An Early-Stage ICT Maturity Model Derived from Ethiopian Education Institutions

ABSTRACT Developing an initial ICT infrastructure in education institutions is disproportionately expensive in developing countries and sustainable interventions are difficult to achieve. There has been a lack of concrete guidance regarding the stages of development needed to make efficient use of resources and maximise the chances of sustainable investments. To address these needs, an ICT Maturity Model is presented that has been derived from documentary sources and an analysis of selected schools, colleges and universities in Ethiopia. The surveyed institutions include five primary schools, six teacher education colleges, five public universities and a higher education preparatory school. The Model defines the ICT infrastructure resource levels required to achieve primary organisational objectives expressed in the form of student learning outcomes. The Model consists of eight levels, with the focus being on the lowest levels defining the infrastructure required to enable initial computer training. The levels in the Maturity Model show management, teaching and technical staff, as well as donors how to make most efficient use of ICT resources by maximising opportunities for student learning. Although developed and tested in the Ethiopian context, it is hoped that the Model can be replicated across a range of developing countries. Keywords: Information and Communication Technology (ICT); Maturity Model; Stage Model; Educational Institution; College; University; ICT for Development, Educational Development; Ethiopia. INTRODUCTION There has been considerable interest in the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the education sector worldwide. Further, there has been growing interest in the use of ICTs in educational settings in developing countries (Tolani-Brown, McCormac & Zimmermann, 2009). Non-governmental initiatives have included attempts to integrate ICT into rural and lowincome urban schooling (Brewer, et al., 2005) and the much publicized One Laptop Per Child initiative (Kraemer, Dedrick, & Sharma, 2009). Further, in recent years, several countries have attempted donor-led (Unwin, 2004) or government-led initiatives to expand access to ICTs in schools. These initiatives have often been associated with a broader educational quality improvement agenda. Interventions have included investment in new computer classrooms, and schemes to provide teachers with laptops (Gulbahar, 2008). The use of computers in education has realized many benefits. Research shows that ICTs can contribute to enhancing education in a development context in a number of ways: * Increasing the number of qualified teachers by accelerating teacher training (Unwin, 2004), * Improving achievement levels by helping to counter adverse factors such high student:teacher ratios, shortage of basic teaching materials and poor physical infrastructure, * Reducing drop-out rates by making learning more interesting and stimulating (e.g. Light, 2009), * Overcoming geographical obstacles through distance learning (e.g. Rye, 2009) and * Changing pedagogical practices and providing access to educational content and up to date resources (e.g. Webb and Cox, 2004). Other student benefits may include greater opportunities for post-school employment, and greater motivation for ICT-related careers. Despite these benefits, shortcomings have also been found. For example, Wims and Lawler (2007) report teachers having to share computers with other school staff. They show sometimes comparatively little educational use of the ICT resources is made in subjects other than computer skills training. This shortcoming supports other research advocating attention to technical, subject-specific (content) and pedagogical knowledge (Koehler & Mishra, 2009). The Wims and Lawler (ibid) research also demonstrated the need for staff training and staff computer access to encourage the educational mainstreaming of ICT which has been identified in research conducted elsewhere (Shephard, 2004). …