Abstract

Although media education is a comparatively new area of studies in Hong Kong, it is already flourishing. Why? This contribution identifies the education reform as an important factor in encouraging the development of media education in the last decade, and the three major driving forces of this reform have been: the emphasis on civic education since Hong Kong’s return to China sovereignty, the introduction of information technology (ICT), and the recent review of the curriculum. The author also aims to find out whether the patterns used in media education development are their own Asian models or, on the contrary, they follow Wes tern patterns.

Abstract

This contribution reviews the introduction of old and new information communication technologies in Ghanaian education. It points out how the recent proliferation of multi-media technologies in the country has ultimately encouraged the introduction of ICTs in education. However, the author argues that much of the move to introduce these new technologies into schools and colleges has not reflected the need to re-conceptualise teacher education curriculum practices to base its foundations on constructivist ideas about knowledge and its production. Without this, reforms to introduce new information communication technologies in classrooms risk becoming tools that are again used to reinforce old traditions of teaching and learning based on uncritical transmission of knowledge. Finally, the author argues that changes to the teacher education curriculum in Ghana, and elsewhere in Africa, should also reflect the new professional learning identities and learning experiences that ICT and other media communication tools are meant to foster in the classroom.