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The Use Of Ict To Encourage High Quality Teaching And Learning

The use of ICT in the classroom

Date : 16/09/2015

Author Information

Zoe

Uploaded by : Zoe
Uploaded on : 16/09/2015
Subject : Career Development

This teacher guide suggests how information communication technology (ICT) can be used within a secondary school classroom to encourage high quality teaching and learning in science, with particular application to group work.

ICT can be integrated into the science classroom in a variety of ways, adding value to learning. Such examples include data logging and data capture technologies, multimedia tools and virtual experiments, publishing and data processing software, and a host of research tools including the Internet (Hennessey, 2003). The use of ICT in the classroom offers students more choice and independence, and enables students to learn in a variety of different ways when compared with traditional classroom practices - 'chalk and talk'.

In this manner, the use of ICT fosters and supports a range of different learning styles, and allows students to gain more control and responsibility for their own learning. Musker et al., highlighted that students enjoyed the use of computers within science lessons, and overall improved their understanding of scientific topics and concepts, making lessons to be more interesting and entertaining, and importantly making tasks easier and quicker (Musker et al., 1997).

In addition to the above more general examples, there are many examples where ICT can be applied specifically to collaborative work, such as the creation of vod-casts, podcasts and the construction of e-portfolios. However, this guide focuses on the use of a cooperative learning through the use of student created video as part of project work.

Today's students are living in a technological society, networking through various social media tools such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. They have become accustomed to communicating in this manner, sharing multimedia with friends and family online (Kervin and Mantei, 2010, Greene and Crespi, 2012). Therefore, technology is an essential part of the majority of students' lives, and is important in building social networks, making links and connections, and reaching new understanding about the world around them (Rideout et al., 2010). Therefore, to engage students in learning, it is clear that using real life examples to exemplify scientific concepts, and technologies students are familiar with are likely to be highly successful (Dede, 2005, Oblinger, 2003).

Video has been used in the classroom for many years in support of taught principles, and is often used to motivate students by engaging them in visual representations. In this context, video is solely used with students as the audience. However video is less regularly used in the classroom as a student project tool, where students are encouraged to create their own interpretations on film. With the advent of inexpensive video cameras, camera telephones, and video editing software freely available, students are now able to create their own understandings about what they have learned with little equipment or expertise required (Fisher and Frey, 2013).

As an alternative to a written/poster group project, the use of the student-created video attempts to increase engagement, creativity and motivation in scientific activities, which might have otherwise been laborious. It aims to assist students in grasping concepts that might have otherwise been difficult through inspiration, use of a variety of skills, opportunity for research, collaboration and project ownership.

Falling in line with constructivist theory, students are able to research, collaborate and construct their own meaning around a project title, while facilitated by the teacher (Bigge and Shermis, 1999, Makkonen, 2008). The use of social media technology in this manner attempts to provide a deeper aspiration to participate in the exercise than traditional methods. Compared to traditional teaching methods, digital media offers an avenue for sharing work with peers within and outside of the class, as students can upload their work locally, or onto a YouTube channel (Makkonen, 2008, Hutchinson, 2013).

Rationale: Collaboration 'Tell me and I forget, teach me and I remember, involve me and I learn' (Franklin, 1706 - 1790)

As well as being a place to learn, the classroom should be a place for creativity, stimulation and fulfilment. Although once considered a formal environment where students passively gained knowledge from the 'experienced' teacher, it has been recognised that active teaching methods, where students participate and take responsibility for their own learning, may be brought into the classroom to engage more successful learning. In this respect, it is recognised that more traditional and modern practices may complement one another within the classroom environment (Hofstein and Rosenfeld, 1996, Kelly, 2008).

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