Status of ICT Integration in Education inSoutheast Asian Countries*
By Bunyamin Maftuh**
A. Introduction
1In the globalization era of the 21st century, the world has changed sofundamentally which is mainly ignited by rapid development of information andcommunication technologies (ICT). The ICT refers to various technologies, tools
and devices that are used to transmit, process, store, create, display, share or
exchange information by electronic means. This broad definition of ICT includes
technologies such as computers, radio, television, video, CD, DVD, telephone(both fixed line and mobile phones), PDAs, satellite systems, network hardware
and software, and the equipment and services associated with these technologies,
such as video conferencing, e-mail, and blogs.
2Rapid development of ICT has encouraged people who live in this century
to develop and improve their competency in ICT literacy as well as information andmedia literacy. As stated by Thrilling and Fadel (2009) people who live in the 21stcentury must have the following skills: critical thinking and problem solving,communication and collaboration, creativity and innovation, information literacy,
media literacy, ICT literacy, flexibility and adaptability, initiative and self-direction,social and cross-cultural interaction, productivity and accountability, leadershipand responsibility.
3The fundamental changes in the 21st century, according to Thrilling andFadel (2009: xxviii), will change the roles of learning and education in day-to-dayliving. In this relation, rapid development of ICT in this century provides great
opportunities for its use in education. Some experts state that integrating ICT ineducation provides opportunities for students to search for and analyse
information, solve problems, communicate and collaborate and hence, equips
them with a set of competencies to be competitive in the 21st century marketplace(Bereiter & Scardamalia, 2006; Fullan, Hill, & Crévola, 2006; Jonassen, Howland,Marra, & Crismond, 2008). The integration of ICT in education will provide
promising expectation for improving the quality of education.
4
The Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO)
recognizes and gives high attention on the importance of ICT in education. As an
initial step towards knowledge sharing of ICT practices and experiences,SEAMEO assigned SEAMEO Secretariat and SEAMEO Regional Centre for
Vocational and Technical Education (SEAMEO VOCTECH) to conduct apreliminary survey on the status of ICT integration in education in the 11 SEAMEOMember Countries namely Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR,Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor Leste and Vietnam.
_______* Presented at Tsukuba International Conference: Innovation of Classroom Teaching andLearning through Lesson Study, Tsukuba University, Japan, and 17-20 February 2011.
** Programme Officer II, the SEAMEO Secretariat, Bangkok, Thailand.

1B. Focus and Methodology of Survey
5ICT integration here is interpreted as ICT which functions as an integral ormediated tool to accomplish specific teaching or learning activities to meet certain
instructional objectives. For ICT to be effectively integrated in schools, it is used asa mediated tool in these activities to engage students in higher order thinking.
Higher order thinking skills are goal-directed strategic processes that include
analyzing, evaluating, hypothesizing, elaborating and synthesizing. And
engagement entails mindfulness, cognitive effort and attention of the students inthe teaching and learning activities (Lim, 2007).
6
As the process of ICT integration in education has reached a considerable
level of maturity and stability in some countries in Southeast Asia, the pertinent
questions of the survey are:a) How has ICT been integrated in education among the countries in Southeast
Asia?
b) What are the strengths and capacities of these countries to integrate ICT ineducation?
c) What are the ICT-in-education best practices in these countries and how canthey be shared among the countries in Southeast Asia?
7
Based on these main questions, the SEAMEO Secretariat together withSEAMEO VOCTECH in Brunei Darussalam developed a set of guiding questions
for countries to prepare a case study to identify the state of ICT integration in theirrespective countries. Ten ICT-in-education dimensions are identified based on thecountry case studies where these dimensions are necessary and sufficientconditions that support the integration of ICT in education.
8

The ten ICT-in-education dimensions are as follows:
1. National ICT-in-education vision;
2. National ICT-in-education plans and policies;
3. Complementary national ICT and education policies;
4. ICT infrastructure and resources in schools;5. Professional development for teachers and school leaders;
6. Community/partnerships;
7. ICT in the national curriculum;
8. Teaching and learning pedagogies;
9. Assessment; and10. Evaluation and research.

9
In order to make sense of the differences and commonalities among thecountries, regions and areas, countries were required to map out their ICT
integration development based on the following four stages of ICT-in-education
adopted from UNESCO’s model of ICT Development in Education (UNESCO,2005).

2

o Emerging - Those who have just started their ICT-in-education journey;o Applying - Those who have developed a new understanding of thecontribution of ICT to learning;o Infusing - Those who have integrated ICT into existing teaching, learning andadministrative practices and policies; ando Transforming - Those who have used ICT to support new ways of teaching,learning and administration.

Figure1. Stages of ICT Integration in Education

Figure 2. Mapping the Model3

10The results of this study were based on the information that has been
extracted from the self-reporting case studies and self-assessment of the stagesof ICT in education of the countries. These case studies and assessments wereprepared by the representatives of the Ministry of Education from each country.
C. Southeast Asian Countries’ Stages of ICT in Education
11The Southeast Asian region is very diverse in terms of geographic,demographic, economic, educational and cultural factors. Consequently, the 11
SEAMEO Member Countries are at very different stages of integrating ICT ineducation. There are countries that are already at or moving towards thetransforming stage and there are countries that have just started out and at theemerging stage of ICT-in-education. Based on these different stages ofdevelopment, the countries may be categorised into three groups. It is important tonote that besides the differences of ICT-in-education development among thethree groups, there are also differences among the countries within each group.
12Table 1 below provides an overview of the SEAMEO Member Countries
stages of ICT-in-education in all ten dimensions of necessary and sufficientconditions that support the integration of ICT in education.

ICT ppl Table 1: Overview of SEAMEO Member Countries’ Stages of ICT
Integration in Education
Stages of ICT Integration in Education*ICT in Education
Dimensions1. National ICT in
Education Vision

Emerging

Applying

Infusing

Lao PDR;
Timor Leste

Cambodia;
Myanmar

2. National ICT in
Education Plans &Policies

Lao PDR;
Timor Leste

Cambodia;
Myanmar

3. Complementary
National ICT &Education Policies

Lao PDR;
Timor Leste

Cambodia;
MyanmarIndonesia;
Philippines;
Thailand4. ICT Infrastructure& Resources in
Schools

Cambodia;
Indonesia; Lao
PDR;Philippines;
Timor Leste
Lao PDR;
Timor Leste

Cambodia;
Indonesia;
Philippines;
Myanmar

Malaysia;
Thailand;
Vietnam

Cambodia;
Indonesia;
Myanmar

Malaysia;
Philippines;
Thailand;
Vietnam(Towards
Transforming)

5. Professional
Development for
Teachers & School
Leaders

4

Brunei andVietnam(TowardsTransforming);Indonesia;
Philippines;
ThailandIndonesia;
Philippines;
ThailandTransform
ing
Malaysia;
Singapore

Brunei;Malaysia;
Singapore;
Vietnam
Brunei;Malaysia;
Singapore;
Vietnam
Brunei;Malaysia;
Singapore;
Thailand;
Vietnam
Brunei;SingaporeStages of ICT Integration in Education*
ICT in Education
Dimensions
6. Community/
Partnership

Emerging

Applying

Infusing

Lao PDR;
Timor Leste

Brunei;
Cambodia;
Indonesia;
MyanmarIndonesia;
Myanmar;Philippines;
ThailandPhilippines;
Thailand;
Vietnam

7. ICT in the National
CurriculumCambodia;
Lao PDR;
Timor Leste

8. Teaching &Learning
Pedagogies

Cambodia;
Indonesia; Lao
PDR;Myanmar;
Timor Leste

Cambodia;
Indonesia;
Malaysia;
Myanmar;Thailand;
Vietnam

9. Assessment

Cambodia;
Indonesia; Lao
PDR;Myanmar;Philippines;
Timor Leste

Thailand;
Vietnam

Cambodia;
Lao PDR;
Philippines;
Timor Leste

Indonesia;
Thailand;MyanmarBrunei;Malaysia;
Singapore(TowardsTransforming);
Vietnam
Brunei(TowardsTransforming);Indonesia;
Malaysia;
Philippines;
Thailand;Singapore;
Vietnam
Brunei;Malaysia;
Singapore

Transforming
Malaysia;
Singapore

Malaysia;
Singapore;
Vietnam

BruneiSingapore(TowardsTransforming);
Malaysia;
Vietnam*Reference: Regional Guidelines on Teacher Development for Pedagogy-Technology Integration,
UNESCO and Asia-Pacific Programme of Educational Innovation for Development, 2005.
10. Evaluation &Research

Note : *In dimensions 4 (ICT Infrastructure & Resources in Schools ) and 8 (Teaching & Learning
Pedagogies), some of the countries appear in more than one stage of ICT in education due to thedifferences in stages of development among the provinces or areas within each of these countries.

13From Table 1 it is clear that the 11 SEAMEO Member Countries are at very
different stages of integrating ICT in education. There are countries that are
already at or moving towards the transforming stage and there are countries thathave just started out and at the emerging stage of ICT in education. Based onthese different stages of development, the countries may be categorised into threegroups (figure 3). It is important to note that besides the differences of ICT-ineducation development among the three groups, there are also differences among
the countries within each group.

5Transforming
Infusing
Applying
EmergingGroup 3Countries
Cambodia
Lao PDR
Myanmar
Timor LesteGroup 2Countries
Indonesia
Philippines
ThailandVietnam

Group 1Countries
BruneiMalaysia
Singapore

Figure 3. Three Groups of SEA Countries in the Stage of ICT integrationo Group 1 countries: Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia, and Singapore.
14All three countries have highly developed national ICT-in-education plansand policies that are integral to the overall education development or improvement
plans. These plans and policies complement the national ICT and education
policies, where the policies inform and support one another.
15
Almost all the classrooms in these three countries (except in the lessdeveloped areas in Malaysia), having been equipped with computers and otherICTs, have a high student-computer ratio, a high level of Internet access to allschools and an education delivery system that is increasingly online.
16
These countries are at the infusing and transforming stages for most of thedimensions of ICT in education. In this group, Malaysia and Singapore are muchfurther ahead on the ICT-in-education journey than Brunei, especially in thedimensions of teaching and learning pedagogies and community/partnership.
o Group 2 countries: Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam.
17
These countries are mainly at the infusing stage for most of the dimensions
and most of them already have developed ICT plans and policies in education. But
due to the rural-urban gap, there are still some parts of the dimensions that are in
the applying and even emerging stage. For example, under the teaching andlearning pedagogies dimension, Indonesia’s stages of development range fromemerging in the less developed provinces to infusing in the more developed
provinces; and in the case of Vietnam, the stages range from applying totransforming.
18
Among the countries in this group, Thailand and Vietnam are in moreadvanced stages of ICT-in-education than Indonesia and Philippines.
6o Group 3 countries: Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, and Timor Leste.
19
Although each of these four countries has either started to develop andimplement ICT in education plans and policies or implemented ICT-in-education
projects on a small scale, all of them are still at the emerging stage for most of thedimensions. The main concern of these countries is access to ICT infrastructure,
hardware and software.
20
In this group, Cambodia and Myanmar are at more advanced stages ofICT-in-education than Lao PDR and Timor Leste. The former countries are at theapplying stage from the dimensions of national ICT-in-education vision, plans andpolicies, complementary national ICT and education policies and ICT infrastructure
and resources in schools, whereas the latter counties are at the emerging stage
for these dimensions.
D. Conclusion and Emerging Issues
21
The ten dimensions of ICT-in-education have allowed us to document andcompare the stages of ICT-in-education among the 11 SEAMEO MemberCountries based on their self-reported case studies. The results of thecomparative study inform policymakers, school leaders, and teachers about how
to take up the opportunities and address the limitations of ICT, and how toeffectively integrate ICT in schools and their broader socio-cultural contexts. By
drawing upon the similarities and differences of the dimensions that facilitate orhinder the integration process among countries, the results of the study will add tothe body of research knowledge and theory about the contexts and factors that
contribute to the effective integration of ICT in education.
22Some schools among the Group 1 countries are in the transforming stage
or moving towards the transforming stage of ICT-mediated teaching and learningpedagogies; these pedagogies are most likely to equip students with a set ofcompetencies to be competitive in the 21st century marketplace. For thesepedagogies to be implemented in the schools of a country, the other dimensionsof ICT in education have to be in the infusing or transforming stage. Singapore isin the transforming stage for all of the dimensions except the ICT in the national
curriculum and assessment dimensions. None of the 11 SEAMEO MemberCountries have assessed themselves to be in the transforming stage for these twodimensions. Brunei and Malaysia are in the transforming stage for most of theother dimensions except the evaluation and research dimension.
23Among the Group 2 countries, only some schools in Vietnam are in thetransforming stage of ICT-mediated teaching and learning pedagogies. The rest ofthe schools in Vietnam and the other three countries, Indonesia, Philippines andThailand, are in the infusing and applying stages with the exception of Indonesia
which has schools in the emerging stage. Vietnam has three dimensions of ICT ineducation in the transforming stage: national ICT in education plans and policies,
complementary national ICT and education policies and ICT infrastructure andresources in schools; and these may have provided the necessary and sufficient7

conditions for some schools to transform their ICT-mediated teaching and learning
practices.
24
For the Group 3 countries, there are some schools in Cambodia andMyanmar that are in the applying stage of ICT-mediated teaching and learningpedagogies; but for the rest of the schools in Cambodia and Myanmar, and allschools in Lao PDR and Timor Leste, they are in the emerging stage.
37
25
From the discussion in this comparative study, six issues have emerged for
the Ministries of Education of the SEAMEO Member Countries to address as agroup and as a country:
1. Holistic approach towards the development of the national ICT-ineducation plans and policies.
2. Provision of professional development to staff at all levels in theeducation system with a greater emphasis on the pedagogical aspect ofICT integration.
3. Emphasis on ICT in national curriculum and assessment.
4. Sharing and transfer of ICT in education best practices and lessons
learnt among SEAMEO Member Countries, and among schools andprovinces/states in the country.
5. Support of Group 3 countries’ ICT in education efforts throughpartnerships.
6. Planning for evaluation and research of ICT in education.
26
As we move further into the 21st century, students in Southeast Asian
countries must be prepared to meet the future needs of the knowledge-based
economy. Students have to learn to seek out new information, think critically, andshow initiative to meet the challenges of the fast-changing world. ICT in education
offers such teaching and learning opportunities. This report has discussed how theten dimensions of ICT in education support or fail to support the effective
integration of ICT in schools among the 11 SEAMEO Member Countries. Thisaccount has emphasised what works and what appears right in a particular setting,and the problems encountered and addressed in a particular situation. The
account provides a sample of pedagogical and policy issues that were discussed
over the course of writing this report. Like a good guidebook, the accountsensitises the audience to what is likely to happen within a particular stage of adimension. Not only may we understand the variety of processes within andbetween dimensions, we may construct policies and pedagogical models of ICT in
education based on that understanding.

8References
Bereiter, C., & Scardamalia, M. (2006). Education for the Knowledge Age. In P. A.
Alexander, and P. H. Winne (Eds.), Handbook of Educational Psychology(2nd ed.). (pp. 695-713). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Fullan, M., Hill, P., & Crévola, C. (2006). Breakthrough. Thousand Oaks, CA:
Corwin Press.
Jonassen, D., Howland, J., Marra, R., & Crismond, D. (2008). Meaningful learningwith technology (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Lim, C. P. (2007). Effective integration of ICT in Singapore schools: Pedagogicaland policy implications. Educational Technology Research andDevelopment, 55(1), 83-116.
SEAMEO (2010). Report: Status of ICT Integration in Education in Southeast
Asian Countries. Bangkok: SEAMEO Secretariat.
Trilling, B. & Fadel, C. (2010). 21st Century Skills, Learning for Life in Our Times.
San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
UNESCO (2005). Regional Guidelines on Teacher Development for PedagogyTechnology Integration. Thailand, Bangkok: UNESCO Asia and PacificRegional Bureau for Education.

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