Educational Technology and Systemic Change in Education

(This is a paper delivered at the Third International Symposium on Open and Distance Learning, Bali, November 1997, by me and Hirmana Wargahadibrata.)

Human resources development has been decided as one of the foci of the second long
term development plan in Indonesia. Education, in broadest sense, is the major human resources development. Education should not be conceived as mainly being the responsibility of formalized institutions such as schools, colleges, universities etc. Education takes place also in home environment and the social environment of the learners. This is especially true in the globalization era, where information is readily available regardless of its values.
During the previous 25 years development plan, the Indonesian educational system has made a substantial gains quantitatively. Universal access to primary school has virtually been
achieved ; nearly all children between the age of 7 and 12 in Indonesia comprising a total number of more than 28 million children- have acquired access to six years primary education. The present foci of development in the schooling is to increase the basic educational requirement to nine years, and is called Universal Nine-years Basic Education (UBE). The UBE is considered as the necessary foundation in meeting the primary development goal of the creation of a broad based, skilled, flexible and technology-literate workforce.
It is generally agreeable that for the realization of the goal of education it will be necessary to have a program that starts with basic education and then looks beyond it to a cross sectoral initiative that deals with lifelong learning, vocational education and training at all levels, from initial training to in-service provision.
The primary concern in providing the education is on the provision of learning opportunity
for every citizen by making available a wide variety of learning resources and techniques.
Considering the socioeconomic-cultural diversity and the geographic conditions, the Indonesians must have the opportunity to choose from a broad menu of learning opportunities. In providing these opportunities, one has to seeks and create tools and techniques which are beyond the traditional way of thinking and doing. These tools and techniques are known as educational technology.

Full article can be downloaded here: edtech-systemic-change.pdf

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