| Framed against the ICT policies of the Philippine government, this study situates the role of information communication technology (ICT) in education and how technology is integrated in the state teacher education institutions (TEIs) in the National Capital Region of the Philippines. Using the framework of the International Association for the Evaluation Educational Achievement (IEA) Second Information Technology in Education Study (SITES), it looks into the integration of ICT in education through the lenses of infrastructure; curriculum and pedagogy; professional development and management and organization. The study also describes the challenges in integrating technology in the curriculum. A combination of quantitative and qualitative methodologies is used in the study: the quantitative means were conducted through the use of survey questionnaires while the qualitative, involved interviews, focus groups, classroom observations and a document analysis of the ICT policies of the Philippine government, including its ICT policies in education.; The study covers all the four state TEIs in the National Capital Region with four Deans, 129 faculty members and four ICT coordinators as survey participants; 6 faculty interview participants, and 64 students as focus group participants. Findings reveal the complexity of integrating technology since a host of variables, which are by themselves complex, impact technology integration. These variables include national, state and school policies, state and local technology plans or lack thereof, funding or lack thereof, teachers skills or lack thereof, the rapidly changing nature of technology, learning goals and objectives, teacher training and professional development, technology support or lack thereof, to the number of students in a school. The results of the study also point to emerging themes found to be attendant in technology integration, to wit: within the context of developing countries, the influence of modernization and the desire of these countries to become modernized and developed by using ICTs as strategic tools; whether ICT is introduced as an added course or infused in the curriculum; the evolving nature of technology, in particular the emerging trend of mobile technology and how this impacts technology use.; The study recommends, among others, the inclusion of national ICT policies in the study of technology integration in developing countries and the contextualization of borrowed policies; more focused studies on pre-service technology preparation; and studies on the use of mobile technologies or M-learning, in the technology integration efforts of developing countries as these technologies are cheaper and more available in these countries. |
