Changing to the new ways of learning

Schools are investing enormously in Information and communication technology for use by teachers and pupils in the school.

The aim is to provide high quality learning and teaching as well as equip young people of today with skills that will enable them use such technology in the workplace once they leave school. Also, to reduce teachers work-load by making planning and resources available over the internet and also enabling teachers to provide and exchange information in electronic form.

The aim raises the question:

How can ICT be used effectively in Schools to improve pupils learning.

Use of ICT can clearly be effective in improving pupils’ performance in different ways;

·        - If ICT is targeted at specific areas of learning, with a clear rationale for its use from a broad research base (about ICT, about pedagogy and about professional development).

·         -One important factor in why pupils’ attainment improves when using ICT is because they spend more time working at or practicing the skills being studied and tested.

·       -  Word- processing  : students who use computers when learning to write are not only more engaged and motivated in their writing, but they produce written work that is of greater length and lighter quality

·       -  Identifying the aspects of the curriculum where it is difficult to get pupils’ to practise and then use ICT to support them.

·       -  Feedback from a computer can improve pupils’ learning. Feedback can, however, take very different forms. It can also be at a more general level of interaction, such as a list of websites returned from a search engine, or underlining text in a word – processor where word is spelt incorrectly or text –to – speech Feedback in a word- processor can improve reading and writing.

·        - Presenting and representing information in different form through the use of multimedia projectors.

ICT is powerful in presenting or representing information in different ways. This can be through different forms (text and pictures or tables and graphs) or by enabling changes to be shown dynamically such as in mathematical modeling or by helping visualization of complex processes in science.

Observing changes in a graph when changes are made to the table of numerical information on which the graph is based or by manipulating an algebraic formula and observing how a graph of that function changes on a computer can develop pupils’ understanding of mathematical relationships.

The choice of when and how to use ICT in teaching and learning is complex. The knowledge of and experience with computers is not enough to enable teachers to make the best use of ICT in the classroom.

Effective adoption of computer within the classroom takes time even up to a year with the support of an experienced team or through collaborative working.

Afolabi Akinfoyeku  (MCP,MCTS,MCSA,MCITP,CCNA)