"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! "
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
- what type of teaching and learning do we wish
to promote?
- which use of technology is most suited to achieve
this?
- what type of learning experience will maximise
the benefits?
Teaching and learning
Most curriculum reform advocates 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.
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:
- Is the use of ICT simple, yet well-supported?
- Are you sure that you are not including ICT
just because you think it is important to know?
- Are learners who are working with ICT focusing
on the content?
- Is your role facilitative i.e. are you giving
the learners the opportunity to work with ICT on their own?
- Does working with ICT enhance the learning
process?
- Are learners using higher order thinking skills
before and during and after the use of ICT?
- 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.
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