ICT Culture in Quality Education: Open and Distance Learning Perspective in Bangladesh

ICT has been a contributing factor in social change and thus leading to development in education. It provides greater access to target learners both on campus as well as the distant learners and has become a vehicle for enriched pedagogical experiences. Education system is still to exploit the full potential of ICT for optimizing human learning. In a developing country like Bangladesh, the question is to bridge the big gap between the ‘have’ and the ‘have not’, which has led to the euphoria of introducing ICT in education. ICT and ODL (Open and Distance Learning) have a symbolic relationship. However, its usage is mainly hampered by low speed, inadequate skills and less awareness of how online technology can improve the productivity, creativity and quality of knowledge work. Today ICT has entered the arena of e-governance starting from ICT literacy and social development. But it has still far from classrooms to create a classroom revolution. It has not percolated to the deeper levels of educational functioning due to various reasons. It is yet to become a culture in the educational sector of Bangladesh. This paper brings into lights the importance of ICT in education, highlights the emerging trends in and various impacts of ICT on primary and secondary education in general and tertiary education in particular, analyzes challenges and opportunities, explore potential future developments and suggests adoption of future strategies so that the nation can prepare its upcoming generations to become global citizens, who can communicate across culture, time and space.