"The way students use technology in school differs from school to school, classroom to classroom, and student to student. While there is no "right" way to focus on technology use in schools, some "rules of thumb" are emerging that clearly define a range of use every school should consider ..... This range is broad, and the possibilities for application within a school day are broader yet! "

Indicator: Range of Use - North Central Regional Educational Laboratory
http://www.ncrel.org/engauge/framewk/efp/range/efpranra.htm

There are many questions about when and if the use of ICT is appropriate. Some educators have a more technical perspective / background and feel that knowing about ICT is a prerequisite to working with ICT. Others do not know much about ICT, but understand that learners should be given opportunities to work with ICT. Just how much focus on ICT is appropriate and when does it become inappropriate? This is a complex issue.

The key to these answers lies in the way we, as educators, approach our teaching, the roles we adopt and the roles we encourage the learners to adopt. Let us think about this a little more. There are a number of factors involved, such as

(a) what type of teaching and learning do we wish to promote?

(b) which use of technology is most suited to achieve this?

(c) what type of learning experience will maximise the benefits?

Teaching and learning

Curriculum 2005 is advocating a move from a teacher-centred curriculum to a learner-centred curriculum. We know educators ought to be developing information skills in their learners as well as asking the sort of questions that require learners to use higher order thinking skills. We know that the skills of locating and evaluating information, problem-solving, critical thinking, communication and team work are the life skills that the national curriculum tries to promote because they, in fact, constitute the critical outcomes. One of the main reasons they have become so important is because

"...the meaning of 'knowing' has shifted from being able to remember and report information to being able to find and use it"

Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 1999, p. 5

Therefore the type of teaching we engage in has to change. According to Wiggins and McTighe's (Taxonomy of Teaching, 1998, p. 31) there are three main categories of teaching styles and student activities:

• Didactic/Direct Instruction: Students receive, take in, and respond
• Coaching: Students refine skills, deepen understanding
• Facilitative/Reflective: Students gather, analyse, evaluate and produce information

When examining the issue of appropriate use of ICT we should be aiming to teach in the facilitative style allowing students to work with information and construct their own meaning. This is not to say that ICT cannot be used constructively to serve other purposes.

Use of technology

Educators can use computers while using any of these three styles of teaching. If they use computers for drill and practice type activities such as is the case with some Mathematics software, they would be using technology in the didactic style. In some cases where educational software is used for practice for a particular examination such as the Matric mathematics syllabus then they would be using the coaching style of teaching. If educators are taking advantage of applications such as online research, simulations, visualization tools, and the use of real data sets in problem solving then we can say that they are using the third category of teaching style - the Facilitative/Reflective approach.

We are all familiar with the first two categories of styles of teaching but this third category is relatively new to many of us and requires more analysis. This approach could be described simply as "learning by doing".

Types of learning experience

"When we (the authors) observed students who were using the Internet as a resource for project development, we noticed that the most successful learning experiences were those in which the teacher acted as a facilitator, paying careful attention to the students and guiding them through critical stages of their projects."

Lamb, Annette; Smith, Nancy and Johnson, Larry. "Wondering, wiggling, and weaving: A new model for project- and community-based learning on the web." Learning and Leading with Technology, v. 24, n. 7, April 1997

This observation reinforces the belief that the educator should adopt the role of facilitator - or to use a well-known catch-phrase to be "the guide on the side rather than the sage on the stage". This does not mean that the educator has fewer activities to plan - in fact in many cases it means that there is more planning and guiding to do rather than using merely the telling method of "pouring information into the empty vessels." (to use another well-known phrase.)

We also know that learning experiences should have some connection to real life concerns and develop real world skills. Therefore the more authentic the task the more meaningful the learning and the greater the likelihood of ICT naturally complementing the activity as a resource tool.

Focusing on learning

One of the most important considerations when deciding whether technology use is appropriate is the focus on learning. Appropriate use of technology is when one is not focusing on the technology. If one concentrates on the skills required in order to use the computer instead of the skills required in order to manage information then one could easily fall into the trap of allowing the learners to think that the technology is more important than the learning that is taking place.

Click here to read about strategies for focusing on learning

Checklist of appropriate use of technology

When you are concerned about the appropriateness of your use of ICT in the classroom, ask yourself these questions:

1. Is the use of ICT simple, yet well-supported?
2. Are you sure that you are not including ICT just because you think it is important to know?
3. Are learners who are working with ICT focusing on the content?
4. Is your role facilitative i.e. are you giving the learners the opportunity to work with ICT on their own?
5. Does working with ICT enhance the learning process?
6. Are learners using higher order thinking skills before and during and after the use of ICT?
7. Is ICT a part of the learning process, and not an add-on?

If you answered Yes to all of the above questions, it is likely that you are making appropriate use of ICT.