company introduced these tools, then shortly changedits business model to emphasize e-learning and Web-based educationservices. For more inormation reer to the section, “Project prole: EduTech,Barbados.”











achieved universal enrolment, however 20 percent o students do not complete higher-secondary school; o those completing, 33 percent do not take CXC orequivalent exams. Moreover, the exam scores o students include over 50 percent ailures in math and

English. Inadequate student achievement—resulting in high illiteracy and other negative outcomes—generate a Jamaican labor orce that lacks academicand work-related qualications. Lielong learning andits support by the HEAR rust/NA are vital to thelong-term growth o the Jamaican economy.

Current IC-related training and initiatives include:

IC training or all students at all 27 HEAR■

rust/NA institutionsVocational raining Development Institute■

(VDI) oering tertiary-level and post-graduateprograms to develop instructors and educators

Web-based NQR increasing access to training ■

programs and resources or job seekers andemployers—in developmentLMS to support enrolment, student tracking ■

and e-learning—in development

In addition, HEAR rust/NA maintains a raining Inormation Management System (IMS),analogous to an EMIS, that services all HEARrust/NA campuses and administrative oces as

well as over 25 other organizations involved in

VE in Jamaica.

Since its inception, the HEAR rust/NA hasbeen supported primarily by a 3 percent employ-ment tax, paid by all Jamaican private-sectoremployers with revenues above a specied threshold.Firms that provide work-place-based training oremployment or HEAR students receive relie roma portion o the tax.

ICT trii r ttHEAR rust/NA oers VE to schoolleavers (both secondary-school graduates and

non-graduates) in subjects such as automotivemaintenance, tourism and hospitality, construc-tion, and early-childhood education. All studentsin these programs attend courses in basic com-puter skills.

Several o the 27 HEAR rust/NA training institutes distributed throughout Jamaica also oercertication in IC-specic vocational topics: these

range rom data operations to call-center skills. TeHEAR rust/NA Stony Hill campus, in addition,includes a Cisco Regional raining Academy withseven labs and capacity or 500 students. en othertraining institutes house or are connected to local

Cisco academies.

Vcti Trii dvpt Ititt VDI provides training to prospective VEtrainers and educators at its campus in Kingston,

which eatures six computer labs supporting instruction in basic computer skills, networking,programming, graphic design, Web development,and instructional technology.

VDI oers a our-year B.Ed. degree in VE, in

collaboration with the University o echnology,intended to prepare secondary-school graduates25 years old and above to become VE instruc-tors. VDI oers B.Ed. specializations thatinclude: computing with accounting, electricaltechnology, and oce systems and technology. Allother B.Ed. curricula, such as clothing design andamily studies, begin with one-semester Icourses.

Non-IC VE certications programs addressentrepreneurship, building and drating, andentertainment management. Again, all student

trainers are introduced to IC. VDI oers theollowing technology-ocused certicates anddiplomas or job-seekers and or VE teachers andtrainers:

Instructional echnology Certicate■

Education-related IC skills orVE instructors(three semesters, part-time)IC Instructor diploma ■

Advanced IC training (e.g., Java, Visual Basic)or VE instructors(two years, part-time)

Education and raining diploma—IC special-■

ization(18 months, part-time)IC echnologist diploma ■

Advanced IC training or others(two years, ull-time)

VDI also serves as a local Cisco CertiedNetworking Academy.






Branch Exchange (PBX) telephone hardware makethe cost o retrotting schools to provide teachersaccess to voice telephony prohibitive. In addition,establishment o 800-number call-in lines—used by schools or a “homework hotline”—would entail

charges or all incoming calls.

lwr cqiiti, itti, prti ctIn comparison, VOIP telephony can be built on topo the US Virgin Islands Department o Education’s(VIDE’s) existing IC installation, which includesbroadband Internet connectivity to all schools.Several schools, in addition, have at least onecomputer per classroom or use by teachers andstudents, typically connected by wireless to theschool LAN. Cost o VOIP hardware, then, is

dramatically lower than a traditional PBX network,and is both much simpler and less expensive toinstall.

VOIP telephony also reduced maintenance require-ments while giving administrators the ability to addextensions and eatures, and congure systems. As

with all IC systems used in primary and secondary schools, the telephone system is maintained andserviced by the VIDE Oce o Instructionalechnology E-rate elecommunications grant romthe Universal Service Administration Company (USAC), the administrative organization or the US

Universal Service Fund.28

Te simplicity o running voice telephone through schools’ LANs andbroadband connections is as critical as the system’slower cost.

Ipct tchi riCost-eective audio communication benetsstudents, amilies, and teachers by providing supportor:

Te Homework Hotline, enabling amilies to■

encourage and engage in students’ educationeacher-to-teacher coordination o Video■

teleconerence (VC) and o student collabora-tive projectsOn-demand technical support or teachers■

encountering problems using or integrating technology into teaching and learning

Te Homework Hotline is a signicant initiative o the VIDE. Its success depends on teachers having easy access to telephones in order to update inor-

mation, check messages, and respond to requests.VOIP telephony is a critical component in theHomework Hotline system.

In the words o Clinton Stapleton, Director o the

Oce o Instructional echnology, “Collaborationstrengthens higher-level thinking, the phones allow teachers to manage collaboration. Ordinarily, they are isolated in their classrooms and schools, in termso what happens in the real world. Using the VOIPsystem, teachers can connect their classes with otherteachers and students across the water, just throughtheir our-digit extensions.”

Pjct pfl:

Scl Tmw, a Although unded at a low level, the School o omorrow in Aruba is among the most successuland innovative IC programs in education in theCaribbean. Students routinely use word processing,spreadsheet, presentation, and other sotware in thecourse o their curricula. In special projects, such asa World Cup blogging project with students romthe Netherlands, School o omorrow students scan,draw, write, upload, and share comments and ideas

with others.

Te School o omorrow was ounded by Ilonka N.Sjak-Shie in 2004 at the IPA. At the outset, ICcapacity, both within IPA and in Aruban schoolsoverall was low. Te School o omorrow comprisesa model IC classroom at IPA, plus two pilotschools with roughly 15 computers per school.Tese acilities—established with a UNESCO granto only US$25,000—enable School o omorrow tooer pre-service and in-service teachers the opportu-nity to explore a technology-rich classroom.

In the pilot schools, students have access to 15Internet-connected computers (both desktop and

laptop), one digital video camcorder, one scanner,three digital cameras, 15 headphones, 15 webcams,and a color printer.

Ms. Sjak-Shie mentors the most active o the pilotschools, Colegio Cristo Rey, which has adopted

The Universal Service Fund is supported by contributions rom telecom-28munications companies in the U.S., and is intended to support low-cost accessor rural communicates and disadvantaged individuals (www.usac.org).






















Lack of capacity for large-scale ICT projects■

Te largest-scale initiatives within the region,such as Job Skills Education Program (JSEP)in Jamaica and Eduech in Barbados, exposethe need or additional capacity at the ministry

level. Functions ranging rom procurement tomaintenance to inormation managementmust be addressed in planning and thenmanaged eectively. Although many Caribbean countries do not require projects onthe scale o Eduech and JSEP, improvedstrategic and implementation planning willlead to more integrated initiatives that delivery higher value.Lack o impact rom regional initiatives■

Despite sharing many aspects in common,education systems in the Caribbean have notbeneted greatly rom regional cooperation orregional initiatives. Initiatives targeting policy and inormation management have addressed,appropriately, challenging tasks. However theimpact o those activities has been limited. Inthe case o OERU support or IC policy ineducation, lack o linkage between policy andplanning or practice has contributed to theblunting o these eorts. Less challenging activities, such as support or school-to-schooltele-collaboration or Web-based contest, mighthave greater infuence on teaching and learning.

At the tertiary level, regional initiatives related to

IC have yet to bear ruit, however the CKLNcontinues to pursue enhanced connectivity orLIs as a oundation or urther regionalcollaboration.

An additional, overarching consideration is thatCaribbean governments and ministries o educationhave benetted little, i at all, rom internationalexperiences and lessons learned in small- andlarge-scale technology implementations in schools.Te United States (in the 1980s), urkey (in the1990s), and many other countries have introducedIC into schools as a way o building technical

skills, and have subsequently pivoted to shitresources toward the use o technology to improveteaching and learning across the curriculum. Othercountries—notably Costa Rica, Chile and Jordan—have ocused large-scale projects on substantialreorm o curricula and practice. Tese and otherextensively documented projects do not appear tohave infuenced the Caribbean region’s course inrelation to IC in education systems.

r-ssssig t pttil ciclm itgti

Te introduction to this volume o the Survey posed

three questions regarding the value o IC integra-tion and its alternatives. Tese can summarized asollows: What leverage does integration o comput-ers and the Internet into the curriculum oer on theproblems conronting Caribbean education systems?

Te most requently proposed alternative to ocuson technical skills, integration would i properly implemented require that Caribbean countriesaddress several critical issues. Tese include:

Problems related to technology installations,■

including maintenance, aging hardware,

heterogeneous sotware, and some problemsrelated to nancial and inormation manage-mentMechanisms and programs or teacher proes-■

sional development addressing both technology skills and pedagogical methodsCurriculum and assessment in relation to■

classroom practice and desired student learning activities and outcomes

Without measures to address these components o national education systems, integration process—such as those described in OERU-based policies—

would be doomed less to ailure than to nevergetting started in any meaningul way.

Ironically, it is also likely that despite a decade o delivery o the I curriculum in schools, students’limited technology skills would create an obstacle—in combination with teachers’ own emerging skills— which constitute an obstacle to eectiveapproaches to technology integration.

Pib tc crricitrti

Given current progress toward meeting the minimalrequirements or such approaches, what are likely outcomes o eorts to integrate technology intoother areas o the curriculum?

An eective shit o teaching and learning romtest-ocused activities to active-learning pedagogies will, in the mid-term (perhaps three to seven years),likely result in regular but not transormative



Cci 57

teaching and learning practices by teachers andstudents. Some classes, but not all, will most likely practice simple uses o computers and the Internetto support a reormed—but not transormed—curriculum. Tese practices could include Internet-

based searches or inormation, comparing conficting resources, organizing inormation,developing slide presentations or Web pages, andpresenting ndings to classmates. Less requently,students might participate in longer-term and moreelaborate projects, collaborating with students inother schools in the Caribbean and outside theregion, and some teachers would use technology todemonstrate challenging concepts. In some schools,innovative teachers might design and help construct“one-o” experiments that push local boundaries o PBL, either engaging students in real-world com-munity blogging to eect a reduction on greenhouseemissions or developing and writing materials ordistribution outside o school to increase awarenesso HIV/AIDS. Tat said, it is expected that educa-tion in the Caribbean will continue to be marked by persistent tension between traditional modes o teaching—useul or dispatching curriculumunits—and more innovative, in-depth explorationso various curricular goals. Both modes might besupported by IC. (Students would, as secondary eects o these activities, increase their real-worldtechnical and workplace skills.)

Tese outcomes o eorts to integrate IC in otherareas o the curriculum, while positive in relation tocurrent practice, are subject to many actors thatmight increase or decrease levels o participation. Inaddition to the “pre-requisite” infuences such as

loosening o the curriculum and mechanisms orPD, actors positively infuencing participationcould include:

Regional or national development o digital■

learning resourcesSupport or local, cluster-based communities o ■

practice among teachersOnline support or inter-school collaboration,■

such as orums, list serves, group blogs, andcontestsRe-organization o the I curriculum to increase■

emphasis on practice, reduce emphasis ontheory, and to support students’ approaches toother subjectsIntroduction o alternative assessment methods■

that support students’ participation in collabora-tive projects, contests, and other non-standard-ized learning activities

Tese and other infuencing actors can be organizedaccording to their scope—local (or distributive),national, and regional. In many instances, regionalactivities have the potential to bypass nationaleducation rameworks (e.g., curricula, assessments,PD structures) to enable distributive adoption o active-learning pedagogies at the local level and by individual teachers. Tis cataloguing o infuencescharacterizes all eorts to increase the eectivenesso technology in the service o teaching and

learning: Te uture o IC in education in theCaribbean will be determined by the interplay o policy, implementation at the levels o both regionalorganizations and national education systems, andpractice in schools by teachers and students.













Wrk Ct 63

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bridging the digital divide or the Caribbean:Launching the digital diaspora network orthe Caribbean (DDN-C). New York: UNFIP.

United Nations. 2003. World Statistics Pocketbook:Small Island Developing States. series V no24 / SIDS. United Nations. Dept. o Economic and Social Aairs StatisticsDivision.

Wagner, D. et al. Monitoring and Evaluation o ICin Education Projects: A Handbook or

Developing Countries. Washington, DC:infoDev .

White, M. and Richards, G. 2005. InstitutionalIC inrastructure: Findings and recommen-dations. St. George, Grenada: Caribbean

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SURvEY Of ICT AND EDUCATION IN ThE CARIBBEAN

A Summar Rprt, Basd n 16 Cuntr Survs

Tis project seeks to gater togeter in a single resource te most releant and useul inormationon ICT in education actiities in te Caribbean.

Te study addresses te ollowing general topics:

• Thestateofpolicyandplanning • CurrentusageofICTintheprimary,secondaryandtertiaryeducationsystems

• Pre-serviceandin-serviceteacherprofessionaldevelopment(TPD)

•Criticalchallenges

Contents:

• RegionaltrendsinICTinCaribbeaneducation

• GlobaltrendsinICTandeducation,andtheirrelevancetotheCaribbeancontext

• SelectedregionalICTinitiativesineducation

• RegionalandnationalEMISinitiatives

Tis Summary Report is complemented by 16 separate Country Reports addressing policy andplanning;ICTinprimaryandsecondaryschools;TPD;tertiaryeducation;non-formallearningandTVET;educationmanagementinformationsystems(EMIS)andMinistryofEducation(MOE)capacity; barriers and callenges.

Please note tat Cuba, te Dominican Republic, haiti, and te U.S. Commonwealt Territory o Puerto Rico are not included in tis surey.

About info Dev

i f D i t i i t ti l d l t i di t d d d b