Introduction
Hello Everyone
My name is Tammy Wintour, I am currently studying to obtain my Bachelor of Education Early Childhood degree I have previously completed a Bachelor of Early Childhood degree by combining these two degrees I can teach in schools up to grade three but my Objective is to be able to teach Prep. This semester sees me studying two courses, Science & Pedagogy and ICT & Pedagogy (Pedagogy is a fancy word meaning "The way we Teach").
I hope to do my Professional Experience for ICT at a small country Special Education Unit. I chose this school because I know the teachers there do an amazing job with disabled children, they also help families and schools to intergrate disabled children into mainstream schools. This special ED unit provides support for these children up to the age of eight years then they hand over their hard work to the professionals such as speech pathologists, occupational therapists etc etc. Now that's enough about me today I wish to discuss with you the topic of "why use ICT's in learning and teaching".
Overview
As information and communication technology (ICT) becomes more widely used in classrooms and schools, attention is being focused on how ICT can make teaching and learning more effective. This article responds to the following four questions:
1. What are the effective practices for using ICT's that enhance the learning of students who are disadvantaged?
2. Who benifits when ICT is intergrated into schools and classrooms?
3. what are the barriers to more effective use of ICT in classrooms with disadvantaged students?
4. How would I use ICT in teaching and learning?
Effective Practice
ICT is seen as a catalyst of sytem, communities, schools and classrooms reform because it provides opportunities to shift from teacher centred to student centred learning. In turn, ICT could also increase the pedagogical repertoire of teachers. This teacher effect is most likely to improve the outcomes of disadvantaged students because it attends to individual needs and provides a variety of curriculum and assessment strategies to promote student capabilities across a range of learning outcomes. In that sense, good pedagogical practice in the use of ICT to enhance the learning of students who are disadvantaged is good pedagogical practice for all students involved in the learning experience (Blackmore, Hardcastle, Bamblett, Owens, 2003).
As information and communication technology (ICT) becomes more widely used in classrooms and schools, attention is being focused on how ICT can make teaching and learning more effective. This article responds to the following four questions:
1. What are the effective practices for using ICT's that enhance the learning of students who are disadvantaged?
2. Who benifits when ICT is intergrated into schools and classrooms?
3. what are the barriers to more effective use of ICT in classrooms with disadvantaged students?
4. How would I use ICT in teaching and learning?
Effective Practice
ICT is seen as a catalyst of sytem, communities, schools and classrooms reform because it provides opportunities to shift from teacher centred to student centred learning. In turn, ICT could also increase the pedagogical repertoire of teachers. This teacher effect is most likely to improve the outcomes of disadvantaged students because it attends to individual needs and provides a variety of curriculum and assessment strategies to promote student capabilities across a range of learning outcomes. In that sense, good pedagogical practice in the use of ICT to enhance the learning of students who are disadvantaged is good pedagogical practice for all students involved in the learning experience (Blackmore, Hardcastle, Bamblett, Owens, 2003).
Who Benifits
ICT increases the flexibility of delivery of education so that learners can access knowledge anytime and from anywhere. It can influence the way students are taught and how they learn. This in turn would better prepare learners for lifelong learning as well as improve the quality of thier learning. In concert with geographical flexibility, technology-facilitated educational programs and it also helps to remove many of the temporal constraints that face learners with special needs (Moore, Kearsley, 1996). Students are starting to appreciate the capability to undertake education anywhere, anytime and anyplace. One of the most vital contributions of ICT in the feild of education is easy access to learning. With the help of ICT, students can now browse through e-books, sample examination papers, previous year papers etc etc, and can also have easy access to resource persons, mentors, experts, researchers, proffesionals and peers from all over the world (Young, 2002).
Barriers
Knowledge of, and experience with, ICT is not enough to enable teachers to make the best use of ICT in the classroom. Effective adoption of ICT takes time even with the support of an experienced team or through collaborative working (Sandholtz, 2001). I know myself that each new program encountered takes time to learn and before I taught someone else I would like to master the program myself.
ICT increases the flexibility of delivery of education so that learners can access knowledge anytime and from anywhere. It can influence the way students are taught and how they learn. This in turn would better prepare learners for lifelong learning as well as improve the quality of thier learning. In concert with geographical flexibility, technology-facilitated educational programs and it also helps to remove many of the temporal constraints that face learners with special needs (Moore, Kearsley, 1996). Students are starting to appreciate the capability to undertake education anywhere, anytime and anyplace. One of the most vital contributions of ICT in the feild of education is easy access to learning. With the help of ICT, students can now browse through e-books, sample examination papers, previous year papers etc etc, and can also have easy access to resource persons, mentors, experts, researchers, proffesionals and peers from all over the world (Young, 2002).
Barriers
Knowledge of, and experience with, ICT is not enough to enable teachers to make the best use of ICT in the classroom. Effective adoption of ICT takes time even with the support of an experienced team or through collaborative working (Sandholtz, 2001). I know myself that each new program encountered takes time to learn and before I taught someone else I would like to master the program myself.
Another barrier is that ICT changes rapidly and new innovations offer new possibilities for teaching and learning. These not only open up new techniques to influence the existing curriculum more effectively or more efficiently but change the nature of that curriculum by altering the content of what needs to be taught. Other barriers include, Cost, availability of ICT at home and availability of ICT in remote settings. These barriers are only minimal when you take into account the opportunities both students and teachers have from a massive range of resources that are quite literally on tap. Now that you have read about some of the pros and Cons to the use of ICT in teaching and learning, I would just like to add that after learning about ICT and "beleive me" I still have a lot to learn, I beleive the benifits of using ICT in schools far outways the disadvantages as long as you are prepared to learn and use them for the right applications.
How would I use ICT in Teaching and learning
Well from my limited skills on this subject I would make sure that I researched the ICT and have practiced using the ICT until I am satisfied that I could handle teaching ICT to someone else. I am a very particular person and if I was to teach ICT I would want to know all the ins and outs so I can help students learn and fix any problems that may arise during a lesson with minimal disruption. And I would also be open to learning from the students as they probably know more about this subject then I do. Teaching ICT should be fun and rewarding please watch the following YouTube clip to see how exciting teaching with ICTs is to both students and teachers.
How would I use ICT in Teaching and learning
Well from my limited skills on this subject I would make sure that I researched the ICT and have practiced using the ICT until I am satisfied that I could handle teaching ICT to someone else. I am a very particular person and if I was to teach ICT I would want to know all the ins and outs so I can help students learn and fix any problems that may arise during a lesson with minimal disruption. And I would also be open to learning from the students as they probably know more about this subject then I do. Teaching ICT should be fun and rewarding please watch the following YouTube clip to see how exciting teaching with ICTs is to both students and teachers.
References
Blackmore, J., Hardcastle, L., Bamblett, E., Owens, J., (2003), Effective use of information and communication technology (ICT) to enhance learning for disadvantaged school students, Deakin centre for education and change institute of Disability studies education, Deakin University, Australia, pp 1- 280.
Moore, M., & Kearsley, G., (1996), Distant education: A systems view, Wadsworth publishing, Belmont, CA, USA, pp 4-5.
Sandholtz, J.H., (2001), Learning to teach with technology, Journal of technology and teacher education, 9.3, pp 349-374).
Young, J., (2002), The 24-hour professor, the Cronicle of higher education, Vol 48, No 38, pp 31-33.
Blackmore, J., Hardcastle, L., Bamblett, E., Owens, J., (2003), Effective use of information and communication technology (ICT) to enhance learning for disadvantaged school students, Deakin centre for education and change institute of Disability studies education, Deakin University, Australia, pp 1- 280.
Moore, M., & Kearsley, G., (1996), Distant education: A systems view, Wadsworth publishing, Belmont, CA, USA, pp 4-5.
Sandholtz, J.H., (2001), Learning to teach with technology, Journal of technology and teacher education, 9.3, pp 349-374).
Young, J., (2002), The 24-hour professor, the Cronicle of higher education, Vol 48, No 38, pp 31-33.