Actual Assignment

7/31/2019 Actual Assignment

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Computer programming and

application

Topic: Impact of ICT on education

Submitted To:Mr. Abul Kahar KhanLecturer of CPA

Metropolitan University, Sylhet.

Submitted By:Mir Md. Nazmul HaydarMBA 22nd BatchID No: 111-126-025

Metropolitan University

Course Code: 033


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Content

Sl No. Name of title Page no.

1 Terms of reference 1

2 Methodology 1

3 Introduction 2-3

4 what it is and why it matters 3-4

5 ICT: driving sustainable development of theKnowledge Economy

4

6 Our Priority in ICT Education 5-67 ICT and Modern Society 6-7

8 Global Context of ICT Development 7

9 Prospects of ICT Globalization 8

10 Digital Divide and Bangladesh 9-10

11 ICT for social Development 10

12 ICT in Bangladesh 11

13 ICT and Education in Bangladesh 14

14 Issues and Problems 14-16

15 Conclusion 17


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Background

This paper is prepared as an assignment for course of Business

communication in MBA program at Metropoilitan university, Sylhet. Thispaper explores the impact and importance of ICT in education.

Methodology

This paper is secondary based research. All informations are collectedfrom internet. List of resources given last page of this paper.

What dose ICT means:

Information & Communications Technology (ICT) is part of so

many aspects of our daily lives and the key for much innovation,including significant health innovations like MRIs andenvironmental solutions like hybrid cars.

ICT covers all forms of computer and communications equipment andsoftware used to create, design, store, transmit, interpret andmanipulate information in its various formats. Personal computers,laptops, tablets, mobile phones, transport systems, televisions, andnetwork technologies are just some examples of the diverse array of ICTtools.

Studies in ICT include many disciplines, such as mathematics,information systems, physics and design. The skills acquired in an ICTdegree can be applied to everything from satellites to iPhone apps, fromCT scanners to computer games.

While many people think of Information Technology when they think ofICT, Multimedia Design, Computer Systems Engineering and SoftwareEngineering also lead to careers in ICT.

I. Introduction

In the beginning globalization is fully believed to be able to lead togreater economic development in the sense of greater market scale,which in turn will increase the gross national product. So peoplebelieved that poor countries or third world countries will develop faster,thus the economic gap between the rich developed countries and thethird world countries will be diminished.


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However, facts show the contrary. It is true that the gross nationalproduct of countries will increase, but the gap between the income ofthe rich and poor countries is also getting wider.

The main reason for this gap is the extra-ordinary growth of information

as a result of the development of communications and informationtechnologies in western developed countries which have full control ofthese technologies. This information boom enables multinationalcompanies to compete with changes in market demands, new productsand new technologies, which in turn can boost the economy of acountry, increase its efficiency and win global dominance.

On the other hand, in third world countries which are also known assouthern hemisphere countries, they have difficulties to seek, to receive,to process and to produce information. The lack of appropriateinformation at the right time will result in low productivity, low quality

research works, and waste of time to pursue information and even to doresearch which actually had been done by others or in other countries.

Bangladesh as a third world country has a great concern over thisdeficiency and believe that the digital divide should be reduced so thatthere will be an economic recovery. Daffodil Group is very much concernabout this and we are determined to utilize the information technologyeffectively to support efforts to increase the national competitiveness.Daffodil Group has emerged as one of the most prominent andexperienced ICT and Educational conglomerate in Bangladesh. TheGroup took off from the incipient period after establishment of Daffodil

Computers ltd. an ICT concern, widely known as Daffodil which cameabout to be its first successful venture. Quality, trust, service &efficiency are the key performance assets of Daffodil Group, which havesuccessfully been operating in all spheres of business activities rangingfrom ICT to highest level of education. Keeping pace with rapideconomical and technological changes followed by the policy ofGlobalization, Daffodil Group has outspread their business activitieswithin a short period of time and has been able to emerge as the largestICT Company and premier education provider of the country.

Digital inclusion: what it is and why it matters

Since the early 1990s, an increasing number of countries around theworld have developed programs to address the digital divide, aimingto:


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increase availability and use of Information and CommunicationTechnologies (ICT)

help citizens and businesses become more sophisticated in their use of

ICT

encourage a socially equitable diffusion of the benefits of ICT.

Bridging the digital divide in and among countries has assumed acritical importance on our respective national agendas.

Leaders of the G8 nations, Okinawa, July 2000

"Technology has given birth to the information age. Now it is up to all ofus to build an information society. From trade to telemedicine, fromeducation to environmental protection, we have in our hands, on ourdesktops and in the skies above, the ability to improve standards ofliving for millions upon millions of people.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, December2003

These triple policy goals have been pursued by political leaders bothwithin countries and in promoting international development betweencountries underpinning achievement of the Millennium DevelopmentGoals. This is not about technology for the sake of technology. Politicalleaders have focused on the importance of digital inclusion becausethey recognise that the changes being driven and enabled by ICTpresent a historic opportunity to:

deliver genuinely sustainable development, generating new growth,

jobs and productivity

transform public services around the needs of citizens, while alsosignificantly increasing the efficiency of public services

improve engagement and participation in the democratic process.


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ICT: driving sustainable development of the KnowledgeEconomy

The ICT sectors are significant and growing in both developing anddeveloped countries:

- In OECD countries, the ICT sectors contributed close to 10% ofbusiness sector GDP - up from 8% in 1995

- China, India and South America, saw average yearly growth rates inICT expenditure of around 13% during the 1990s, compared with anOECD average of 7%

Evidence from OECD countries shows that:

- ICT investment accounted for between 0.3 and 0.8 percentage point ofgrowth in the last half of the 1990s

- Exploitation of that investment throughout the value chain contributesto improved firm performance, helping firms increase their overallcombined labour and capital productivity

ICT professionals account for 5% of employed people in OECDcountries, while around 20% more use ICTs intensively in their jobs.

Higher shares of ICT users are associated with higher levels ofproductivity

In the future, business leaders estimate that 85% of jobs in the UK willrequire ICT skills

(Sources: OECD, Confederation of British Industry)

Given the importance of policy objectives, and the decade long

experience of digital inclusion policy around the world, policy makersshould now have an increasingly clear picture of what works and whatdoesnt. Yet the existing mechanisms for networking and for bestpractice dissemination between Governments tend not to operate on thereal-time basis needed to keep up with the pace of change. Moreover,best practice transfers between countries often fail, because they tendto be based on an exchange of information, rather than on transferring


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the underlying know-how about the cultural, political and contextualfactors which have contributed to success.

Our Priority in ICT Education

In this 21st century no nation can dream of success withoutadvancement of education & ICT. This is more so far Bangladesh with140 millions people in only 55 thousand square miles. 35 years havepassed since we got independence through historic freedom fight.Unfortunately, the country has not progressed; exception of thecommon mass has remained unfulfilled. With the flow of time no hope oflight is in sight; a sense of despair and lack of mission is engulfing the

whole nation. Repeated failures of larger and larger dimensions in ournational activities and in the international arena are in one handreducing self confidence of our people and the other giving poorerimage of the country in the world. The whole nation is in a vicious circleof non-development. Under these circumstances there must be someinitiatives of far reaching consequences to lead the country back to theroad of progress. Where else can we take the initiative other then in ICT& education?

There are many examples in neighboring countries where thedevelopment of nation has been brought about the improvement of ICT& education, with visionary initiative in the sector. Creation ok KoreaAdvanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Indian Institutesof Technology, Tata Institute of Fundamental research, Indian Instituteof Science are growing examples of initiative in education that havechanged technological face of the country. KAIST is widely regarded as acreator of modern Korea. For the last 30 years Korea has invested ineducation enormously and the result is astonishing as can be seen fromeconomy, scientific and technological progress. The same is true forMalaysia that was sending thousands of students to Australia, UK and

USA for many years for education. Now they are developing acommendable education base.

Let me come back to computer education. In Bangladesh for the last 15years more and more universities opened departments in this field.Nationally we also aspired for changing lot of our distressed people


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through the golden touch of information technology. Unfortunately, innone of our efforts did appear that computer education should be givensome priority. There were directives from the upper level to doubleintake in relevant disciplines without really giving any commitment toimproving ICT facilities and development in education. For the last 10/15

years we have been dreaming to change the socio economy condition ofthe country through reaping the benefit in Information Technology.Different governments have attached significant improvement to ITcalling it thrust sector and so on. Efforts have been made to formulate ITpolicies in order to expedite and accelerate its progress. Meetings,seminars, festivals, exhibitions on IT have become a part of our life. Thegovernment has set up an incubator to facilitate IT developmentactivities and has given tax holiday to our entrepreneurs. Butunfortunately none of these infinitives has been rewarded with anymentionable success. A tow billions dollars ambitious target for softwareexport has been set although there is no justifying indication in our

performance. It appears that our initiatives are not mission oriented.

Time and again government has instructed to increase intake incomputer departments throughout the country with a hope that thesegraduates will add to the IT workforce. Hoverer, there has been nogovernment institutive to develop laboratory facilities or faculty inuniversities. While professionals of different fields are able to participatein IT related workshops and other training programs, as far as we knowthese facilities are almost never available to teachers of computers

department of any university. We are aware of our deficiencies and thebig responsibilities that have been placed on our shoulders withoutstrengthening it, reinforcing it.

ICT and Modern Society

ICT applications created paradigm shifts in business, administration,

financial services, education, publication, entertainment, healthcare,transportation etc. Commercial and business institutions need toaccommodate new technologies, protocols and standards. In thecircumstances some areas which require special attention fordeveloping nations like Bangladesh are:

- E-commerce


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- E-government

- ICT in Management

- ICT in Healthcare

- ICT in education

- ICT in research

- E-travel

- E-entertainment etc.

Global Context of ICT Development

The combination of global telephone networks and the global Internetcomprise the larger and most complex machine ever built by man; andinformation related activities of the modern world are heavily dependenton it. The internet is the largest source of information of all sorts. Newopportunities and new ways of solving problems have been opened upby ICT; the following list includes some of them:

- Internet communications

- Online and internet banking

- Electronic funds transfer

- E-commerce and m-commerce

- Virtual factories

- Collaborative research

- Global enterprises

- Exports and import wing W.W.W.

- Virtual institution of learning


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- E-Journals & E-Magazines

Modern financial and other services performed globally depend largely

on ICT resources. Many corporate bodies use networks having thousandsof servers and clients and their Web sites get millions of hits per day.Electronic publishing allows items to be distributed electronically,viewed electronically and printed selectively from anywhere in theworld.

Prospects of ICT Globalization

Instant access to multitude if information available through the internetfrom countless Web sites and quick decision making using suchinformation are essential to be competitive in the present globalizationera. The present generation must adapt to new situations some of whichare outlined below:

- Instant accesses to information

- Quick decision making

- Efficient management

- Effective governance

- Global culture and global society

- Speeder research and development

- Faster changing in human activities

- Transparency through ICT

- Diminishing importance of political boundary etc.

Associated Problems


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ICT services did not expand uniformly in the global and e3xpect fewcountries most nations occupy insignificant positions in the ICT map ofthe world. Major impediments for slow growth of ICT in many countriesincluding Bangladesh are:

- Inadequate information infrastructure

- Absence of ICT policy

- Poor quality education

- Access of education in rural & remote areas

- Lack of political will

- Digital divides etc.

Effective ICT Environment

Developments have become dependent on effective informationinfrastructure. Like transport infrastructure for industrial society,

internet connectivity, Web contents, Knowledge based workforce andappropriate legal infrastructure for applications of ICT in the presentinformation age.

Digital Divide and Bangladesh

With about 30% of its population, most of the people of Bangladesh live

in villages where amenities for ICT are almost nonexistent. Noticeabledigital divide in the country can be observed in the following areas:

- Urban and rural populations

- Dhaka and the rest of the country


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- Different educational streams

- Rich population and poor population

- Male & female

- Main stream and tribal population

- Lack of education

- GOB & private organization

The city of Dhaka, with the population of about 8% of the totalpopulation of the country, is the hub of ICT activities in the country and

a huge digital divide exists between the city of Dhaka and the rest of thecountry in the areas mentioned below:

- University campus

- Academic programs in ICT

- Internet services providers

- Cyber cafes

- Software firms

- English & Bangla medium education system etc.

We a spire a digital divide free Bangladesh with ICT education, internetconnectivity and software industries evenly spread over the country.

ICT for social Development


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Social development is a very complex issues and ICT should beeffectively used for several crucial areas in Bangladesh and a few arementioned below:

- Eradication of Corruption

- Politics and democracy

- Poverty alleviation

- Urban & rural environment

- Education for all

- Medias responsibilities

ICT in Bangladesh

As mentioned above, the success of utilization of ICT is among othersdepends on the infrastructure which includes the telecommunicationnetwork, the availability of internet facilities, education and the use ofinternet.

In general the development of ICT in Bangladesh nowadays is lessencouraging compared to the developed countries, or even compared toneighboring countries such as India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri lanka, Pakistanand others.

To give a general picture of the ICT & education condition in Bangladeshlet us consider the data quoted from the bureau of statistics of theGovernment of Bangladesh, 2003 as follows.

Total population-140 million

Rural population as a percentage of total population-76% (estimated)

Key economic sectors-Ready-made garments, frozen foods and shrimp,tea, raw jute and jute products, leather and leather products, chemicalfertilizer, handicrafts, ceramic products.

Literacy in the national language(s)-56%


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Computer ownership per 100 inhabitants-0.78

Telephone lines per 100 inhabitants-4.64

Internet hosts per 10,000 inhabitants-0.015 (estimated)

Internet users per 10,000 inhabitants-19.04

Internet cafs/telecentres per 10,000 inhabitants-0.19 (estimated)

Internet users per 10,000 inhabitants-19.04

Cell phone subscribers per 100 inhabitants-3.91

Number of websites in the national language(s)-200 (estimated)

Number of websites in English and other language(s)-600 (estimated)

National bandwidth within the country-68 Mbps (data) (estimated)

National bandwidth to and from the country-112 Mbps (estimated)

ICT and Education in Bangladesh

A. ICT Education

In the development of human resources through ICT education, there

are two objectives which are desired to meet the need for skilled humanresources: those who can use ICT products (ICT users) and those whocan produce ICT products (ICT producers).

Some ICT education which have been done and are still being done inBangladesh are among others:

1. Formal Education

a. Vocational School program in Information Technology

Through this program it is anticipated to get skilledmanpower at the basic level in ICT, who can fill the positionof ICT operator, technical support, help desk and webdesigner.

b. Diploma program in ICT


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This program is anticipated to produce semi-skilledmanpower to meet the need for skilled ICT manpower forindustry.

c. Undergraduate program in ICT

This program is expected to produce ICT programmers,software engineers, analysts and designers.

d. Graduate program in ICT

Through this program it is expected to provide manpowerwith more specialized skills in the areas of ICT engineering.

2. Non-formal Education (out-of-school)

Besides ICT educational programs through formal educationalinstitutions/schools in various levels, in Bangladesh there aremany out of school educational efforts which teach various areasof ICT skills, which covers certain areas for example preparingmanpower for responsibilities as network technicians, computertechnicians, programmers, graphic artists, animators, operators,Web designers, etc. Some of these non-formal educationalinstitutions or ICT training centers are organized in partnershipwith foreign ICT training center, while others are totally motorizedby local experts.

3. ICT Literacy

a. Development of software in the Bangla language

One of the obstacles to the use of computer for the Bangladesh societyis their low mastery of English, so that they are reluctant to usecomputer. To overcome this obstacle and to support efforts to make thepopulace ICT literates, the government had issued the PresidentialDecree about the Utilization of Computer with Application Programs inBangla Language through the development of application programs inBangla language based on an open source platform, LINUX & windows

platform.

b. ICT training in schools

The Directorate of Vocational Education has started this program since2001. Its objective is to train teachers and students in using informationtechnology especially the internet. For this activity the Directorate ofVocational Education cooperates with the Network of School Information,


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a community of Vocational Schools which are internet users. Thisnetwork provides the training.

c. Socialization of computer-assisted learning media in High Schools

In 2002 the Directorate of Secondary Education conducted a trainingprogram on the use of computer-assisted learning media in cooperationwith the Center for Information and Communication Technology forEducation. This program was conducted in face-to-face interactioninvolving 2300 high school teachers from 250 schools in 12 districts.

d. Healthy Internet

There are indications that internet users in Bangladesh comprisingmostly of youths, especially use it to get access of negative informationsuch as pornography, racial issues, etcetera. To make community of

internet users avoid such negative contents, some private partiesmotored by ICT Watch (an NGO organization), Association of BangladeshInternet Service Providers and Association of Cyber Cafe had done acampaign called Healthy Internet. This activity consists of campaigns,training and distribution of information through print materials.

ICT for Education

As mentioned above, to improve the quality of human resources, we hadused ICT to expand the educational opportunity, to improve the qualityand relevance of education, and to increase the efficiency of the

educational system.

Various efforts to use ICT in education are among others:

1. E-learning

Starting from 2001, the Ministry of Science & ICT in cooperationwith the Directorate of Secondary Education, and the Directorateof Vocational Education are developing an e-learning program.The objective of this program is to improve the quality ofeducation at high school and vocational school levels through the

use of internet. But due to lack of coordination and GOB initiativethis program is yet to see the sun light. We have a plan to initially360 upazilla under this program and set up 360 institutes in eachupazilla. At this preliminary stage, learning materials are beingdeveloped for the following subjects: Mathematics, Physics,Chemistry, Biology, Electronics, and Information Technology.

1. Online Courses


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Aided by Daffodil International University we have a plan toprovide lectures through the internet for some courses.

Online Tutorials

One use of information technology for education at highereducation is for tutorial purpose for institutions of distanceeducation. BSDI that has made use of tutorial via internet is theDaffodil International University.

1. Joint Research

As a medium which provides for collaboration through the use ofinformation technology, a joint research program has beenconducted.

Electronic Library

There will be a network of electronic library called BSDI DigitalLibrary Network which is a network of electronic libraries from theDIU central library (Digital Library). BSDI Digital Library Network ismeant to support efforts to improve the quality of universitygraduates, to increase sharing of information among institutions ofhigher learning and research institutions in Bangladesh.

1. Computer Assisted Instruction (CAI)

This is an off-line instruction program so it does not dependon access to the internet. BSDI have developed computerassisted instruction learning materials for various subjectmatters and courses. These are interactive learningmaterials which students can learn on his/her own withminimal assistance from the teacher/lecturer.

Issues and Problems

Issues Concerning Education

1. Preparation of New Legislation Draft on National EducationSystem

At present the government (cq. The Ministry of Education)prepared a Draft on National Education System. The draft alsoincludes arrangement on ICT education and ICT for education.BSDI will follow the draft with minimum revision and implement itin its 360 upazilla based institutes.


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1. ICT Curriculum for general school

With the development of a new curriculum for elementary andsecondary schools which is competency based, this year thegovernment is doing some limited try-outs in certain schools. This

curriculum also includes ICT education which will be taught sinceelementary school, junior high school and senior high school andvocational school. Hopefully by teaching ICT from the verybeginning, Bangladesh will have enough qualified ICT manpower.

1. Preparation of ICT teachers for general school.

To implement the competency-based curriculum especially incorrelation with ICT teaching in schools, the government needs todo various activities to prepare the teachers who will teach inschools. We can work with the government to implement the

agenda.

1. Increasing the role of non-formal education

Non-degree education to train skilled manpower in ICT needs to beencouraged. Because non-formal education has a significant role,even a decisive role, to help prepare skilled non-degree educatedmanpower in ICT in the future.

1. Inducing the local government to do its role

With the newly implemented decentralization system ofadministration, where the local government has autonomy to self-administer in their upazialla, the success of provision anddevelopment of ICT skilled human resource will be determined bythe role of the local government. As such, BSDI can take a seriesof activities to induce the local government in socializing; utilizingand providing ICT trained human resources.

1. Promoting private sector participation

The role of the private sector in ICT mastery is veryimportant. Both its role in developing ICT resources and itsinfrastructure or in developing human resources, the privatesector has a very important role. However, we further needsto collaborate with the private sector to take greater role topromote ICT education.


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Problems faced

1. Economic Crisis

No wonder the biggest obstacle faced by Bangladesh regardingICT is the economic crisis. This condition forces the government toprioritize on short term programs to help improve the economy ofthe general population through social security net, aids to poorstudents to decrease drop-out rate, improvement of teacherswelfare, etc.

As such the government has to postpone various programs thathad been planned including the program to support education &ICT development. The despondent economy also makes thepeoples spending capacity shrunk, so they prioritize theirspending on primary needs such as food and clothing, so that theneed to use ICT to get access to information become the lastchoice. In that case allocation of huge fund can only solve theproblem.

1. Infrastructure

Another obstacle to the development of ICT is the poor conditionof the infrastructure, in terms of quantity and also quality. Ofcourse this poor condition affects the ease to get access toinformation. In connection with the availability of infrastructure itmakes access to information costly, which in turn makes the useof ICT low.

1. General public awareness and knowledge of ICT low

The public ICT literacy is still very low. What concerned us most is

that ICT literacy among students and teachers are also low,especially those that live in the perimeters or remote areas. Wehave to take huge public awareness campaign through variousmedia.


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Electronic Commerce

The global economy has undergone rapid structural changes in the past

few years due to the growth of Internet technologies. E-Commerce (EC)is a hot topic and a buzzword in our daily life. Knowledge and skills in E-Commerce are essential for the survival in New Economy. Educationalinstitutions attempt to respond swiftly by changing their curriculum andteaching/learning methods with a view to accommodate the changes ininstructional technologies such as Internet and WWW and to offer newprograms related to the subject of the Internet and E-Commerce. Thisarouses tremendous interests in the process of learning and teaching inInternet and E-Commerce environments. Teaching and learning suchnew subjects are a challenge; most of us are still trying to figure out howbest to incorporate them into our existing business curricula or

introduce them to students as a non-mainstream subject.

Conclusion:

The prime objective for Bangladesh a populous country with cheaplabor force is to turn its huge population to ICT literate manpower ofinternational standard. Our general likeness for education in liberal artsshould be shifted to ICT related technological education and ourresearch and development activities in information processing and ICTshould be directed to solving indigenous problem.

Poverty and underdevelopment is in-built with our culture. Informationpropagated across the country by many of our rural bards, preachersand poets illustrate that the world is an inn and discourage materialdevelopment and accumulation of wealth, and that poverty glorifies ahuman. For sustainable socio-economy development we need to changethis attitude and give proper attention to education & ICT.


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Bibliography

1. saburkhan.info/index.php?...ict...education-in-bangladesh...educatio

2. ec.europa.eu/education/pdf/doc254_en.pdf doc254.-e

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