Issues and challenges in providing quality ICT infrastructure service delivery in a university campus environment

Within a university environment, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has become an important enabler in disseminating and sharing of knowledge through teaching, learning, research and supporting services to the core business. Thus, in this era, it is important that the body responsible for delivering the ICT services within a university campus reorientate the mode of delivery to that of a service provider. Based on this, the Centre for ICT (CICT) at the Universiti of Teknologi Malaysia sets the goal to achieve level three within the IT Management Process Maturity Model (Gartner Research, 2004). In this level, the IT organisation is supposed to define the service classes, the price associated with each classes and how to guarantee the service level as agreed upon. Traditional ICT service delivery is very much reactive and chaotic in nature. To migrate to this level, three tightly coupled components and issues, which relate to these components need to be addressed properly. The three components are technology, processes and people. How the three components relate to the ICT infrastructure strategic map and what are the issues and challenges will be deliberated and discussed in this paper

http://eprints.utm.my/6138/

Issues and challenges in integrating ICT in teaching and learning in our Malaysian Schools.

In line with the country’s information and communication technology (ICT) master plan and vision 2020, Malaysia recognized that the transformation of its education system is fundamental to achieve its objectives. The Ministry of Education, with the participation of non-governmental agencies, is focusing on the development of new media for use as educational. Due to its belief that ICT can make a changes in education and learning, the Ministry plans to integrate ICT into education on a fundamental level, incorporating systems to facilitate management, information gathering, access, and various forms of communication. However, there are some issues and challenges integrating ICT in teaching and learning in our Malaysian Schools.

In my opinion, the biggest challenger in integrating ICT in our Malaysian schools is, the appropriate rooms or buildings available to house the technology are needed and of course, the equipments. The government will spend a lot of cost to build the appropriate buildings in Malaysian schools. Another basic requirement is the availability of electricity and telephony. In Malaysia, some developing areas are still without a reliable supply of electricity and the nearest telephones are miles away such as at the Sabah and Sarawak. There might be no problem in the urban area, but how with the people who lived in the rural area? Some of the family still did not have a computer in their house. Thus, their child can not practice what that they have learned in the school at their house. This is such a waste when the students forgot what that they have learned. For instance, a basic requirement for computer-based or online learning is access to computers in schools, communities, and households, as well as affordable Internet service are needed.

Secondly, the teacher professional development should have skills in teaching the students using the ICT with particular application. Ideally, these should be addressed in pre-service teacher training and built on and enhanced in-service. ICTs are evolving technologies, and so even the most ICT fluent teachers need to continuously upgrade their skills and keep abreast of the latest developments and best practices. Some student might feel uncomfortable with the new technologies especially student in the rural area where most of the ICT application use the English language for the contents and it is the responsibility of the teacher to guide and teach them to use the computer.

Implementing academic computing is a long and expensive process. It may take many years for Malaysian schools to be successful. Although funding is an important factor, many other factors must be taken into account before and during the implementation of academic computing initiatives. Failure to address important issues may result in wasted resources and ineffective implementation. However, implementing ICT the education is a good way to increase the development in Malaysia. Thus, government should take more appropriate ways to ensure that the vision 2020 can be achieve.

ICT Country Case Study

Malaysia is, in many ways, an atypical country. It is hard to categorize and neither developed nor developing, or both, depending on the region. It is characterized by great disparities within the country and faces the dilemma of ensuring its regional and global competitiveness in ICT while at the same time ensuring equitable ICT access in rural areas.  Thus there are projects such as the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC), a government-driven initiative to develop a Malaysian Silicon Valley, as well as the Internet Desa, a program to install Internet centers in rural areas.

The Internet is developing rapidly in Malaysia, helped by some of the lowest dial-up rates in the world (around 40 US cents per hour). As a result, there were some 1.2 million Internet subscribers—the majority residential—at the end of 2000 with an estimated 15 per cent of the population using the Internet. Broadband access is predominantly via leased lines. Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) technology is being tested but is not yet widely available. Pay television service is mainly through Direct-to-Home satellite technology so cable modem access is not an option in Malaysia. Another option for broadband access is through fixed wireless but there are a number of technical and regulatory challenges to overcome in this area.

An ITU team, consisting of Vanessa Gray, Michael Minges and Lucy Firth, carried out field research for Malaysia from 2-6 April 2001. The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (CMC)—the country’s Information and Communication Technology (ICT) regulator—served as counterpart and organized meetings with relevant government and industry organization.

See also the Malaysia Broadband Case Study, preparedby the ITU’s Strategy and Policy Unit (SPU).

                http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/cs/malaysia/index.html

ICT empowering citizens of Malaysia

Malaysia, an upper-middle economic state in SouthEast Asia, found its connectivity with the world with the installation of the first telephone line in 1874. The country developed its first computer system in 1966 and since then several initiatives to facilitate the integration of ICT in different areas have been introduced. The privatisation of the telecom sector in 1987, and the formation of the NTP (National Telecom policy) in 1994, led to the full liberalisation of the market. The enactment of the Communi-cations and Multimedia act in 1998 established the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission (regulator) in support of national policy objectives. The regulator provides for economic, technical, consumer and social regulation ensuring competitiveness, licensing, frequency allocation, affordability and availability of ICT technologies and services. Framework for development (FID) is a five year rolling plan for ICT development. The country now faces the dilemma of ensuring global competitiveness as well as access to all.

 

http://www.i4donline.net/articles/current-article.asp?articleid=987&typ=Features
By Upasna Kakroo

BLOG...

Alhamdullillah..For the first time in my life at the end of 19th years,,finally i have my own blog....can't believe it.actually i am not a person who like to spend my time in writing like the others who love to be a blogger...honestly i do not know how to create the blog but with the help from my friends, finally MGT 300 was here!!!! and i am the new one....and i try to make this blog as the best as Tn. Syed wants...by the way this blog maybe just for temporary as i have to build up it just for MGT300 :)...but also maybe this blog can be permanently...ummmpppp i will think about it..so this is my first post which is just to introduce the new baby in the blogging world :)