Knowledge Maps: ICT in Education

This briefing sheet, Knowledge Maps: ICT in Education, aims to provide a “knowledge map” of what is known about information and communication technology (ICT) use in education. It was written as the result of a knowledge mapping process developed by infoDev to attempt to outline where important gaps in knowledge exist. The knowledge maps were also utilised in the formulation of recommendations for a series of related research projects and workshops at infoDev. The Knowledge Map briefing sheets are meant to serve as quick snapshots of what the research literature tells about a number of key areas of information related to ICT use in education.

The report indicates that important gaps remain in the current knowledge base, and that there appear to be few resources attempting to translate what is known to work (or not work) in this field, for the benefit of policy makers and staff working on education issues in developing countries. The report has a number of findings, including the following:

• The impact of ICT use on learning outcomes is unclear, and open to much debate.
• Widely accepted standard methodologies and indicators to assess the impact of ICT in education are still under development.
• There is often a disconnect between the rationales most often put forward to advance the use of ICT in education and their actual implementation. For example, while much of the rationale for using ICT to benefit education has focused on the potential of ICT for bringing about changes in the teaching-learning paradigm, in practice, ICT are most often used (in least developed countries) to support existing teaching and learning practices.
• There is very little useful data on the cost of ICT in education initiatives, especially those attempting to assess the Total Cost of Ownership, nor guidance on how to conduct cost assessments.
• ICT are being increasingly introduced in education, and interest in their use appears to be growing, even in the most challenging environments in developing countries.
• There are emerging best practices and lessons-learned in a number of areas, but with a few exceptions they have not been explicitly examined in the context of the education-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

In general, the infoDev knowledge mapping exercise is meant to point to key general assertions and gaps in the knowledge base of what is known about the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in education, especially as such knowledge may relate to the education-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).