Unit 1: Policy Understanding

The Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are more than ever living in our society and they are important in education. According to UNESCO (2010), the term ICT is plural, referring to a great many technologies and it is an all encompassing term that includes electronic tools by means of which we gather, record and store information, and by means of which we exchange and distribute information to others. Schooling and teaching is changing with this new context. New technologies have changed the way we communicate and the way we live and work. For this reason ICT in Education is an approach that makes the school and the society closer.

The 21^st century education should follow these conceptions with the desire to contribute positively to the development of a better society and more critical citizens. The pace of the society in which we live requires more flexible ways of learning and adapted to changes. Formal, non formal, informal and invisible learning are living today in an expanded education and in a virtual space through the network, hence schooling and teaching is changing with this new context. For example, students and teachers should have technological skills, because they use them in their classroom and in their curricula. As ICT are incorporated in education the trend of a classroom and textbook based educational system is becoming more and more outdated. It can clearly be seen that the education system should change to adapt to modern requirements and to incorporate new technologies. In addition, ICTs are not only about computers and the internet, but also about a big amount of different tools such as mobile phone and tablets enhancing mobile learning. Therefore, teaching and learning has evolved from chalkboard, text books, e-learning and now m-learning.

Kenya produced its first National ICT Policy in 2006. Its vision is a prosperous ICT-driven Kenyan society, while its mission is to improve the livelihoods of Kenyans by ensuring the availability of accessible, efficient, reliable and affordable ICT services. This policy was guided by the need for infrastructure development, human resource development, stakeholder participation and appropriate policy and regulatory framework. It focuses on IT, broadcasting, telecommunications, postal services, radio frequency spectrum, universal access and institutional framework for implementation. The country has not updated this policy for close to eight years, a period when the world has witnessed various technological developments and many changes have taken place in the ICT sector in Kenya. The policy therefore needs to be updated to take into account the changes including Vision 2030; the Constitution; new sectoral strategies; and other realities that have emerged since 2006. The ICT State Department has developed a draft ICT policy which needs to go through the various stages of policy development and finalised as soon as possible.