How can ICTs help expand access to education?

ICTs are a potentially powerful tool for extending educational opportunities, both formal and non-formal,
to previously underserved constituencies—scattered and rural populations, groups traditionally
excluded from education due to cultural or social reasons such as ethnic minorities, girls and women,
persons with disabilities, and the elderly, as well as all others who for reasons of cost or because of time constraints are unable to enroll on campus.

• Anytime, anywhere. One defining feature of ICTs is their ability to transcend time and space.
ICTs make possible asynchronous learning, or learning characterized by a time lag between the
delivery of instruction and its reception by learners.Online course materials, for example,may
be accessed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. ICT-based educational delivery (e.g., educational programming
broadcast over radio or television) also dispenses with the need for all learners and
the instructor to be in one physical location. Additionally, certain types of ICTs, such as teleconferencing
technologies, enable instruction to be received simultaneously by multiple, geographically
dispersed learners (i.e., synchronous learning).

• Access to remote learning resources. Teachers and learners no longer have to rely solely on
printed books and other materials in physical media housed in libraries (and available in limited
quantities) for their educational needs. With the Internet and the World Wide Web, a wealth of
learning materials in almost every subject and in a variety of media can now be accessed from
anywhere at anytime of the day and by an unlimited number of people.This is particularly significant
for many schools in developing countries, and even some in developed countries, that
have limited and outdated library resources. ICTs also facilitate access to resource persons—
mentors, experts, researchers, professionals, business leaders, and peers—all over the world (Victoria L. Tinio).