ICT in Education

What can ICT do for better education?

For managers and policy makers, ICT can:

• help to make the right decisions based on more and better information
• increase efficiency and improve communication, for better planning and evaluation.

For the teachers, ICT can:

• help to improve the quality of lessons and contact with students
• explain difficult topics
• play a role in exchanging learning materials and lesson plans
• make teaching diversified and child centred
• bring the reality of the world into the classroom.

The role of ICT in the classroom

ICT can never replace the inactive stage in learning where students need to do / experience something (solid, liquid, gas) DOING can It remains always important for a student to have a real experience. What a student gains through the experience is an understanding of the RELEVANCE of a topic.

The role of a teacher is:

• testing, applying the knowledge, evoking learning
• address misconceptions to learning

The role of ICT is:

• representation, manipulation, exercising, applying
• have a dynamic representation enabling the understanding of the complexity
• add a dimension to the enactive representation; e.g a downloaded film
• let students see the relevance of a topic/issue
• reinforce and enhance teacher activity (NOT replacement)
• make the content of the teacher richer.

ICT can never evoke learning on its own. It needs to be put in context and guided by the teacher. ICT can only play a role if you respect the learning principals, the teaching structure.