The document emphasizes the crucial role of technology in education within a global economy, highlighting the necessity for educational reform to equip learners with 21st-century skills. It discusses the potential of technology to enhance learning environments, increase access, and address inequalities faced by disadvantaged groups. Additionally, it identifies challenges such as affordability, capacity building, and the need for quality assurance in implementing ICT in education, especially in low-income countries.

1. By:
Romblon, Maria Florisa C.
EDTECH 2D, 4:30-5:30PM, M-F
IMPORTANCE OF
TECHNOLOGY IN
EDUCATION

2. In a globalised economy with a high degree of competition among
countries, the success of a nation depends on the educational
level of its workforce.
This is true not only for those just entering or already integrated
into the labor market but also for the unemployed, who may lack
the qualifications required by the growing demands of a
knowledge economy.
Governments should work to ensure that all citizens receive the
technological training and experience necessary to participate in
the global economy.
Traditional school curricula tend to prioritize the accumulation of
knowledge over the application of knowledge, and many school
systems fail to adequately train students in digital citizenship and
literacy.
Education reform is essential to provide learners with what are
commonly called 21st century skills — those competencies and
values needed to become responsible citizens in a learning
society and sustain employability throughout life in a knowledge
economy.

3. At the administrative level, technology can make education systems
more efficient by helping teachers and administrators streamline routine
tasks and improve assessment and data collection. In the classroom,
technology can be a powerful catalyst for pedagogical change, as
students use technology to take a more active role in personalizing their
own education, and teachers take on new roles as facilitators of
knowledge rather than knowledge transmitters.
Technology also has the potential to transform education by extending
the learning space beyond the four walls of a classroom. Although brick-
and-mortar schools will continue to play a leading role in education over
the coming decades, technology offers a variety of learning opportunities
beyond the physical limits of school. With the current accelerated growth
in mobile devices, we are already witnessing the emergence of flexible,
open learning environments that enable contextual, real-time, interactive
and personalized learning.
New technology and communication tools, enabled by a participatory
and collaborative web (web 2.0), have gradually blurred the boundaries
between formal and non-formal education, with much learning now
taking place outside traditional classrooms.
Distance learning, cooperative work in virtual environments, online
learning communities and access to vast resources and databases are
just some of the possibilities technology can offer to improve the quality
teaching and learning worldwide.

4. Finally, with this new flexibility come increased opportunities for
educational access.
Information and communication technologies (ICTs) in general, and
broadband in particular, have the potential to create highly versatile
education and training environments that can provide equal access
to learners regardless of gender, geographic location, socio-
economic or ethnic background, illness or disability, or any other
circumstance that would normally hinder the provision of high-quality
education.
By the end of 2011, nearly 2.3 billion people were using the internet,
suggesting that about a third of the world’s population is now online.
Although the global trend is towards universal access to technology,
particularly the internet, there are still many areas where internet
access is non-existent or extremely limited.
During the past 30 years, governments around the world have made
important efforts to support school technology adoption. Typically,
school technology policies have called for the acquisition of
equipment and networks, the provision of teacher-training
programmes and teacher-support schemes, and more recently the
development of digital content, either by public institutions, the
private sector or teachers themselves.

5. Nevertheless, it is clear that most
developed and middle-income
countries have made significant
investments in ICT in education in
recent years. In contrast, the level of
ICT in education investment in low-
income countries typically remains
small. The challenges to be
addressed in order to bridge this
gap include:

6. • Affordability: Most developing countries are struggling to equip
schools with basic ICT devices and digital resources. However
mobile phones offer a more affordable solution that makes use of
existing devices to connect teachers, students, parents and
administrators, as well as to promote literacy.
• Capacities: National policy-makers sometimes lack the capacity
to formulate ICT in education policies. In developing countries,
both the technical and pedagogical capacities of ministries of
education for managing and implementing ICT in education
programs are often low.
• Inclusion: Poor people, people living in rural areas, disabled
people and other disadvantaged groups typically receive low-
quality education, even though they have special educational
needs. The challenge is to ensure that the introduction of ICT
favors inclusive education and reduces inequalities.

7. • Content: ICT integration enriches the process of
educational content development and dissemination
by making far more content and teaching models
available to learners and educators. Open educational
resources (OERs) hold significant potential to
accelerate free access to knowledge and facilitate the
adaptation of content to local needs and languages.
• Quality assurance: ICT can help foster knowledge
deepening and creation, problem-solving and other
21st century skills, but the curriculum systems of most
developing countries have not been duly reformed to
embrace those new learning outcomes. As reforms
take place, issues such as the quality of ICT-based
learning and the safety of children online need to be
addressed.

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GOD SPEED.
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(http://www.thoughtleader.co.za/leeroychetty/2013/04/02/the-
importance-of-technology-for-education/)