Activity Six: The role of the teacher

The article by Steve Wheeler suggests that the role of the teacher should be a guide or facilitator.This made me reflect on the way I currently teach. I have ask myself whether or not I am a guide to knowledge or an impart-er of knowledge.

The role that teachers will now play in ICT integration will also require  them to rethink the way they plan their lessons and develop new skills in order to adequately fulfill the learning need of their students.

Activity Five

Activity five dealt with the Integrated Approach and its challenges in ICT integration in education. This strategy incorporates different skills into a single learning event For example, students may be given an assignment which will require them to apply knowledge gained in mathematics although the assignment may be in Social Studies. 

In terms of ICT integration,I discovered from  reading the article "Best Practice Approaches to Computer Literacy", that  to use this strategy to help students gain computer literacy, will depend on the ability of educators to set appropriate tasks to suit the needs of the learning environment( as pointed out in the article).

This means that as teachers we should:

• Set learner-centered curriculum related tasks. These tasks should be open-ended in order to support problem solving and critical thinking while making use of a range of  ICT.
• Use  ICT to provide opportunities for knowledge application in real life contexts as much as possible. 

To achieve these objectives careful planning and execution of said plans is crucial. This process will be tedious and frustrating at the beginning but practice will make it  easier in the end.

Assignment 1

I have recently completed my first assignment for this module. I must say it was a bit of a challenge for me. Using excel is not one of my stongpoints but I was able to manage in the end.

This experience brought out the meaning of Just- in-Time learning for me in a very practical way .It also helped me to relate to some of the problems my students may face when given a learning task that may require extra research.

Activity Four: Is There A Need for Teachers?

I have recently finished reading two papers on the theme " Is there a need for teachers?" . The first was about  Vygotsky's concept of "schooled learning" and the second  was Sugata Mitra's "minimally invasive learning". In both papers, the concept of children learning spontaneously was highlighted. Vygotski purports that children learn from their experiences with others before they receive any formal schooling.In school, he states that children are involved in planned or scientific learning.He concludes that teachers can make their lessons more effective by linking spontaneous learning and planned learning by relating content to students'experiences.Dr. Mitra's paper dealt with experiments conducted in India using the computer. Computers were placed in areas where there was not much familiarity with computers. Children were observed to be able to use the computer efficiently within a couple of months. they were able to use the computer to surf the internet, chat and sent e-mails without any assistance. From reading these papers, I can conclude that spontaneous learning and planned learning work best when there is a balance between the two. Inquiry and Discovery learning are two strategies that  help teachers achieve this balance. In my opinion, Dr. Mitra's minimal invasive learning is most appropriate when using internet related activities. However, it must be recognized that the internet also contains unsuitable and inaccurate information. Teachers must still guide students in finding  the appropriate materials.

Collaborative Document
The Mindmaster brainstorming activity was a new concept for me. however I enjoyed it because it allowed me to interact with my colleagues on the issue of learners rights to use ICT in education.It was very enlightening and enjoyable  to read everyone's' comments.

After reading Silvia Ferrero's article entitled "Two generations of teachers Differences in attitudes towards ICT ", I must agree that the division between the use of ICT by  younger and older teachers is not really about knowledge of ICT but more about attitudes towards ICT usage in the classroom.

It can also be concluded that while the younger teachers are usually considered to master technological devices better than their older colleagues, the older teachers are the ones who are more enthusiastic and younger teachers the most fearful in its implementation in the classroom.

Audit of my school’s ICT use (what we have and what we do with it):

ICT use at my school includes:

•  powerpoint presentations
•  reading programs using internet activites and the Jolly Phonics program
• for math and science related activities

Due to a fire that occurred  at my school (Kingstown government) last summer, ICT use has become practically non-existent. Some teachers use their personal computers to gather information and transfer it to the students’ netbooks. This is a tedious task hence many teachers revert to to the old way of using visual aids and the "chalk and talk" method.

We use to have CD players, projectors, speakers and laptops. these were  utilized on a weekly basis by about 60% of the teachers in their daily lessons

Activity 1 – ICT in schools - Introduction

Students’ learning styles have changed with the introduction of ICT in our daily lessons.
ICT integration in developing countries is faced with many challenges such as limited funding, teacher preparation and competencies, curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment.
In St.Vincent and the Grenadines, these challenges are also present. However, the government has taken measures to combat these problems. These measures include:
• Implementing the “one laptop per child” initiative.
• Providing internet access in all schools
• Training of teachers in ICT use and integration
These measures mirror the components of the WorLD, Program of the World Bank Institute which are:
• Internet connectivity for secondary schools in developing countries.
• Training in the use of technology to improve teaching and learning.
• School-to-school partnerships, as well as regional and global partnerships with public, private, and non-governmental organizations.
• Telecommunications policy advice for the education sector.
• Monitoring and evaluation.
(source:www.worldbank.org/worldlinks/)
To say that "It is impossible for a developing nation to compete with developed nations in the field of ICT integration in schools" is not correct. Since it is not all about the technology itself, but how effectively it is implemented into the daily lessons that make the difference.
There must be changes to the curriculum to facilitate new pedagogies that will inevitably emerge with ICT integration.