E-pathways Towards Equal Opportunities: Good Practices and Big Challenges

E-pathways Towards Equal Opportunities:

Good Practices and Big Challenges

Prof. Blaženka Divjak

Vice-rector University of Zagreb

1 B. Divjak, University of Zagreb

Content

• Future job, future society

– 3 references + comments

• PISA 2012

– creative and digital divide

• Case study

– Kosovo E-readiness

• Q&A

“If we teach today’s students as we taught yesterday’s, we rob them of tomorrow.” ― John Dewey

Future jobs – curriculum of today

• Frey, Osborne, The Future of Employment.2013.

– 47% of job categories open to automation within two decades

– Survive jobs that require high degree of creative and social intelligence, but also fundamental knowledge

• John Dewey: “Education is a social process; education is

growth; education is not preparation for life but is life itself.”

• PISA 2012 results: Creative Problem Solving – “digital and creative divide”

– highest-performing school systems - allocate educational resources more equitably + grant more autonomy over curricula and assessments to individual schools.

3 B. Divjak, University of Zagreb

Future jobs – big challenges of today

• T. Piketty, Capital in the 21st Century (2013)

– hyper-unequal economic model

– generate a more antagonistic, unstable politics

• J. Stiglitz, The Price of Inequality (2013)

– Increase in inequality and lack of opportunity

– High inequality makes for less efficient and productive economy

– Position of “public goods”

– decline in opportunity growing inequality

• Initiatives to enhance use of technology to excel opportunities • Values!

Dissemination or marketing

• Off the shelf offer of open courses, e-learning material, programs

• “The most important

education technology in the past 200 years.”

• Free education for all, anywhere in the world with online access.”

• The best is now available for eveybody

• Are really everybody connected?

• High drop-out rate

• - one-size-fits-all model

• “intellectual

neocolonialism“

• Marketing tool for elite universities

• First and second class students

Creative and digital divide

• “PISA data show that access to a home computer is now nearly universal for students in all countries and economies participating in PISA.”

• OECD countries - 94% of students have at least one computer at home

• “The few students who do not use a computer at home tend to come from socio-economically disadvantaged families. But even among disadvantaged students, some level of familiarity with computers is now universal in some countries.”

• “In all of the 33 countries and economies that both distributed the optional questionnaire on ICT familiarity and administered the

computer-based assessment of problem solving, students who use computers at home perform significantly better (in

E-readiness

Case study:

EU IT Pilot Project in the Field of

Education(2010-2012)

Country:

Kosovo

-

has the youngest European population (33% of the

population is younger than 14)

-unemployment rate 45%

-50% of children aged 0-19 lived in poverty

EU IT Pilot Project in the Field of Education The project is funded by European Union

7 B. Divjak, University of Zagreb

Research presented here

• Part of the EU funded project: EU-IT pilot project in the field of education (2010-2012)

– The objective: to support the Kosovo Government in

improving the quality and efficiency of education, guidance and recommendations for the future development of

e-learning in pre-tertiary education in Kosovo

• Point out:

– There are significant differences between strategic planning of e-learning implementation in developed and developing countries.

– Methodology for strategic planning having in mind e-readiness of a country/region/institution.

E-readiness

• E-readiness is defined as “the degree to which a community’s relative advancement is the areas that are most critical for ICT adoption and the most important applications of ICTs” (CID, 2006).

• E-ready society for e-learning implementation into the formal schools system is one that has the necessary physical

infrastructure and software in schools but also available to students, teachers and school staff at home, that has

integrated ICTs throughout the government and communities, where official curriculum and pedagogical approaches, as well as authorities’ support, enable the implementation of new

innovative and sustainable technologies.

Sample description

• Questionnaire – based on CID methodology

– prepared by Harvard University as a framework for developing countries to compare their readiness for use of ICT

– Upgraded significantly

– Parts: Strategy, Policy, Access, Learning, Society

• 113 schools + 2 faculties + University of Pristina

– primary, secondary, vocational schools, schools for minorities, schools with students with special needs,

– schools from all municipalities,

– larger schools as well as smaller ones, better equipped and those that are poorly equipped,

KOSO

V

O

11 B. Divjak, University of Zagreb

Number of functional computers

Computer age

Teachers using ICT in teaching

a) 61,06%

b) 22,12%

c) 11,50%

Type of Internet access in school

a) 49.56%

b) 12.39%

c) 34.51%

d) 3.54%

Reaction time

Digital divide

Conclusion

• Revolution in the market development and society ask for:

values + fundamental knowledge + creativity and social skills

• Even use of technology in education enables progress it is not the solution of access, success and employment challenge

• E-learning and employability shift focus on learning (again)

• Efficient, effective and brave decision making to protect

education as a public good

• It is not just access to education that makes a difference but access to good education

• “The secret of a successful education is respect towards the students “

- Ralph Emerson-

“The secret of a successful education is respect towards the students “- Ralph Emerson-