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6.3.2 Implication: online resources

Indonesian Context:
The majority of teachers in Indonesia cannot speak or understand English. The main reason for this is that English is not their spoken language. Often, it is not even their second language. Most Indonesians have their local languages called "Bahasa Daerah", which are different from one area to another. For many years, teachers and students in the schools were required to use "Bahasa Indonesia" (Indonesian National language) instead of Bahasa Daerah. This was important because it gave people a common language in which to communicate. Until recently, English itself has been regarded as an International language and it was not a medium of instruction. It is only one of the compulsory subjects taught at schools. The real value of knowing English was not realised for many years, except just as an element of school assessment or national examinations. The predominant English teaching approach which emphasised more on grammar than on communication makes it difficult for Indonesians to master English. The result of the lack of proficiency in English communication is that millions of English online learning resources provided through the Internet, are not usable for the majority of mathematics teachers in Indonesia.

Currently, the importance of English has been recognised broadly by teachers. This is not only because of the fast growth of Internet technology, but also because of the Indonesian Government policy, pushing teachers to be able to communicate in English in their teaching. For example, in the National Education Department Strategic Plan 2005-2009, the government has decided to develop one International based-school in every district in Indonesia. One characteristic of these schools is that they are bilingual, requiring the teaching to be in Indonesian language (about 25%) and in English (about 75 %) in the first year of this project; 50% in each language in the second year; and 75% in English and 25% in Indonesian in the third year [ref]. Mathematics is one of the compulsory subjects that must be taught in this bilingual system. This regulation has created a new demand for many mathematics teachers, not only to improve the quality of the mathematics teaching, but also to have enough English proficiency to teach mathematics in English.

In Chapter 2, the potential of the Internet as a mathematics learning tool was explored. The Internet could offer many different types of learning resources, from text, audio, video interactive and so on. However, the online mathematics resources in the Indonesian language are limited. There has been an effort from the National Education Department to develop online resources, provided through the website xxxxxx [ref]. It contains mathematics lessons for different level of schools. The types of lessons are varied, such as text explanations of mathematical concepts, mathematical tests, visualisations, and so on. I discovered that these online resources need to be further developed to meet the needs of mathematical learners. Also the developments must consider how these resources could be used by teachers or students in the context of limited access to the Internet.

Links to the research finding and previous studies
The current research which was conducted in primary schools in Australia where English is a spoken language, highlighted two issues concerning the online resources. The first issue based on Ann’s case and my personal experiences is that the Internet is a powerful tool for learning. Ann's claim that "you can learn every thing through the Internet" suggests that having good access to the Internet for teacher means having a broad opportunity for teachers to improve their teaching qualities. Teachers like Ann have "well matched" knowledge and beliefs about teaching-learning-mathematics-technology, which means they can harness the power of the Internet. The websites such as provided by Queensland Education Department enabled Ann to find invaluable resources for her teaching and learning. The second issue demonstrated by Jack’s case is that unlimited online resources could result in many challenges. Teachers like Jack who know English very well and live in a context of unlimited online resources may face many challenges when required to integrate the Internet in their teaching. Jack’s initial response to the Internet that is "time consuming", suggests that having unlimited resources does not necessarily mean they will be used to enhance the mathematics teaching and learning. In summary, the power of the Internet as a learning tool, indicated by Ann and the challenges of the Internet demonstrated by Jack, should generate at least two implications for the Indonesian context. First, Indonesian teachers need mathematical online resources in the Indonesian language and second, teachers who are in demand to teach mathematics in English need specific support to use the the English online resources effectively for their teaching and learning. Below is discussed how these implications could be addressed.

The implications:
The importance question to address in this study is how the two implications above should be addressed.