ICT Development Index

The ICT Development Index ranks and compares the level of ICT use and access across the various countries around the world.^[14] In 2014 ITU (International Communications Union) released the latest rankings of the IDI, with Denmark attaining the top spot, followed by South Korea. The top 30 countries in the rankings include most high-income countries where quality of life is higher than average, which includes countries from Europe and other regions such as "Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Japan, Macao (China), New Zealand, Singapore and the United States; almost all countries surveyed improved their IDI ranking this year."^[15]

The WSIS process and ICT development goals

On 21 December 2001, the United Nations General Assembly approved Resolution 56/183, endorsing the holding of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) to discuss the opportunities and challenges facing today's information society.^[16] According to this resolution, the General Assembly related the Summit to the United Nations Millennium Declaration's goal of implementing ICT to achieve Millennium Development Goals. It also emphasized a multi-stakeholder approach to achieve these goals, using all stakeholders including civil society and the private sector, in addition to governments.
To help anchor and expand ICT to every habitable part of the world, "2015 is the deadline for achievements of the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which global leaders agreed upon in the year 2000."^[17]

ICT in education

Today's society shows the ever-growing computer-centric lifestyle, which includes the rapid influx of computers in the modern classroom.

Information and Communication Technology can contribute to universal access to education, equity in education, the delivery of quality learning and teaching, teachers’ professional development and more efficient education management, governance and administration. UNESCO takes a holistic and comprehensive approach to promoting ICT in education. Access, inclusion and quality are among the main challenges they can address. The Organization’s Intersectral Platform for ICT in education focuses on these issues through the joint work of three of its sectors: Communication & Information, Education and Science.

ICT today

In modern society ICT is ever-present, with over three billion people having access to the Internet.^[18] With approximately 8 out of 10 Internet users owning a smartphone, information and data are increasing by leaps and bounds.^[19] This rapid growth, especially in developing countries, has led ICT to become a keystone of everyday life, in which life without some facet of technology renders most of clerical, work and routine tasks dysfunctional. The most recent authoritative data, released in 2014, shows "that Internet use continues to grow steadily, at 6.6% globally in 2014 (3.3% in developed countries, 8.7% in the developing world); the number of Internet users in developing countries has doubled in five years (2009-2014), with two thirds of all people online now living in the developing world."^[15]
However, hurdles are still at large. "Of the 4.3 billion people not yet using the Internet, 90% live in developing countries. In the world’s 42 Least Connected Countries (LCCs), which are home to 2.5 billion people, access to ICTs remains largely out of reach, particularly for these countries’ large rural populations."^[20] ICT has yet to penetrate the remote areas of some countries, with many developing countries dearth of any type of Internet. This also includes the availability of telephone lines, particularly the availability of cellular coverage, and other forms of electronic transmission of data. The latest "Measuring the Information Society Report" cautiously stated that the increase in the aforementioned cellular data coverage is ostensible, as "many users have multiple subscriptions, with global growth figures sometimes translating into little real improvement in the level of connectivity of those at the very bottom of the pyramid; an estimated 450 million people worldwide live in places which are still out of reach of mobile cellular service."^[18]
Favorably, the gap between the access to the Internet and mobile coverage has decreased substantially in the last fifteen years, in which "2015 is the deadline for achievements of the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which global leaders agreed upon in the year 2000, and the new data show ICT progress and highlight remaining gaps deadline for achievements of the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which global leaders agreed upon in the year 2000, and the new data show ICT progress and highlight remaining gaps."^[17] ICT continues to take on new form, with nanotechnology set to usher in a new wave of ICT electronics and gadgets. ICT newest editions into the modern electronic world include smart watches, such as the Apple Watch, smart wristbands such as the Nike+ FuelBand, and smart TVs such as Google TV. With desktops soon becoming part of a bygone era, and laptops becoming the preferred method of computing, ICT continues to insinuate and alter itself in the ever-changing globe.

Information and communications technology (ICT)

Information and communications technology (ICT) is often used as an extended synonym for information technology (IT). It is a more extensive term (i.e. more broad in scope) that stresses the role of unified communications^[1] and the integration of telecommunications (telephone lines and wireless signals), computers as well as necessary enterprise software, middleware, storage, and audio-visual systems, which enable users to access, store, transmit, and manipulate information.^[2]

Brahima Sanou, Director of the ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT) department since January of 2011.

The term ICT is also used to refer to the convergence of audio-visual and telephone networks with computer networks through a single cabling or link system. There are large economic incentives (huge cost savings due to elimination of the telephone network) to merge the telephone network with the computer network system using a single unified system of cabling, signal distribution and management.
However, ICT has no universal definition, as "the concepts, methods and applications involved in ICT are constantly evolving on an almost daily basis."^[3] The broadness of ICT covers any product that will store, retrieve, manipulate, transmit or receive information electronically in a digital form, e.g. personal computers, digital television, email, robots. For clarity, Zuppo provided an ICT hierarchy where the all levels of the hierarchy "contain some degree of commonality in that they are related to technologies that facilitate the transfer of information and various types of electronically mediated communications.".^[4]

ICT 21TH CENTURY

1. It is generally believed that ICTs can empower teachers and learners, promote change and foster the development of ‘21st century skills, but data to support these beliefs are still limitedThere is widespread belief that ICTs can and will empower teachers and learners, transforming teaching and learning processes from being highly teacher-dominated to student-centered, and that this transformation will result in increased learning gains for students, creating and allowing for opportunities for learners to develop their creativity, problem-solving abilities, informational reasoning skills, communication skills, and other higher-order thinking skills. However, there are currently very limited, unequivocally compelling data to support this belief.
2. ICTs are very rarely seen as central to the overall learning processEven in the most advanced schools in OECD countries, ICTs are generally not considered central to the teaching and learning process. Many ICT in education initiatives in LDCs seek (at least in their rhetoric) to place ICTs as central to teaching and learning.
3. An enduring problem: putting technology before educationOne of the enduring difficulties of technology use in education is that educational planners and technology advocates think of the technology first and then investigate the educational applications of this technology only later.

Impact on student achievement

1. The positive impact of ICT use in education has not been proven In general, and despite thousands of impact studies, the impact of ICT use on student achievement remains difficult to measure and open to much reasonable debate.
2. Positive impact more likely when linked to pedagogy It is believed that specific uses of ICT can have positive effects on student achievement when ICTs are used appropriately to complement a teacher’s existing pedagogical philosophies.
3. ‘Computer Aided Instruction’ has been seen to slightly improve student performance on multiple choice, standardized testing in some areasComputer Aided (or Assisted) Instruction (CAI), which refers generally to student self-study or tutorials on PCs, has been shown to slightly improve student test scores on some reading and math skills, although whether such improvement correlates to real improvement in student learning is debatable.
4. Need for clear goalsICTs are seen to be less effective (or ineffective) when the goals for their use are not clear. While such a statement would appear to be self-evident, the specific goals for ICT use in education are, in practice, are often only very broadly or rather loosely defined.
5. There is an important tension between traditional versus 'new' pedagogies and standardized testingTraditional, transmission-type pedagogies are seen as more effective in preparation for standardized testing, which tends to measure the results of such teaching practices, than are more ‘constructivist’ pedagogical styles.
6. Mismatch between methods used to measure effects and type of learning promotedIn many studies there may be a mismatch between the methods used to measure effects and the nature of the learning promoted by the specific uses of ICT. For example, some studies have looked only for improvements in traditional teaching and learning processes and knowledge mastery instead of looking for new processes and knowledge relatd to the use of ICTs. It may be that more useful analyses of the impact of ICT can only emerge when the methods used to measure achievement and outcomes are more closely related to the learning activities and processes promoted by the use of ICTs.
7. ICTs are used differently in different school subjectsUses of ICTs for simulations and modeling in science and math have been shown to be effective, as have word processing and communication software (e-mail) in the development of student language and communication skills.
8. Access outside of school affects impactThe relationships between in-class student computer use, out of class student computer use and student achievement are unclear. However, students in OECD countries reporting the greatest amount of computer use outside school are seen in some studies to have lower than average achievement (the presumption is that high computer use outside of school is disproportionately devoted to computer gaming).
9. Users believe that ICTs make a positive differenceIn studies that rely largely on self-reporting, most users feel that using ICTs make them more effective learners.
   

Impact on student motivation

Impact on student motivation

1. ICTs motivate teachers and studentsThere appears to be general consensus that both teachers and students feel ICT use greatly contributes to student motivation for learning.
2. Access outside of school affects user confidence(Not surprisingly) Students who use a computer at home also use them in school more frequently and with more confidence than pupils who have no home access.
3. Where to place computers has an impactPlacing computers in classrooms enables much greater use of ICTs for ‘higher order’ skills than placing computers in separate computer laboratories (indeed, fewer computers in classrooms may enable even more use than greater numbers of computers located in separate computer labs). Related to this is an increasing attention given to the use of laptops by both teachers and students (and in some places, ‘computers-on-wheels’), as well as, to a much lesser extent, to the use of personal digital assistants and other mobile devices.
4. Models for successfully integrating ICT use in school and after school hours are still emergingThere are few successful models for the integration of student computer use at home or in other 'informal settings' outside of school facilities with use in school.
5. The appropriate ages for introducing computers to students are hotly debatedOn a general level, appropriate ages for student ICT use in general are unclear. However, it is clear that certain uses are more or less appropriate, given student ages and abilities. Emerging research cautions against widespread use at younger ages.
6. ICTs can promote learner autonomyEvidence exists that use of ICTs can increase learner autonomy for certain learners.
7. Gender affects impactUses of ICTs in education in many cases to be affected by the gender of the learner.
8. The ‘pilot effect’ can be an important driver for positive impact Dedicated ICT-related interventions in education that introduce a new tool for teaching and learning may show improvements merely because the efforts surrounding such interventions lead teachers and students to do ‘more’ (potentially diverting energies and resources from other activities).
   

ICT