A new global UNESCO report on technology in education highlights the lack of appropriate governance and regulation.
Countries are urged to set their own terms for the way technology is designed and used in education so that it never replaces in-person, teacher-led instruction, and supports the shared objective of quality education for all.
“The digital revolution holds immeasurable potential but, just as warnings have been voiced for how it should be regulated in society, similar attention must be paid to the way it is used in education. Its use must be for enhanced learning experiences and for the well-being of students and teachers, not to their detriment. Keep the needs of the learner first and support teachers. Online connections are no substitute for human interaction,” said Audrey Azoulay UNESCO Director-General.
Entitled “Technology in education: A tool on whose terms?”, the 2023 Global Education Monitoring Report proposes four questions that policy makers and educational stakeholders should reflect upon as technology is being deployed in education:
“We need to learn about our past mistakes when using technology in education so that we do not repeat them in the future. We need to teach children to live both with and without technology; to take what they need from the abundance of information, but to ignore what is not necessary; to let technology support, but never supplant human interactions in teaching and learning” said Manos Antoninis Director.
A study of open educational resource collections found that nearly 90 per cent of higher education online repositories were created either in Europe or in North America; 92 per cent of the material in the Open Educational Resources Commons global library is in English.
Teachers also need appropriate training yet only half of countries currently have standards for developing their ICT skills. Few teacher training programmes cover cybersecurity even though 5 per cent of ransomware attacks target education.
Sustainability also requires better guaranteeing the rights of technology users. Today, only 16 per cent of countries guarantee data privacy in education by law. One analysis found that 89 per cent of 163 education technology products could survey children. Further, 39 of 42 governments providing online education during the Covid-19 pandemic fostered uses that ‘risked or infringed’ on children’s rights.
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