o What are the key ideas underpinning the UNESCO Policy Framework?
l Introducing The knowledge ladder:
1.Basic Education
a) Policy goal: Providing the skills needed for improved health and welfare and to participated in the formal economy
i. Economic goal: to increase the number of people enter the formal economy by providing them with basic literacy and numeracy skills.
ii. Social goal: to provide life skills, increase civic participation and improve health and welfare.
iii. Education goal: universal primary education and increased participation of girls
b) Hallmark: the curriculum focuses on basic skills in literacy and numerary, as do assessment.
c) ICT implications:
i. Broadcast media: useful to disseminate information to both teachers and students
ii. Computers: limited, for teachers
iii. Internet: for management and administrative support, for school to connect to the central authorities
2.Knowledge Acquisition
a) Policy goal: increasing the knowledge level of workforce and citizenry and their ability to use technology
i. Economic goal: to build on industrial base, participative in the global economy, and begin to lay the foundations for broader prosperity.
ii. Social goal: to provide opportunities for advancement and foster social integration and equity.
iii. Educational goal: to improve a workforce that is more knowledgeable and skilled and capable of taking up new technologies.
b) Hallmark: associated with the mass production model of education
c) ICT implications:
i. Add ICT as a subject
ii. Emergence of computer-based tutorials, tools, and e-content as part of whole class, group or individual student activities.
iii. Networked ICT
iv. Computer laboratories
3.Knowledge Deepening
a) Policy goal: increasing the ability of the workforce and citizenry to use knowledge to participate in society and add value to economic output by applying school knowledge to solve complex, real-world problems.
i. Educational goal: make school learning more relevant to the workplace and to social life.
b) Hallmark: emphasizing the important relevance between teaching & learning and realistic problems.
c) ICT implications:
i. ICT becomes integrated into curriculum and into daily classroom practice
ii. Equipment is available for regular use in classroom
iii. Networking for teacher and students
iv. Emergence of digital resources and electronic portfolios
4.Knowledge Creation
i. Economic goal: to build on industrial base, participative in the global economy, and begin to lay the foundations for broader prosperity.
ii. Social goal: to provide opportunities for advancement and foster social integration and equity.
iii. Educational goal: to improve a workforce that is more knowledgeable and skilled and capable of taking up new technologies.
b) Hallmark: associated with the mass production model of education
c) ICT implications:
i. Add ICT as a subject
ii. Emergence of computer-based tutorials, tools, and e-content as part of whole class, group or individual student activities.
iii. Networked ICT
iv. Computer laboratories
3.Knowledge Deepening
a) Policy goal: increasing the ability of the workforce and citizenry to use knowledge to participate in society and add value to economic output by applying school knowledge to solve complex, real-world problems.
i. Educational goal: make school learning more relevant to the workplace and to social life.
b) Hallmark: emphasizing the important relevance between teaching & learning and realistic problems.
c) ICT implications:
i. ICT becomes integrated into curriculum and into daily classroom practice
ii. Equipment is available for regular use in classroom
iii. Networking for teacher and students
iv. Emergence of digital resources and electronic portfolios
4.Knowledge Creation
a) Policy goal: increasing the capability of the citizenry and workforce to continually learn, to create cultural artifacts, to innovate and produce new knowledge, and to benefit from this new knowledge
i. Educational goal: 21st century skills
b) Hallmark: emphasizing the lifelong learning and innovation of new knowledge
c) ICT implications:
i. Various use of electronic devices among teachers and students
ii. Massive use of digital resources
iii. Web 2.0 & 3.0 social and knowledge environment
iv. ICT-based tools
l A new paradigm in education:
i. Educational goal: 21st century skills
b) Hallmark: emphasizing the lifelong learning and innovation of new knowledge
c) ICT implications:
i. Various use of electronic devices among teachers and students
ii. Massive use of digital resources
iii. Web 2.0 & 3.0 social and knowledge environment
iv. ICT-based tools
l A new paradigm in education:
n A shift from mass production model to knowledge creation model:
1. From mass production paradigm to information technology paradigm
2. From producing the objects to producing the knowledge
3. From supporting the dissemination of information from centralized authorities to fostering the consumption of mass produced goods
4. From productive function to create new knowledge to using network to access and share information
n The impact of this new paradigm:
1. Knowledge is the key productive factor and products and services must meet a variety of customized needs
2. A larger and more diverse group come to participate in governmental and civic processes and institutions
3. Productively engage in the use of ICT to create, share and use new knowledge products and services
n What is the impact of ICT in this new paradigm:
The capabilities of ICT:
a) New capabilities: interactive, productive capabilities and networking capability
b) It fits with an educational system that is turned to knowledge creation and that is aligned with the emerging technological, economic, and social paradigm.
c) The new technological, economic and social paradigm demands a different response from the education system.
l The important role of policy in educational change
n Policy can facilitate change, but it does not guarantee its implementation or impact. Sometimes it fails too.
n From systemic change to transformational change:
Policies intended not only to change all the components of the education system but transform the system itself, so that education aligns with and supports an emerging social and economic paradigm shift
o What implications does this policy framework (knowledge acquisition, knowledge deepening and knowledge creation) have on curriculum and pedagogical practice in schools and classrooms?
1.Knowledge acquisition
1. From mass production paradigm to information technology paradigm
2. From producing the objects to producing the knowledge
3. From supporting the dissemination of information from centralized authorities to fostering the consumption of mass produced goods
4. From productive function to create new knowledge to using network to access and share information
n The impact of this new paradigm:
1. Knowledge is the key productive factor and products and services must meet a variety of customized needs
2. A larger and more diverse group come to participate in governmental and civic processes and institutions
3. Productively engage in the use of ICT to create, share and use new knowledge products and services
n What is the impact of ICT in this new paradigm:
The capabilities of ICT:
a) New capabilities: interactive, productive capabilities and networking capability
b) It fits with an educational system that is turned to knowledge creation and that is aligned with the emerging technological, economic, and social paradigm.
c) The new technological, economic and social paradigm demands a different response from the education system.
l The important role of policy in educational change
n Policy can facilitate change, but it does not guarantee its implementation or impact. Sometimes it fails too.
n From systemic change to transformational change:
Policies intended not only to change all the components of the education system but transform the system itself, so that education aligns with and supports an emerging social and economic paradigm shift
o What implications does this policy framework (knowledge acquisition, knowledge deepening and knowledge creation) have on curriculum and pedagogical practice in schools and classrooms?
1.Knowledge acquisition
a) Curriculum:
The curriculum enumerates a large number of facts and concepts within school subjects and emphasizes their acquisition. ICT is included as a subject in the curriculum.
b) Pedagogical practice:
Teaching is focused on information delivery. Lectures are common but information may be presented in a variety of forms. Alternatively, instruction can be individualized and self-paced.
Involving the use of various computer-based tutorials, tools, and e-content as part of whole class, group, or individual student activities but the use is often supplemental.
2.Knowledge deepening
a) Curriculum:
The curriculum identifies key, interrelated concepts and principles that organize the subject area. It emphasizes deep understanding of these within and across subjects and their application to solve complex real world problems. Curriculum implementation is responsive to local contexts.
b) Pedagogical practice:
Teaching is conducted in the context of complex, open-ended questions and problems and it is anchored in real world contexts. Classroom activities involve the application of key concepts and principles to analyze systems and solve problems across subjects. Internships and apprenticeships can be an important way to connect school learning to the real world.
It also structures collaborative classroom activities, projects, and investigations that engage students in use of the new concepts and principles to solve extended, open-ended, real-world problems.
Technology plays an important role, as students use visualizations and stimulations to explore, understand, and apply complex knowledge.
3.Knowledge creation
a) Curriculum:
The curriculum is flexible and responsive to student goals and local contexts. It emphasizes the development of collaboration, inquiry, information management, creativity, and critical thinking skills. Learning how to learn is essential.
b) Pedagogical practice:
Teaching consists of challenging students to build on their knowledge and explore new topics. Collaborative projects and investigations involve searching for information, collecting and analyzing data, generating knowledge products, and communicating with outside experts and audiences to share results.
Teachers design a learning community and a set of activities and resources in which students are continuously engaged in the sustained, collaborative process of building on current knowledge and cultural artifacts to create and share new contributions.
o Read Zhao, Lei and Conway (2006). What are the similarities and differences between the framework used in this paper and the UNESCO framework?
1. Zhao, Lei and Conway framework:
a) Educational goals
b) Portrayal of technology
c) Portrayal of teacher
d) Portrayal of student
2. UNESCO framework:
a) Policies
b) Professional development
c) Pedagogy
d) Curriculum
e) Assessment
f) School organization
g) ICT use
3. Similarities:
Both frameworks emphasize the importance of technology, talk about the goals in general and also mention about teaching and learning in education.
Both of the two frameworks have case studies on different countries based on the distance, economic development level and population size in order to verify its own theory.
4. Differences:
a) Talking about technology, in Zhao, Lei and Conway framework, technology is a more general concept, while in UNESCO framework, technology is regarding as the tools that help in teaching and learning.
b) In Zhao, Lei and Conway, pedagogical development is divided into two separate part as in teacher’s perspective and student’s perspective. On the other side, UNESCO demonstrates it in details as four different themes -- pedagogy, curriculum, assessment and school organization.
c) As policy goals, Zhao, Lei and Conway framework focuses only on the educational feild, while the other one extend it as policies of economy, social and education. Because the latter one believes a new paradigm in education can also have impact aligned with social and economy.
d) The specific countries that have been studied in these two frameworks are different:
i. Zhao, Lei and Conway: Ireland, New Zealand, Singapore, U.K., U.S.A., Chile, China, India, South Africa, South Korea, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh.
ii. UNESCO: Singapore, Namibia, Jordan, Uruguay, Rwanda.
In Zhao, Lei and Conway’s paper, there is massive comparison between these thirteen countries. Differently, in UNESCO’s, it separatively talks about the implementation in different countries, adding a chapter to make conclusion in the end.
o What is your evaluation of the usefulness of these two frameworks?
First of all, the framework by Zhao, Lei and Conway gives me a general definition of E-learning based on four themes. Also, with all the comparison from these 13-countries case studies, I have gained the very first impression of how different countries expect from ICT and what have they done with ICT in education. For a first learner about policy in ICT, this paper is very informative as it illustrates as much as it can with massive comparison.
Secondly, as a 255-page book rather than a paper, UNESCO framework is more detail and this is the reason why the factors of this framework are more detailed than the other one. Besides, the case studies in this book provide a clear and overall view of different policies and implementations in different countries, which enable me the furth comprehensive understanding of the impact on this framework. Also the Knowledge Ladder covered in this book is the most attracting term in my eyes.
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