Superior in the Era of Digital Education

When this daily on Monday (18/11/2019) published a story titled "Digitalization of Education Not Yet Substantive", half of us could understand it.

KOMPAS/ERWIN EDHI PRASETYA

Rumah Belajar (Learning House) digital learning modules provided by the Education and Culture Ministry can be accessed through rumahbelajar.kemdikbud.go.id. and Play Store as seen on Oct. 10 (4/10/2019). Education and Culture Minister Muhadjir Effendy said digital learning in schools would continue to be encouraged to usher in Industry 4.0.

The news was a report from the seminar "Technology for Education: Reaching School Children, Increasing Interest in Learning Together" held in Jakarta last Saturday. Education is in a transition phase toward digitalization. Educational institutions in many countries, from elementary school to middle and high school, are actively pushing for this modern education system.

At the seminar, the main expert of the Learning Technology Development unit at the Education and Culture Ministry’s Center for Information and Communication Technology, Purwanto Sujiatmojo, said that the use of digital technology in learning processes at schools had not touched substantive matters.

The majority of teachers now have laptops and smartphones. However, when asked whether they use those in teaching, the answer is generally “not yet”. Purwanto said the government and society had a big task before them to learn how to use technology for education to develop reason, creativity and collaboration rather than only moving texts from books to the internet.

If we may analyze the issues of digital education one by one, there are processes at play on different levels. First, there is the provision of teaching material through the internet to make it accessible for students outside the school in the context of distance education. If supported by an adequate communication and information technology (ICT) infrastructure, as realized through the Palapa Ring program providing fast internet access (4G) for the entire population of Indonesia, this can ensure educational inclusion.

Let us discuss how digital education can not only prevent us from being left behind but can make us competitive.

Of course, it does not stop there. Student in faraway and remote locations must have a laptop or other device to access the teaching material. Providing such equipment is a separate challenge.

Once that is in place, we can go on to look at how digital technology can facilitate teaching methods that stimulate creativity and collaboration, such as by setting up a collaborative learning system. Classrooms are not arranged conventionally with students sitting neatly in line facing the teachers. Now students are divided into groups to discuss particular problems, with the help of the teachers. Here students learn to jointly solve problems in the spirit of teamwork. This method is expected to nurture adaptation, tolerance, problem-solving capacity and a creative-innovative spirit.

In Finland, attention is first directed at the teachers. They must be literate about digital education so that they can get an understanding of and insight into the potential of digital devices in the learning process. With that awareness, they will not ban students from using gadgets in the classroom, but instead encourage them to use them to get the information needed to do the assignment at hand.

Let us discuss how digital education can not only prevent us from being left behind but can make us competitive.