The Fourth Industrial Revolution based Innovation for Information and

Communication Technology based Teaching

Yaya S. Kusumah

Study Program of Mathematics Education, School of Postgraduate Studies, Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia (UPI)

Keywords:

The Fourth Industrial Revolution, Information and Communication Technology, Critical and Creative

Thinking Ability.

Abstract:

As we move into the Fourth Industrial Revolution Era, due to the massive development of the newest digital

technology, our world is now so complex, interconnected, borderless and dramatically unpredictable. The

demand from the borderless world is that critical and creative thinking skills are required for excellent com-

munication, direct or indirect, real or virtual. The huge ﬂow of information, which is so tremendous in the

integrated system of globalized world, should be analyzed and synthesized carefully for the advancement of

education and science. Information and knowledge in this era can be accessed through various mobile devices,

using various available software and put in cloud computation storage easily. Place is no longer a barrier, as

information and knowledge can be accessed under expanded networking services, from almost anywhere by

almost any means. Information and communication technology-based teaching (ICT-based teaching), which

covers digital and mobile learning, should be used as it is so important for students’ life and career, and can give

them critical and creative mathematical thinking abilities for selecting, classifying, analyzing and interpreting

data and information. In this paper, ICT-based teaching under interdisciplinary theme will be discussed, based

on the challenge and demand in the Fourth Industrial Revolution Era.

1 THE REQUIRED SKILLS FOR

SOLVING PROBLEMS IN THE

4TH INDUSTRIAL

REVOLUTION ERA

The distinct system and process of industry in The

Industrial Revolution 4.0 bring a number of exist-

ing digital industrial technologies into an integrated

system. This system covers the Internet of Things,

Blockchain, Autonomous robots, Driverless vehicle,

Autonomous vehicles, Artiﬁcial intelligence, Cloud

computing, Big Data, 3D Printing, and Augmented

Reality. All these available system, tools and media

can be utilized for enhancing productivity in all as-

pects of our life, particularly in education. Labour,

capital, and productivity are key factor in creating

excellent growth of economy and education of a na-

tion. However, in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, it

is productivity which so far has triggered the growth

of these two ﬁelds. The beneﬁts of the Fourth In-

dustrial Revolution technology adoption for manufac-

turing, economy and education, will be widespread,

with smarter supply chains, smarter production and

smarter products.

The Industrial Revolution 4.0 encourages us to

live and work smarter, not harder. This reality can

be observed from daily situation. For example, the

merging of information and communication technol-

ogy (ICT), together with the technology being ap-

plied, support almost all possibilities of automation

that could speed up transportation, massive process

improvements, fast enhancement and massive pro-

ductivity. The innovation produces also alternative

revenue sources, all of which have their foundations

in information and services. Not only will manu-

facturing become more productive, it will also be-

come more ﬂexible, as smarter products could be re-

sulted from smarter process of production, smarter

transportation, and smarter supply chain. The innova-

tion as the result of these advantages, however, could

eventually lead to the disruption of existing business

model, information availability and high-quality ser-

vices, as well as system of education.

One of the main characteristics of the challenge in

the Fourth Industrial Revolution era is that our world

is now so complex, interconnected, and is dramati-

cally changed from time to time. The appearance of

phenomena of modernization, globalization and digi-

Kusumah, Y.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution based Innovation for Information and Communication Technology based Teaching.

DOI: 10.5220/0009439004770482

In Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Social, Economy, Education and Humanity (ICoSEEH 2019) - Sustainable Development in Developing Country for Facing Industrial

Revolution 4.0, pages 477-482

ISBN: 978-989-758-464-0

477

talization, have shaped this world without border. The

demand from the world without border is skills re-

quired for excellent communication, direct or indi-

rect, real or virtual, by empowering people in tech-

nology, whether technology in general, or information

and communication technology. The ﬂow of infor-

mation, which is so tremendous in globalized world,

requires skills for selecting and classifying data and

information to draw precise and accurate conclusion.

All information obtained should be analyzed and syn-

thesized carefully to make it meaningful for the ad-

vancement of science and the preparation in facing

complex and complicated daily problems.

The development of skills required for facing

the problems in the Fourth Industrial Revolution Era

need some materials which contain interdisciplinary

themes including global awareness, ﬁnancial literacy,

civic literacy, and environment literacy. Toh & Kaur

(2016) indicated that to fulﬁl these literacies, there are

some skills needed: (1) Skills of Learning and Inno-

vation, (2) Information and Media/Technology Skills,

(3) The skills for Life and Carier.

In facing this changing world, we require skills

which should be developed. These skills consist of

critical thinking, creative thinking, problem solving,

communication, representation, and connection abil-

ity. On the other hand, nowadays, the development of

quality of human resources through education, which

can enhance the student achievement, is triggered by

the development of technology. The advancement of

science and technology has fostered the easiness of

information access and shortened the required time to

gain information. This easiness should minimize the

problems in education, and particularly in mathemat-

ics education.

The existence of science and technology has pro-

vided students with broad access of information rel-

evant to the need and demand; opportunities for do-

ing exploration and self ﬁnding in mathematical con-

cepts in the given computer program. This can trigger

the empowerment of student skills optimally, so it can

be expected that their critical thinking in mathematics

can also be enhanced.

2 THINKING ABILITIES UNDER

THE CURRICULUM 2013

Under the implemented national education system,

Indonesia has high expectation of having high qual-

iﬁed, independent, creative, professional and produc-

tive community. These targets need serious efforts

which should be developed by enhancing the quality

of teaching-learning process and exploring the end-

less information, where thinking skills are the main

focus.

Tracing and implementing the endless information

require skills in accessing information sources, select-

ing and compiling the type of information, together

with analyzing and drawing conclusion. This kind of

abilities can be obtained through the development of

critical, logical, systematic, analytical, creative, and

productive thinking abilities.

The enhancement of critical and creative thinking

abilities in formal education gained in high schools is

developed by mathematics teaching, emphasized on

system, structure, concepts, principle and the strong

connections between one element and the others.

These efforts require deductive thinking patterns in

logic, as its application is required in daily activities.

The concepts of mathematical logic can clearly ex-

plain and simplify a situation by abstraction and gen-

eralization.

Under the construction of Curriculum 2013 for

high schools in Indonesia, there are a number of im-

plications of different changes in mathematics edu-

cation. The emphasis of this curriculum consists of

(1) competency required for solving any problems re-

lated to mathematics; (2) competency of using math-

ematics as communication tools; and (3) competency

of using mathematics as tools for reasoning in any

situation, such as critical, logical, systematic, objec-

tive thinking and self-discipline in facing and solving

problems. These abilities are extremely useful in at-

tending higher education, constructing good commu-

nication in society, and preparing required skills for

possible jobs.

The high expectation in the new curriculum can-

not be handled by merely implementing conventional

methods and approaches. To reach these mathemati-

cal competencies, some abilities in selecting materi-

als on mathematics are required based on the struc-

ture of knowledge, the depth of materials, the char-

acteristics of materials and their applications in real

world. In addition, there should be a few methods

and approaches that should be applied to accommo-

date all demands mentioned above. These new ap-

proaches which should be formulated, require opti-

mization of student motivation; enhance student self-

regulated learning; enhance the process of students’

learning effectively; and counterbalance (keep up) the

speed of science and technology development. One of

the appropriate solutions considered as a good effort

to realize these goals, is the application of information

and communication technology as media in teaching

mathematics, which give opportunities to students in

learning mathematics independently through interac-

tive programmed teaching materials.

ICoSEEH 2019 - The Second International Conference on Social, Economy, Education, and Humanity

478

3 COMPUTER AS DEVICES IN

MULTIMEDIA-BASED

TEACHING

Computer technology has been developed since the

beginning of 1950s (Molenda et al., 1996) and since

then computers have been contributing extraordinary

advantages for community life. The greatest contri-

bution ever in education area has been admitted long

time ago, although the use of computers in schools

was limited in word processing or worksheet only.

The use of computer software for teaching activi-

ties is not limited (Fey and Heid, 1984), and the po-

tency of computer technology as media in mathemat-

ics teaching is so huge (Fletcher, 1983). There is so

much real contribution delivered by computers for the

advancement of education, particularly for mathemat-

ics teaching. Computer can be used for overcoming

student individual differences; teaching concepts; car-

rying out calculation; and stimulating student learning

(Glass, 1984). Students can manage their own learn-

ing, based on their level of skills. They can repeat

many times until they really understand the concepts

they learn. This is ideal for students who ﬁnd difﬁcul-

ties in attending mathematics teaching, particularly

for students who could be classiﬁed as slow learner.

For students in fast learner category, they can be given

enrichment to make them challenged and have special

opportunity in exploring concepts deeply. Computers

can guide students, starting from easy and simple con-

cepts to complicated ones. By the help of its program,

computer can give access to the students in analyzing

and exploring some concepts of mathematics, so they

gain better understanding in the concepts they learn.

Computer has unique advantages which do not

belong to other media; for example, computer can

give repetitive assistance; presenting material in much

more interesting format and design, having good and

interesting graphic animation and audio, and serving

individual differences. As expressed by Wilson (Wil-

son, 1988), computers with good software design can

present repetitive and dynamic presentation, a charac-

teristic which can hardly found in any other media.

Some of computer advantages which are appropri-

ate for mathematics teaching is its endless patience;

can motivate students with designed reward; give op-

portunities to do experimentation without being anx-

ious of possible damage; serve students undiscrim-

inatively; give students valued skill for their future,

speed up their computation process which cannot be

handled manually, or requires long time solution. The

research by carried out by Kulik, Bangert-Drowns

(Kulik et al., 2004) showed that compared to conven-

tional teaching, interactive computer-based teaching

has some advantages. Among all advantages are as

follows: the use of computer can strengthen students’

ability in mathematics; students’ speed in understand-

ing the concepts will be even higher than their previ-

ous achievement, and the students’ positive attitude

towards mathematics will be much better.

As media for teaching, computer is not merely a

tool which can carry out new situation, but also plays

a positive role in developing students’ talent and in-

terest toward mathematics. This new situation, inte-

grated in alternative teaching, can construct certain

interest for students, so they will be motivated in at-

tending the lesson, although the materials may be dif-

ﬁcult to understand. In Indonesia, computer-assisted

teaching is relatively new, so it can trigger students

in learning mathematics, who might think that math-

ematics is a “dry” lesson, uninteresting, and difﬁcult

to understand.

4 INFORMATION AND

COMMUNICATION BASED

MATHEMATICS TEACHING

In interactive mathematics teaching, teaching materi-

als are specially designed, so the interaction between

students and computer go dynamically in stimulus-

response type. Computers give students opportunity

to enter input while computers give a response or vice

versa. In the following process, the response can be

a new stimulus so it triggers some other following re-

sponses which can strengthen student retention in the

presented concepts. In stimulus-response type, pro-

gram input can be constructed in various forms, so

that it converges into the goals of teaching. When a

student does a mistake, computer has to present ex-

planation which guides them to the correct solution.

To construct computer software which can moti-

vate students in such a way that they are interested

in analyzing and exploring the concepts is certainly

not simple. Software programmers have to design a

program based on the students’ mental development;

they also have to understand pedagogical aspects, so

the material presentation can be understood by the

students properly. Kaput (Kaput, 1992) revealed that

computer program-based teaching is not only based

on assumptions as a guide, but it has also to be based

on the expertise of the experts in implementing those

assumptions in presenting the software, and relevant

to the characteristics of the software and hardware

they use.

The use of computers in schools can be classiﬁed

in three models: the application of computer as tutor,

The Fourth Industrial Revolution based Innovation for Information and Communication Technology based Teaching

479

tool, and tutee. As tutor, computer assists students

in understanding concepts, from the theory, theorem,

until prooﬁng, and exercises. As a tool, computer can

be used by students for solving mathematical prob-

lems. Students can run special computer application

programs relevant to the concepts they learn. By us-

ing this program students are enabled to analyze the

characteristics of a notion (idea); for example, how

to write a formula of a function when the formula

is modiﬁed by manipulating its variable or constant.

Through this pattern, students do exercises to analyze

functions and ﬁnd the relation between the graphics

and their formula, so they can identify the character-

istic of the function they observe.

As a tutee, computers act as an object which can

implement all students’ instruction, so computers fol-

low all students’ control. In this situation, computers

do any given tasks.

5 INTERACTIVE

MATHEMATICAL

COURSEWARE IN THE

IMPLEMENTATION OF

E-LEARNING

After the invention of microcomputers with graphic

interface, followed by the easiness of their opera-

tion and managed by consistent menu, the devel-

opment of courseware-based education is a devel-

oped phenomenon which grows rapidly. This com-

prises Computer-Aided Instruction (CAI), Computer-

Assisted Learning (CAL), Computer-based Training

(CBT), Computer Conference, Electronic Mail (e-

mail), Website, and Multimedia Computers.

Computer-based teaching materials can be consid-

ered as a set of techniques, software, and accompany-

ing materials designed to be used in computer-based

teaching, training, seminars/ workshops, or in any

other education activities. Hatﬁeld (?) indicates that

computer-based instruction is basically an execution

of computer programs for instructional purposes. In

CAI, students are assisted step by step in understand-

ing a topic. Students are given examples, exercises,

questions, and tutorials. A computer program which

is designed to make the students interested in the topic

they learn can make the students reach the previous

designated goals. Animation techniques, which are

usually used in these programs, can motivate students

extrinsically, as well as strengthen their interest.

Students can do distance discussion via com-

puter conference, which can be held between remote

schools. Students can pose their ideas and communi-

cate to each other without limitation of distance. Al-

though these activities are usually conducted, com-

puter conference, however, so far is considered as ex-

pensive option, and is not considered as an efﬁcient

mode of learning.

Web site can be used as media in mathematics

teaching, although the teaching-learning process does

not depend on the existence of website. Teachers can

give tasks via website and provide the answers in the

same media. This option of learning type can be inte-

grated into e-mail use, so the teachers can communi-

cate (in two-way trafﬁc communication) to students,

as well as between a student and the others, who can

do discussion via this media. This type of learning is

appropriate to be developed, particularly for distance

learning, which enables students and teachers to have

discussion without face-to-face meeting.

Teachers can explain concepts via multimedia

computers, particularly concepts which contain mo-

tion, change, animation, or repetitive explanation,

equipped by audio-video facility. Students get infor-

mation via these media, whether in CD ROM, DVD

ROM format, or even in common discs only. Teach-

ers as a facilitator only need to operate these media

whenever they need.

There are a number of computer-based teach-

ing models, consisting of drill and practice, tuto-

rial, game, simulation, discovery, and problem solv-

ing (Glass, 1984). In more details, there are several

types of computer-based teaching interaction can be

used, as follows: (1) Drill and Practice, (2) Tutorial,

(3) Simulation, (4) Interactive discovery, (5) Games,

(6) Presentation/Demon-stration, (7) Test, (8) Com-

munication, and (9) Information Sources.

6 DEVELOPING SOFTWARE FOR

MATHEMATICS TEACHING

By identifying the characteristics of software mathe-

matics teaching, together with its advantages, we can

start developing interactive teaching materials by ob-

serving the has-to-be-followed steps. Some priorities

which should be taken into account in dealing with

software development for teaching are as follows: (a)

Identifying the demands in learning outcomes, stipu-

lated in the curriculum, (2) Evaluating all available

software, (3) Enhancing the quality of the existing

software, and (4) Developing new software.

In designing, developing, and implementing

computer-based teaching materials, there are some

steps that should be considered. Development phases

which are required for designing high quality interac-

tive teaching materials needs several phases. The ﬁrst

ICoSEEH 2019 - The Second International Conference on Social, Economy, Education, and Humanity

480

phase is Analysis of Demand/Need. In this phase, it is

required to analyze what topic needs presentation via

computer-based teaching materials, how important it

is, and what kind of difﬁculties usually found in con-

ventional teaching. The other important aspect which

should be put into account is the cost for designing

the material by computer programs.

The topic designed in details should be done in the

ﬁrst phase to ﬁnd out the content of teaching materials

which will be designed, and what competency can be

obtained from computer program to be adapted into

instructional objectives, prerequisites, and animations

to present the program more interesting and presented

in well structure.

In the second phase, program design is started by

setting the sequence or hierarchy of material presen-

tation which is basically divided into input, process,

and output sections. From each section, subsections

of program which are interrelated can be designed.

The process of design is followed by program

evaluation step, which tests whether the design is

already feasible viewed from program requirement,

such as system parameter and speciﬁcation. In ad-

dition, it has to be ensured that viewed from pedagog-

ical aspect, the presentation is already adequate based

on student mental development, the sequence of con-

cepts based on the prerequisite, accuracy in writing

sentences, language aspects, including symbolic writ-

ing in formula and theorem. Program animation is not

allowed to convert the concept and standard structure

in a rigorous concept. This phase is often called as

“test-belt stage”.

The third phase: Development and Implemen-

tation Phase. In this phase, the computer pro-

gram which consists of several modules/ subroutines

are constructed based on the design of formulated

ﬂowchart. Each subroutine has to be analyzed by us-

ing various inputs, after which the subroutine is in-

tegrated into the main program or other subroutines.

It may happen that a subroutine can be run when it

does not involve any other subroutines, or it gets stuck

when it is integrated with other subroutines or when

repetition is implemented.

After the program have been integrated, in terms

of variable (local variable and global variable) and

the declaration of each subroutine, the whole program

has to be run, and then analyses and evaluation step

should be implemented, to see if there are some er-

rors, by testing the output of the program and its re-

sults and display on the screen of computer.

To be successful, a program needs to be tested in a

phase called as “piloting stage”. In this phase, teach-

ing material is tried out to a number of students, who

have learned that material. A couple of problems arise

when piloting stage is implemented. However, these

problems have to be identiﬁed and recorded, for the

sake of the program reﬁnement. Before a program is

launched, improvement should be carried out based

on the materials contained and the characteristics of

the type of the program.

To obtain high quality teaching materials, we

should select people who are involved in constructing

materials for teaching in the form of computer pro-

grams. Their experience and knowledge of teaching

will be really important as contribution to the high-

quality design of teaching materials.

To assist education experts in designing teaching

materials, system analysts are required for analyzing

the system. However, some programmers are also re-

quired to help, in translating the basic ideas of teach-

ing materials into structured computer programs.

To construct beautiful and interesting presenta-

tion, artists are required, provided that they are ex-

perts in audio-video programs. Their expertise in in-

tegrating the animation of audio and video, motion in

graphic representation and animation, and any other

aesthetic aspects will contribute to the excellent inter-

active teaching materials which can motivate student

learning.

Apart from the abovementioned information,

there should be also some editors and reviewers who

are able to see the advantages and the weaknesses of

the produced programs for reﬁnement purposes. They

consist of experts on pedagogy and experts in com-

puter programming.

7 THE IMPLEMENTATION OF

MATHEMA-TICS TEACHING

ACTIVITIES

In conducting interactive teaching materials in

schools, we should be aware of misleading in its im-

plementation. It should be realized that computer is

not a “panacea” which can cure all types of students’

learning difﬁculties. Computer, however, is only a

machine which is created by human being, but will

not be able to replace the role of teachers. Computer,

in its application, has to be integrated fully based on

its potency and advantages in any stratum of educa-

tion, as a tool as well as media in teaching.

As a matter of fact, the implementation of com-

puter program in mathematics teaching cannot be al-

ways realized as the impact of difﬁculties in con-

structing computer programs, and computer program

construction is time consuming. There are also some

experts who think that teachers can be trapped in

The Fourth Industrial Revolution based Innovation for Information and Communication Technology based Teaching

481

designing and developing computer programs rather

than analyzing and exploring concepts. Camp and

Marchionini (Camp and Marchionini, 1984) even re-

vealed that computer programming has potency of

distracting the process of learning mathematics as it

is time consuming and teachers focus their attention

more on the program rather than the concepts of math-

ematics itself.

It is not easy for computer programmers to be

skilful in designing instructional computer programs.

This situation is easily understood as in designing

and developing interactive teaching materials, a pro-

grammer not only has to understand a computer lan-

guage but he/she also needs to understand instruc-

tional design, and of course, the concepts of math-

ematics. They have to direct their constructed pro-

grams for achieving the goals of teaching. Without all

these things, computer-based instruction will be only

the conversion of text from a book into a screen of

computer, a failed effort.

8 FACING SOME CHALLENGES

AND REQUIRED ACTIONS

To face the challenge of the new curriculum we need

to prepare all strategies, approaches, and models of

teaching, so that we can achieve the stipulated goals.

Problem solving and reasoning skills require the help

of computer media which can assist teachers in their

teaching. Sufﬁcient preparations are required to wel-

come the content and its resulted change, particu-

larly the change paradigm from the teacher-centered

paradigm to the student-centered paradigm.

To ensure that we are not left behind by many

other countries, we need to take some efforts to be

in the same level as the teachers in other countries.

A number of Asian countries, including China, Thai-

land, and the Philippine have seriously implemented

computer-based teaching by conducting some work-

shops and seminars on these matters, together with

program evaluation. Singapore, Malaysia, and also

Japan are developing computer programs devoting for

the advancement of teachers and prospective teach-

ers, particularly science and mathematics teachers

(Calumpit, 2000). The question is: are we walking in

the same place or will we move to follow other coun-

tries in shaping our beautiful and promising future?

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