School Networking in the Pacific Island States

Consultant's report
School Networking in the Pacific Island States:
An environmental scan and plan for the establishment
of schoolnets for the Pacific island states.

Prepared by Denis Brandjes, Johannesburg, South Africa

April 2002

Executive Summary
This report is the result of a study focused on the establishment and promotion of school networking agencies (schoolnets) in the Pacific island states. The Commonwealth of Learning, based in Vancouver, Canada, commissioned the study. The task comprises an environmental scan and feasibility study leading to a proposal for the development of school networking in the region. The complete Terms of Reference for this study are attached as Annexure A.

The methodology includes visits to six Pacific island states, namely Kiribati, Nauru, Samoa, Tonga, Vanuatu and Fiji, in August 2001. The participating countries exclude Fiji, although it was visited due to the location there of the University of the South Pacific (USP), which is an important regional entity. The individual state visits were each completed in several days, and entailed meetings and discussions with education ministry officials and representatives, corporations involved in information and communication technology (ICT), such as Internet service providers (ISPs), telecommunications providers and power utilities, organisations such as UNESCO, educational institutions such as USP and the National University of Samoa, and schools.

The findings from the state visits are presented in conjunction with wider research and discussions with relevant stakeholders. The report includes a proposed way forward for the development of school networking in the region, including the establishment of a regional working group for school networking, leading to a stakeholder workshop. This workshop will have an informative function, demonstrating the roles of ICTs in teaching and learning and the importance that a schoolnet could have in the implementation of ICT-in-education strategies. In addition, it will lead to the development of a Pacific schoolnet secretariat which will determine objectives and decide on a range of programmes on which to focus and projects to implement. Due to the relatively small sizes of the countries under review, a regional approach is proposed, including a close working relationship with Ministries of Education in the individual countries. A range of policy issues to be addressed to further ICT in education integration are suggested, and a budget is proposed as a point of departure.

The involvement of the stakeholders would add value to this initiative and is a critical factor for success. Many of the stakeholders have been listed and described, although there will be other organisations and individuals that can add significant value to the development of a Pacific schoolnet. It is hoped that this report, and the commitment of The Commonwealth of Learning (COL), will prove to be an important step in encouraging the effective use of ICTs in the education sector and enriching the lives of the peoples of the Pacific region.

Introduction
In recent years there has been an increased emphasis on the use of technology to address developmental concerns throughout the world. The education sector has attracted a large part of this attention, which is centred on the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to address teaching, learning and administrative needs. For the purposes of this report, information and communication techologies refer to computers, networks, the Internet, and broadcast and related technologies that enable information and communication flow and processing.

The use of ICTs beyond technical and vocational development was initially promoted in the educational sector as a tool to support tertiary education. It was applied particularly in revising distance education methodologies in order to ensure larger and more varied access to education. The result has been a proliferation of courses and qualifications on offer by an increasing number of institutions in a variety of formats supported by technology, many through the Internet. This has increased accessibility to education in communities that were previously excluded. However, the "digital divide," the gap that exists between those who have access to ICTs and those who do not, continues to limit the advantages of these technologies to those who have the finances, infrastructure and expertise to support them.

The extension of the use of ICTs into the primary and secondary education system followed, as practitioners saw the benefits of the various technologies. The use of computer hardware and software in the school environment can be traced to the late seventies and early eighties, where the use of basic software and games on equipment such as the BBC Micro, Apple, Acorn and Atari was encouraged in a few schools, particularly in Europe and North America. Another large initial driver was the introduction of Computer Studies as part of the curriculum in numerous countries, promoting the development of computer specialists. With the development of the IBM-compatible personal computer and the Apple Macintosh, the use of the technology to support teaching, learning and administration became more apparent, and in the nineties more classrooms throughout the world started to utilise the technology to enhance and support the education process, within and beyond the classroom. A significant development has been the understanding within the schools community of the use of ICTs beyond Computer Studies or computer literacy. These uses include research and information retrieval, collaboration and group work and concept instruction and reinforcement through specialised Web sites or software. The impact that ICTs have on teaching and learning has driven the development of school networking and schoolnets throughout the world.

Schoolnets can be defined as groupings of schools that use ICTs to support the education process, or agencies that facilitate and develop the use of ICTs in the education context. The word "school" refers to the participants, namely the schools in the primary and secondary education space. Schools generally consist of the teachers, students, families and the broader community, all of whom can benefit from the introduction of schoolnets. The word "net," a shortened form of "network," refers to the purpose of the initiatives. Most importantly, it is the network of people within the community of practitioners that collaborate for the purpose of enhancing teaching and learning. Secondly, it is the network or platform of ICT infrastructure that allows people to communicate, collaborate and share within restricted or larger groupings. Thirdly, it refers to the emphasis on the Internet and related technologies that enable the world at large to be accessible to the individual, no matter where in the world he or she may be. By definition, schoolnets encourage teaching and learning through a collaborative approach to the education process. Complementing this is the belief that the use of ICTs promotes a more individualised learning experience, with a broad range of educational resources and experiences available to both the teacher and learner, and that the use of ICTs throughout the world supports the trend towards outcomes-based and learner-focused education.

These movements have typically been organised within school districts, or within geographic or socio-economic boundaries and include the establishment of national and regional Schoolnets to promote and facilitate the use of ICTs in the education sector, in both the developed and developing world. Although the overarching theme among Schoolnets is similar, they range in their focus from policy formulation and advocacy, information dissemination, deployment and installation of technology, teacher training and facilitation of collaborative student projects. Examples of schoolnets include the following:

1. SchoolNet Canada (www.schoolnet.ca ) is an initiative led by Industry Canada (government ministry) in partnership with provincial and territorial governments, the education community and private sector. SchoolNet carries out many initiatives to encourage the use of ICT in the classroom, including SchoolNet GrassRoots, SchoolNet's Network of Innovative Schools, First Nation's SchoolNet, LibraryNet and SchoolNets Youth Employment Initiative. SchoolNet's services allow students, teachers and parents to learn about the world of ICTs and how they can be used to enhance education.

2. European SchoolNet (www.eun.org  or www.eschoolnet.org ) is an international partnership of more than 20 European Ministries of Education developing learning for schools, teachers and pupils across Europe, and supporting school networks in individual European Union (EU) countries. It is primarily driven by individual governments and the EU, and is focused on the teaching and learning experience, using ICTs.

3. SchoolNet South Africa (www.school.za ) is a non-profit, independent organisation with an emphasis on promoting the use of ICT for teaching and learning in South Africa, particularly in historically disadvantaged schools. The organisation initially worked in many aspects of school networking including policy and advocacy, infrastructure provision, teacher development and content provision. As the use of ICTs in South Africa schools has proliferated, the organisation has refocused to ensure that the educational value of ICTs is realised, largely through teacher development, conferencing and workshops.

4. Western Cape Schools Network (www.wcape.school.za ) was established in 1994 and, together with other provincially based school networks in South Africa, assisted in the development of SchoolNet SA. It is largely a volunteer-based organisation with a small staff that originated as an educational ISP and extended its functions over time. It is soon to be merged into SchoolNet SA. The Western Cape office of SchoolNet SA will continue to manage help desk and educational ISP services on behalf of SchoolNet SA for the entire country, in addition to providing other services.

5. SchoolNet Africa (www.schoolnetafrica.net ) emerged out of the need to promote and support the development of schoolnets throughout the African continent. The organisation has been created as a support mechanism for national schoolnets, and thus works primarily in the areas of policy direction, information dissemination and support, and resource mobilisation, participating in various continent-wide initiatives.

6. World Links for Development (www.worldbank.org/worldlink ) started as an initiative of the World Bank Institute and has grown to encompass a separate non-profit entity. World Links is focused on the promotion of ICTs in the developing world, and as of October 2001, it is active in 15 countries, reaching approximately 650 schools. It works in collaboration with Ministries of Education and supports the development of national schoolnets in the countries in which it works. Although involved in various aspects of ICT in education, it has had a particular focus on teacher development. The organisation is currently developing a fee-for-service contracting component that will enable it to share its knowledge and expertise more broadly and will also assist in sustaining the organisation.

7. SchoolNet India (www.schoolnetindia.com) was incorporated by Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Limited (of India) as part of a broader initiative to address the requirements of the social infrastructure sector, in specific, the learning training segments. Schoolnet is committed to enhancing the quality and delivery of education across the learner spectrum and learning segments. The focus is not so much on the teaching of technology alone as on the use of technology in the teaching and learning process. The organisation focuses on the areas of technology, content, training and services and is operational in over 18 locations across India. In order to facilitate support for their programmes in less advantaged schools (over 750,000 schools), it has established the SchoolNet Foundation, which attracts financial and in-kind support from individuals, corporations and donor agencies. The SchoolNet India model is a standard corporation that performs the operations with the assistance of a special purpose charitable vehicle.