There is a developmental rule that is expected to be fulfilled before introducing anything new to the concerned environment, regardless of its field or specialization, which is: rebuilding it so that it is able to absorb innovation and raise the effectiveness of its results to the highest possible degree. What can be done here to make the integration of information and communications technology fruitful in integrated education is summarized in the following conditions:
Conditions for the effectiveness of information technology in integrated education
One of the main reasons behind the failure of reform plans in education or elsewhere in developing Arab countries is the adoption of change without prior objective planning, or without preparing the environments concerned with training, experimentation, and developing the infrastructure to host innovation and activate its success.
It seems necessary for Arab education systems, before adopting information and communications technology in developing the work of schools and universities to keep pace with the requirements of the twenty-first century, to take the first steps in transforming their daily work from paper to digital formats, represented by making radical changes to the infrastructure of their educational environments. Examples of these changes include:
1- Designing a disciplined and reliable online network in terms of the capacity, flexibility and speed of servers, connection points, and operating systems.
2- Providing a fast and disciplined wireless network on the school or university campus that users, including students, teachers and other cadres, can access easily and regularly at any time, even from outside the school and university.
3- Establishing a reliable and fast Internet line that can access learning and education resources from inside or outside the school and university.
4- Providing a rich and integrated educational management system that serves the needs of the school and university for many years.
5- Providing laptops for faculty members and “tablet” devices whenever necessary to enable them to achieve the goals of the school or university and respond practically to implement learning and teaching activities.
6- Providing a team of IT experts for technical support, full-time and professional, capable of overcoming Internet problems and working on maintaining them online as soon as they occur.
Leading the digital transformation to modernize the work of schools and universities
The digital transformation of schools and universities is the gradual development of their daily work formats due to information technology from paper-based to digital online, where diversity and flexibility of choice in goals, knowledge, values, experiences, methods, facilities, equipment and learning times seem possible to infinite degrees.
Before the start of the transformation of schools and universities from paper-based to digital formats, the integrated school education specialist must assume the following responsibilities:
1- Prepare a well-thought-out objective plan for digital change. This is done in coordination and with the participation of all local forces inside and outside the educational system, including families, leaders, stakeholders and institutions.
2- Establish the infrastructure for the Internet network, including Internet and cellular communications and wireless “Wi-Fi” devices. In this context, administrators and educational technology specialists recommend that each school or university provide 1 gigabyte for every 1000 students and faculty members participating in the online service so that the exchanged learning and teaching messages are regular, clear and smooth.
3- Changing the management style and culture of school environments to accommodate digital transformations. This can be achieved through professional and technical training for teachers and other school cadres, and providing open opportunities for experimentation and the use of new digital methods, tools and materials.
4- Providing the necessary funding to update information technology in learning and education, as important as training and developing teachers.
5- Changing and updating support services to support digital transformations and then practicing them in integrated school education. Software, email accounts, voice mail, electronic hosting sites, digital cards, interactive screens, receivers, servers, remote video technologies, data protection, power sources and backup batteries, and maintenance services for school facilities and equipment are examples of these support services.
However, the most important procedurally and in terms of results for the quality of monitoring and following up on learning and achievement is taking into account principles such as:
1- Adopting clear standards related to student learning.
2- Delegating students to bear the responsibilities of learning and accountability for the results they reach.
3- Regularly monitoring and following up on students.
4- Clarity of what is expected of students in follow-up processes.
5- Collecting, correcting and monitoring learning and achievement data in student records without delay.
6- Providing students with rapid feedback regarding the adequacy of their achievement and what some of them can do to improve.
Principles of investing in information technology in integrated school education
Investing in information technology is feasible in the following circumstances:
1- Redesigning curricula, teaching and the school environment digitally to respond more to the goals and requirements of applying technology in education in light of the following important considerations:
* Diagnosing the nature of learners in terms of interests, learning styles and achievement skills and their relationship to the successes of individual students.
* Activating the structures of perception and their relationship to teaching and organizing the curricular content and academic knowledge.
* Strengthening the relationship of academic knowledge structures (or the nature of academic knowledge) with each other and then with the abilities of learning, creativity, emotion, self-expression and problem solving.
* Increasing teachers’ knowledge of their students in terms of perception and achievement styles and effective teaching alternatives in responding to their needs.
* Diversifying the use of technology to support diverse learning and teaching experiences.
* Developing possible relationships between learning in school and the family.
2- Re-establishing the local school and social infrastructure to accommodate technology and activate its digital uses with teachers and learners.
3- Establishing associations or working groups Consortiums to support and finance effective systematic development tasks for educational technology. These associations consist of schools, universities, local communities, publishing houses and charitable (non-profit) organizations.