Using the Internet for Education Development
(in Developing Countries)
Background
This year (2008) marks the 10th year of Pendidikan Network Indonesia - Pendidikan.Net (Education.Net - in Indonesian) and while we are definitely seeing some developments in the area of education generally there are still no clear markers of cohesive development or a clear 'united' sense of direction. This page is my opportunity to talk about the joys and the frustrations of trying to encourage educators and learners in the field here to "think about" and discuss education issues, and even if nobody reads these ramblings, at least it is good therapy for me personally.
Some of the information here and the issues discussed at my websites will be relevant to anyone in "any developing country" who wishes to enlist the use of the Internet as a communication medium. Just recently I received a thank you letter from an African Consultant because he found my work on Language Laboratories (EducationLaboratories.Com) very helpful and relevant in his context. I have done considerable searching of 'The Net' but I have never found another network like Pendidikan Network Indonesia. It is comprised of over 70 Websites and continually growing, each addressing a particular education niche, and totally created and maintained by one individual with very low means (who also has very little sleep). Perhaps it is unique. I value your comments!
I learned very early (working at the Ministry of Education) that as a foreigner we really have little influence upon the education developers, and that is why I chose to take the role of mentor. Pendidikan.Net is a mentor and a mixing pot of ideas from the whole education community. Pendidikan.Net is not advertised (although it is very highly rated in most search engines) and because of this it only attracts those who genuinely care about education, for one reason or another.
In the early days of Pendidikan.Net back in 1998, it was just one website (SMUN.Net), the notion of a network had not yet been born. Most of the comments from students and teachers alike were very simplistic indeed. For example, "we need to improve the education system", but there were never any insightful suggestions as to how we were going to change it, no identification of important issues, or what changes would be necessary! This was a very frustrating time for me personally. My greatest concern was that everyone was focused upon "the system", when in fact the main problems are attitudes, corruption, priorities, and behaviors of the implementers of the system, it wouldn't matter what system we had it would still fail if the same attitudes and behaviors continue.
One issue that impacts upon the development of education in Indonesia is the role of religion in education. Even though the population receives religious instruction virtually from birth it is still believed that religious education is very important right up into tertiary education. Moral issues that confront this society (as in every society) are often blamed upon insufficient religious instruction in schools, not the weak legal system or the poor morals of dishonest and uncaring bureaucrats who model bad behaviors for our children. The laws and legal system are in fact quite good already, it is the implementation and many of the implementers that need to be changed. However, I do believe that Character Development Programs certainly could have an important role to play in Indonesian education (like everywhere else in the world).
One thing that is consistently emerging in comments to Pendidikan.Net from educators, students and parents alike is that the population as a whole is crying out for better education, and most people realize that education will determine the future of this country. However, the government seems to have been the last to realize the true importance of education in developing a happy and thriving Indonesia.
Considerations for Using the Internet in Developing Countries
One of the most common questions is "Doesn't the Internet have very few users in developing countries?"
In the case of Indonesia it is correct to say that the Internet only reaches a relatively small percentage of Indonesia's population. However, it does reach practically every corner of Indonesia as you can see from the registrations in the Senior High School Students and Teachers SLTA.Net Website (Sekolah Lanjutan Tingkat Atas) lists or in the Tertiary Education Students and Lecturers lists at the PTHP.Net Website (Perguruan Tinggi HomePage).
Another limitation is that Internet transmission speeds vary greatly between the regions. The implications for this are that:
- Websites must be kept to a minimum weighting (minimal graphics).
- Navigation has to be as flexible as possible (complex linking).
- Java Scripting has to be kept to a minimum (particularly indexes and graphics).
- No music or voice links unless they are for language instruction or recorded historical dialogs of significance.
Having said this you will find that the Pendidikan Network Websites have (1) loads of graphics, (2) tens of Megabytes of photos, and many-many "Back Links". This has occurred because:
- The readers, particularly the students requested/demanded them.
- I found it increasingly important to show actual situations, particularly in "how to do manuals".
- The nature of "The Network" - the sharing of information pages between the various Websites.
It clearly becomes a balancing-act whereby pages and sections in which you think you can "get away with" minimum graphics, i.e. purely information pages, lists, etc. you take advantage of this. You also repeat as many graphics as possible and maximize the computer's cache (a standard practice).
Opportunities
As stated above, the Internet only reaches a relatively small percentage of Indonesia's population, however the percentage that it does reach is widely distributed throughout the country. In order of numbers they are 1) students, 2) teachers and 3) parents (including alumni). What is surprising to me is that the sector that currently seems to be expanding the most rapidly is the "parents and alumni".
What I have found is that it only requires one individual in a village, town, or even city to spread the word. This is sometimes done by printing Internet documents and taking them to their school. Email exchanges between interested parties and myself. Or as in a recent ongoing case it has stimulated a continual dialog about School Based Management (SBM) between a teacher in Malang East Java and myself via SMS. This teacher is providing training programs for other schools without any outside financial support or motivation. The teacher actually raised funds from local fund-raising activities and transported a group of teachers from her school to a distant Model SBM school in Central Java (very impressive - well done!).
Another key area of opportunity, the main objective of Pendidikan Network from the outset, is that the interactivity of the medium allows people to express and share their ideas through forums, aspiration comments, and registration form comments. They learn and gain strength and conviction from each other. I have found that there is a high credibility and audience given to peers and other people working in the field.
The Network
These are the basic Pendidikan Network Websites:
Besides these 16 Websites listed above there are about another 12 Websites that meet specific needs including: Pen-friends.Net (for language and communication practice).
Why Create a Network?
In all honesty, it wasn't planned! I started out with SMUN.Net the Senior Secondary Education (State Schools) Website. However, because there are many private schools that felt that they weren't included (and said so) I registered the domain name SLTA.Net, which represents them all. However, I was still getting some flack because some people viewed it as excluding Vocational High Schools (which are very close to my heart) so I registered SMKN.Net . And so the story continues with the Higher Education Homepage (PTHP.Net). I registered the Pendidikan.Net domain name shortly after I registered SMUN.Net (because it was an excellent domain) however it wasn't until I started receiving many requests for new Websites that I decided to make Pendidikan.Net the flagship for the growing network of Websites.
Because many teachers and students were looking for employment opportunities Indo-Jobs.Com was created as a basic free employment registry. And, so on it goes, and goes ..........
It seems to be that sector identity and easy to remember domain names are important to visitors in the Indonesian education sector, particularly students.
Economics
In 1998 I started out with an ambition to do something useful for Indonesian education but I had no idea of what that would be. My experiences in the Indonesian Ministry of Education however clarified many existing education communication gaps and the importance of taking development information to the people. At that stage the population was about 190,000,000 - no small target! The population is now 120,000,000 and that's a lot of zeros to me. I was then on a consultant's salary which was very reasonable (thanks to Florida State University) however, whatever I created had to be sustainable after my contract was completed.
In 1998 domain names alone cost US$35.00 each year to register and the cheapest hosting for a Website was about $60.00 a year. At those rates I couldn't have imagined then that I would have the number of education Websites that I have now (let alone the other 25 Websites that I have).
So, what has made this possible is that you can now register a domain name for as low as US$4.99 per year. However I haven't registered any domains at this price because it apparently costs the companies about US$6.00 a year to register the domain and I don't understand how these companies can continue to exist. I currently pay US$8.88 per domain registration. "Good Web hosting" can now be obtained for as little as US$20.00 per year. However, I now operate my own Web Hosting which greatly reduces my costs.
Pendidikan Network Websites currently receive between 1,000,000 and 2,000,000 hits per month and there are no marketing or advertising costs. This is a fairly reasonable circulation that could easily be increased to the many millions with a little advertising, but I couldn't process the visitor registrations and I personally am not interested in numbers, just getting the right people with an interest in Indonesian education.
Note for other education consultants. On my current income (which is casual) I certainly can't imagine any other way to implement what I am striving to achieve with Pendidikan Network and I am using very low technology so it is replicable anywhere by anyone.
Student/School Creativity, Expression and Self-development
Of course one of the great benefits of the Internet is that even people like me, with absolutely no artistic skills can be creative and use our imagination. But what is really important in a country like Indonesia where individuality has not been encouraged is that schools and students feel encouraged by the simplicity and instantaneous nature of creating homepages on the Internet that they are participating. You will find some wonderful examples of school homepages that exemplify individual creativity by students in our schools (many of them are technically far better than the Pendidikan Network sites but don't tell anybody).
Development Considerations and Issues
Development:
Development directions are dictated by the target population (people interested in education) themselves. My network is a response based service. By carefully reading the desires of the users to express themselves, their grievances or their needs I create a new venue or format for that expression. For instance, in March 2005, because I was receiving many forms at my Indonesian Teachers' Corner pages from university students looking for titles and information for writing their thesis I created a section of the site and then a new domain and website PojokGuru.Com The students were/are desperate to obtain the attention of academics.
I was faced with a choice between disallowing students from sending forms and cluttering this teacher exclusive section, or creating a separate section within it that would enable the students and teachers to interact.
All final decisions are based upon enabling and empowering, provided the indicated demand justifies the work involved and the expense.
Directions:
This network was only designed to disseminate information and enable communication and it is totally non-political and resists involvement in issues of a more general nature. However, I did eventually create an anti-corruption website (Korupsi.Org). Why? Because it was purely driven by necessity. Having to continually attempt to answer questions about corruption and education issues I decided to create a forum for discussion.
Future Directions:
One of the future directions for my network, because of my own very limited resources, must be to try to generate some income in order to continue this very time and money consuming venture/hobby/challenge.
My entry into Web Hosting has proven itself to be a worthwhile activity to allow free hosting for my sites. However, its potential for total cost recovery and sustainability at this stage has not been realized. Therefore I have created an International Education website (EnterUniversity.Com) which is fed from many different domains (shown below) in the hope that I will eventually be able to sell advertising to education institutions as a means of achieving sustainability for my network.
I am discussing these issues for the benefit of other people or consultants in the field who would like to engage in a similar development program. By looking carefully into these issues from the beginning I believe that such a venture can be fully sustainable.
Phillip Rekdale
HOME
Phillip Rekdale
Education & Technology Consultant:
|
