CAREER NETWORK CONNECTION

IMPACTS OF DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY

by Career Network Connection on Tuesday, 5 February 2013 at 13:40 ·

•••In summary
Digital skills are important to social and economic participation and the broader Tanzanian economy.There is now a growing body of national and international evidence demonstrating the positive impact of digital technologies on measurable learning outcomes.The so-called hard evidence is supplemented by softer observational evidence, which has an important role in explaining why the positive outcomes have or have not accrued.The evidence tells us that integrated use of technology enables a range of positive outcomesfor children and young people.

Introduction
“The ICT revolution is a deep cultural revolution changing all modes and patterns of our lives and hence bound to lead to dramatic changes in education. It is characterised by its recognition of two basic facts:

• ICT has a powerful defining impact on all important aspects of our lives and hence our culture (in terms used often in this context: it is a ‘defining technology’) 
• The ICT revolution is a part of a group of intertwined revolutions that in the past 20 years have been transforming Tanzanian culture from African into a postmodern western culture. 

In 2013 the Department for ICT and Skills of CNC will publish the big picture on the Impact of ICT on Attainment, Motivation and Learning. This will be our first review of large scale studies of the impact of technology in Tanzania since the launch of the National digital broadcasting in the 1st Jan 0f 2013. In 3 years later this review will do the same, but within a radically different context. Home access to computers has risen sharply over the past few years such that over one-quarters of youth aged 20 – 30 have access to broadband at home, and over 60 per cent use it every day. The internet is frequently used at home to do college assignments. Though the assumption that resulting change to the educational system is inevitable is subject to debate, there are likely to be consequences, particularly relating to equity if the educational system does not respond to a fast-changing socio-technical context.The impact of digital technologies on learning
Education with or without technology: