Chapter 7: Summary, conclusion, and recommendations
3.2 Brief history and overview of the Internet
3.2.1 Internet and education
All over the world, as opined by UNESCO (2014:59):
There is a growing body of research, government initiatives, and promising practices which support the view that, when technology is properly implemented in a systemic and coherent way with teachers’ commitment and support, then students can develop meaningful knowledge, skills, values and attitudes which can empower them for lifelong learning and gainful employment.
The Internet has within a very short time become one of the effective tools in educational delivery with many countries regarding the understanding and mastering of its basic skills and concepts as essential element of education (Meenakshi, 2013:4). The development and use of Internet and other ICTs in education are providing solutions to enhance traditional delivery modes and pedagogies in the educational sector. Governments all over the world are therefore integrating ICTs in their educational sectors in order to improve teaching and learning by empowering teachers and learners with technology. For example, the Broadband for All Initiative in South Africa is designed to help address technological inclusion by minimising the divide between the connected and unconnected.
The Internet is a major technological tool that provides important opportunities for its adoption and use in educational institutions. The development, acceptability and adoption of the Internet
60
and other ICTs by countries all over the world provide clear and great opportunities for enhancing quality teaching and learning (Van Reijswoud, 2009). These advancements towards the use of the Internet have changed the methodology of education and this has therefore made the Internet a very powerful tool within the educational sector (Jain, 2016:769). Technological development and increasing growth of the Internet connectivity have also helped in the building of inclusive and participatory knowledge societies as well as access to quality education. Similarly, it has also been found that, successful employment of ICT in education has helped in the promotion of effective teaching and learning (Gholami et al., 2010).
The Internet again provides a vast amount of information for learners and this has also made it the modern engine of progress by having a far more invasive effect on education (Jain, 2016:769).
According to Denvir (2016:204), the Internet is offering a platform for information exchange, much of which is freely provided by a number of stakeholders for educational purposes. The development of digital technologies and increasing advancement of the Internet is so vivid that countries all over the world cannot afford to overlook the positive role of the Internet and other ICTs for improved access to education as well as enhancement of educational equity, quality, and relevance (UNESCO, 2014:56). Educators as well as learners are particularly applying an increasing number of learning tools via the Internet for teaching and learning.
During the World Education Forum in Dakar in the year 2000, 164 countries adopted a strategy termed “harness new ICTs to help achieve Education for All (EFA) goals” This strategy stresses the link between education and the Internet and other ICTs as key enablers for sustainable development in the area of education. The strategy also advocates for the affordable use of the Internet and other ICTs towards the bridging of the 'digital divide' (UNESCO, 2014:56) by providing improved ways towards quality teaching and learning. This is in support of Kumar’s (2016:138) study that found that, the Internet and other ICTs over the years were providing new and improved ways of working in education with ICT becoming both a field of study as well as an important dimension in education.
The Internet can therefore be said to offer “previously unavailable options for interaction with information for informal-to-formal learning” (Mills and Angnakoon, 2015:134). Current systems
61
of education that are empowered by ICT driven infrastructure have a great opportunity of bringing up to the centre stage an ensured academic excellence, quality delivery and management in a knowledge based society (Jain, 2016:769). This stems from the fact that, the Internet is becoming the integral part of education that enlarges society. It could therefore be said that the growing trend of education currently is based on the availability of the Internet and other ICTs in educational institutions. The Internet is therefore serving as an important resource towards development of many areas of knowledge society.
Clearly, the Internet and other ICTs are currently improving teaching and learning and now serve as important tools for teachers in performing their pedagogical roles in educational environments.
It is therefore important to promote the development and use of the Internet and other modern technologies for teaching and learning (Kumar, 2016:138). Since the Internet has become an integral part of our knowledge society, the need to embrace it by accepting and adopting the Internet to improve learning and teaching, in this era of modern technological society should be emphasised (Shah and Empungan, 2015).
Mills and Angnakoon (2015:134) opined that the Internet and other “ICT tools provide a choice in options for learning”. The Internet has therefore made it easy for learners to acquire the skills they need to progress in their educational career since it motivates the learners to get good thinking skills and remain well informed (Jain, 2016:769). The application of the Internet and other ICTs for teaching and learning promotes educational delivery since it helps in accessing unlimited relevant information through the provision of efficient and effective services to take care of the informational needs of learners (Bede, Termit and Fong, 2015).
The positive impacts of technologies such as the Internet on education has motivated educational institutions to restructure their educational programmes and infrastructure so as to minimise the technological gap in teaching and learning between now and future; this is compelling instructors and learners to adopt and use the Internet and other ICTs in and out-of-classroom works (Kumar, 2016:139). Particularly, the influence of the Internet in learners’ lives is too vivid to ignore; thus, it is important for educational institutions to develop and implement policies for the use of the Internet and other ICTs to improve teaching and learning (Meenakshi, 2013:5). Most learners these
62
days are able to use a computer and the Internet with majority of them using social media platforms for the sharing of information or thoughts among themselves. Instructors have also incorporated the use of the Internet and social media to get in touch with their learners by sharing information and delivering instructions through the technology (Jain, 2016:770).
The current study understands that, the employment of the Internet and other ICTs in education is widespread and are continually and generally regarded as tools that empower instructors and learners to make significant contributions in teaching and learning. This depicts that, learners’
achievements and improvement in learning could be linked to the effective development and integration of ICTs in their educational career (Meenakshi, 2013:3).
UNESCO (2014:59) has outlined six strategies that provide enabling conditions for effective implementation of ICTs to contribute to educational development:
• The creation of holistic learning environments;
• Capacity-building and empowerment of students and teachers to use technology in meaningful ways;
• Content and curriculum development to facilitate the integration of ICTs;
• Assessment of authentic learning;
• Addressing the gender gap; and
• Exploiting emerging opportunities such as mobile learning.