English
Bahasa IndonesiaNews | News Detail
“Though I have only been in this cluster for five months, I can see that this USAID-assisted cluster is great. I have a program to make this cluster spreading the program to the other seven clusters so they can experience the diffusion of benefits received by this cluster through DBE 2,” stated Drs. H. Burhanudin, Head of UPTD Karawaci during the visit of USAID Staff and a representative from an IT Company that is a USAID partner in Ki Hajar Dewantara, Karawaci Cluster Resource Center.
USAID Staff and representative from the IT Company conducted a visit to Ki Hajar Dewantara Cluster Resource Center and to Elementary School Karawaci Baru 01, Banten Province on June 16, 2009. The visit represents USAID initiative to its partner in the field of Technology, Information, and Communication and utilizes it for USAID project, in this case DBE, in the education sector.
The objective of the visit is to observe the influence of ICT in the educational system, as well as to assess the challenges faced by educators in operating ICT as a learning tool. The agenda of the visit focused mainly on observing the learning process in a classroom with ICT, followed by an interactive dialog regarding the utilization of ICT and the subsequent challenges.
Elizabeth Sunindyo (USAID Staff) observing the learning process in class two on computer challenge, whereby students, in groups, learn to find computer components and fill them in a work sheet
As one of USAID education project components, DBE 2 program provides ICT trainings to elementary school teachers and the objective is to increase the quality of basic education in Indonesia. DBE 2 ICT has been providing ICT trainings to teachers through Intel Teach training, a collaborative effort between USAID and Intel Corporation, and through DALI (Developing Active Learning with ICT) for approximately one year.
“Is there any difference in teaching before and after using ICT in class?” asked Megawati, a representative from the IT company, impressed by what she saw when observing the learning process in a classroom with ICT.
“For sure, I have seen some changes in students. They were asked to learn while playing, so the class became more creative and the students more enthusiastic in expressing their opinions. ICT were able to encourage the students to think creatively” expressed Badriah, a 5th grade teacher in DBE 2-supported school in Karawaci who has participated in DALI program.
Similar to Badriah’s impression, Anggoro, a computer teacher, was pleased to see students’ active participation in the class. “Particularly since the school has included computer learning for thirty minutes every Monday, where students can use the computers available in the computer lab,” he said.
Following the observation of learning in the class, an interactive dialogue was held between the educators who used ICT in their teaching with representatives from USAID partner IT Company to discuss experiences in using ICT and future challenges
The observation activity on ICT learning in class was divided into two parallel classes. Observation of the first class was intended to assess how computers can be used to encourage students to think creatively and actively. In a game called Double Jeopardy, students compete in answering general knowledge questions. In the second class, students were involved in computer-challenge activity, where students in groups look for computer components and write them in a work sheet.
Using the ICT as a learning tool is not an easy matter. This visit hopes to assess the experiences of educators who operate the ICT to increase the quality of learning. “In reality (the number of) computers in schools are still limited, allocated unevenly and not available in all classes. In addition, we hope that computer programs will be made easier to operate.” The opinion of Badriah represents a challenge for ICT in fulfilling the need of class learning.
Obviously, the challenge for ICT in the future will not be limited to fulfilling the availability of computers as a learning tool in classes but also related to the easiness of operating computer programs. The visit to DBE 2-supported areas, which took less than two hours, has given concrete information to assist in future development of ICT strategy in the education sector. (AR)