What is ICT ?
ICTs stand for information and
communication technologies and are defined, for the purposes, as a “diverse set
of technological tools and resources used to communicate, and to create,
disseminate, store, and manage information.” These technologies include
computers, the Internet, broad casting technologies (radio and television), and
telephony.
Benefits/Advantages of ICT in
Education
Here are some of the benefits which ICT brings to
education according to recent research findings.
General benefits
- Greater efficiency throughout the school.
- Communication channels are increased through email, discussion groups and
chat rooms
- Regular use of ICT across different curriculum subjects can have a
beneficial motivational influence on students’ learning.
Benefits for teachers
- ICT facilitates sharing of resources, expertise and advice
- Greater flexibility in when and where tasks are carried out
- Gains in ICT literacy skills, confidence and enthusiasm.
- Easier planning and preparation of lessons and designing materials
- Access to up-to-date pupil and school data, any time and anywhere.
- Enhancement of professional image projected to colleagues.
- Students are generally more ‘on task’ and express more positive feelings
when they use computers than when they are given other tasks to do.
- Computer use during lessons motivated students to continue using learning
outside school hours.
Benefits for students
- Higher quality lessons through greater collaboration between teachers in
planning and preparing resources .
- More focused teaching, tailored to students’ strengths and weaknesses,
through better analysis of attainment data
- Improved pastoral care and behaviour management through better tracking of
students
- Gains in understanding and analytical skills, including improvements in
reading Comprehension.
- Development of writing skills (including spelling, grammar, punctuation,
editing and re-drafting), also fluency, originality and elaboration.
- Encouragement of independent and active learning, and self-responsibility
for learning.
- Flexibility of ‘anytime, anywhere’ access (Jacobsen and Kremer, 2000)
- Development of higher level learning styles.
- Students who used educational technology in school felt more successful in
school, were more motivated to learn and have increased self-confidence and
self-esteem
- Students found learning in a technology-enhanced setting more stimulating
and student-centred than in a traditional classroom
- Broadband technology supports the reliable and uninterrupted downloading of
web-hosted educational multimedia resources
- Opportunities to address their work to an external audience
- Opportunities to collaborate on assignments with people outside or inside
school
Benefits for parents
- Easier communication with teachers
- Higher quality student reports – more legible, more detailed, better
presented
- Greater access to more accurate attendance and attainment information
- Increased involvement in education for parents and, in some cases, improved
self-esteem
- Increased knowledge of children’s learning and capabilities, owing to
increase in learning activity being situated in the home
- Parents are more likely to be engaged in the school community
- You will see that ICT can have a positive impact across a very wide range
of aspects of school life.
ICT and Raising Standards
Recent research also points to ICT as a significant
contributory factor in the raising of standards of achievement in schools.
- Schools judged by the school
inspectors to have very good ICT resources achieved better results than schools
with poor ICT.
- Schools that made good use of ICT
within a subject tended to have better achievement in that subject than other
schools.
- Socio-economic circumstances and
prior performance of pupils were not found to be critical.
- Secondary schools with very good
ICT resources achieved, on average, better results in English, Mathematics and
Science than those with poor ICT resources.
A range of research indicates the potential of ICT
to support improvements in aspects of
literacy, numeracy and science.
- Improved writing skills: grammar,
presentation, spelling, word recognition and volume of work
- Age-gains in mental calculations
and enhanced number skills, for example the use of decimals
- Better data handling skills and
increased ability to read, interpret and sketch graphs Improvements in
conceptual understanding of Mathematics (particularly problem solving) and
Science (particularly through use of simulations)
The use of ICTs help improve the quality of education
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ICTs can enhance the quality of
education in several ways: by increasing learner motivation and engagement by
facilitating the acquisition of basic skills, and by enhancing teacher
training. ICTs are also transformational tools which, when used appropriately,
can promote the shift to a learner-centered environment.
Motivating to
learn. ICTs such as videos, television
and multimedia computer software that combine text, sound, and colorful, moving
images can be used to provide challenging and authentic content that will
engage the student in the learning process. Interactive radio likewise makes
use of sound effects, songs, dramatizations, comic skits, and other performance
conventions to compel the students to listen and become involved in the lessons
being delivered. More so than any other type of ICT, networked computers with
Internet connectivity can increase learner motivation as it combines the media
richness and interactivity of other ICTs with the opportunity to connect with
real people and to participate in real world events.
- Facilitating
the acquisition of basic skills. The transmission
of basic skills and concepts that are the foundation of higher order thinking
skills and creativity can be facilitated by ICTs through drill and practice.
Educational television programs such as Sesame Street use repetition and
reinforcement to teach the alphabet, numbers, colors, shapes and other basic
concepts. Most of the early uses of computers were for computer-based learning
(also called computer-assisted instruction) that focused on mastery of skills
and content through repetition and reinforcement.
- Enhancing
teacher training. ICTs have also been used to
improve access to and the quality of teacher training. For example, At Indira
Gandhi National Open University, satellite-based one-way video- and two-way
audio-conferencing was held in 1996, supplemented by print-materials and
recorded video, to train 910 primaryschool teachers and facilitators from 20
district training institutes in Karnataka State. The teachers interacted with
remote lecturers by telephone and fax
Examples of ICT-based activities
What kind of classroom activities
are suited to the use of ICT? The following is a brief guide to some of the
most common uses of ICT in teaching and learning.
Students can use ICT to find out
information and to gain new knowledge in several ways. They may find
information on the Internet or by using an ICT-based encyclopedia such as
Microsoft Encarta. They may find information by extracting it from a document
prepared by the teacher and made available to them via ICT, such as document
created using Microsoft Word or a Microsoft PowerPoint slideshow. They may find
out information by communicating with people elsewhere using email, such as
students in a different school or even in a different country.
Students can use ICT as part of a
creative process where they have to consider more carefully the information
which they have about a given subject. They may need to carry out calculations
(eg. by using Microsoft Excel), or to check grammar and spelling in a piece of
writing (perhaps using Microsoft Word), or they may need to re-sequence a
series of events (for example by re-ordering a series of Microsoft PowerPoint
slides).
Students can use ICT to present
their work in a highly professional format. They can create documents and
slideshows to demonstrate what they have learned, and then share this with
other students, with their teacher, and even via email with people all around
the world.
Computers
and the Internet use for teaching and learning
There are three general
approaches to the instructional use of computers and the Internet, namely:
1) Learning about computers and the Internet, in which technological literacy
is the end goal;
2) Learning with computers and
the Internet, in which the technology facilitates learning across the
curriculum; and
3) Learning through computers and
the Internet, integrating technological skills development with curriculum
applications.
Learn about computers and the Internet
Learning about computers and the
Internet focuses on developing technological literacy. It typically includes:
• Fundamentals:
basic terms, concepts and operations
• Use of the
keyboard and mouse
• Use of productivity
tools such as word processing, spreadsheets, data base and graphics programs
• Use of research
and collaboration tools such as search engines and email
• Basic skills in
using programming and authoring applications such as Logo or HyperStudio
• Developing an
awareness of the social impact of technological change.
Learning with computers and the Internet
Learning with the technology
means focusing on how the technology can be the means to learning ends across
the curriculum. It includes:
•Presentation, demonstration, and
the manipulation of data using productivity tools
•Use of curriculum-specific
applications types such as educational games, drill and practice, simulations,
tutorials, virtual laboratories, visualizations and graphical representations
of abstract concepts, musical composition, and expert systems
•Use of information and resources
on CD-ROM or online such as encyclopedia, interactive mapsand atlases,
electronic journals and other references.
Technological literacy is
required for learning with technologies to be possible, implying a two-step
process in which students learn about the technologies before they can actually
use them to learn.
Learning through computers and the Internet mean
Learning through computers and
the Internet combines learning about them with learning with them. It involves
learning the technological skills “just-in-time” or when the learner needs to
learn them as he or she engages in a curriculum-related activity.
Computers and the Internet used in distance education
Many higher educational
institutions offering distance education courses have started to leverage the
Internet to improve their programme’s reach and quality.
Disadvantages of ICT
One of the major barriers for the cause of ICT not reaching its full
potential in the foundation stage is teacher’s attitude. According to Hara
(2004), within the early years education attitudes towards ICT can vary
considerably. Some see it as a potential tool to aid learning whereas others
seem to disagree with the use of technology in early year settings. Blatchford
and Whitebread (2003:16), suggests that the use of ICT in the foundation stage
is “unhealthy and hinders learning”. Other early years educators who are
opposed to offering ICT experiences within the educational settings take a less
extreme view than this and suggest that ICT is fine, but there are other more
vital experiences that young children will benefit from, (Blatchford and
Whitebread, 2003). In theory some people may have the opinion that the teachers
who had not experienced ICT throughout their learning tend to have a negative
attitude towards it, as they may lack the training in that area of the
curriculum.
Another important drawback to using ICT in schools is the fact that
computers are expensive. According to the IT learning exchange (2001), in most
schools ICT will be the single largest curriculum budget cost. This may be seen
as a good thing but on the other hand there will be little money left over for
other significant costs.
