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| ICT Skills Cloub by Juan Cristóbal Cobo on Flickr |
The Commonwealth Certificate for Teachers' ICT integration programme has a document which supports the use of ICT and support a reform in a school curriculum. They see ICT as:
" a vehicle for the development of lifelong ICT competencies in a local and global society that is increasingly characterized by e-Government, e-commerce and e-learning; a support tool for the development of cognitive skills, specifically because it provides efficient and relatively cheap access to information, interactivity and simulations that fuel higher order thinking." (2012).
The authors of the document undertand that adding ICT to the curriculum is not the panacea, and therefore it requires a good knowledge management when using it; the teacher should recognise that ICT's role is supporting learning.
The document provides some benefits for the students when involved in the use of ICT in the classroom and learning process:
- Learners provided with technology-rich learning environments continue to perform well on standardized tests and develop a variety of competencies not usually measured which include:
- increased social awareness and self confidence
- increased capacity to communicate effectively about complex processes
- more independent learning
- increase self-initiative
- spontaneous sharing of ideas
- higher quality assignments
- higher attendance
- improved writing skills
- improved higher order thinking skills.
- The use of the Internet as an educational tool when integrated into curriculum is extending learning opportunities for learners by increasing skills in conducting independent research, interpersonal communications, written expression, and motivation while significantly extending learning beyond the walls of the classroom.
- Online learning improves student achievement at least as much as traditional methods of instruction while expanding student access to high quality instruction previously unavailable to rural schools.
- Telecommunications serves as an effective bridge between teachers and learners that can facilitate their communications and it is the actions of educators, and not the technology, that will initiate and sustain desired educational change.
This document supports with evidence that the use of ICT in the school improve students' academic perfomance, and agrees with the idea that this strategy enables them to be part of their own learning.
Even though there are some questions that arise when thinking about the knowledge acquired by teachers. How prepared are current teachers when it comes to teach IT/ICT/Computer skills? How can we teach ICT in the school when technology is in such constant change?
This was a problem for the British government in 2012 when they decided to change the ICT curriculum. The Education Secretary Michael Gove said that "current ICT lessons were "demotivating and dull' and needed radical reform... [and] schools, he said, needed to ditch lessons on how to use Powerpoint in favour of getting the kids designing apps and learning to code" (BBC, 2012). In 2013, the UK government published a document which explains a consultation made on the order for replacing the suject of ICT with computing; they have decided to change it supported by experts based on the negative "connotation" of a dated and unchallenging curriculum. Personally, I do not think changing the name of the subject will change the way it is taught, when actually "according to government statistics only 35% of ICT teachers are specialists, compared with more than 80% for core subjects such as maths and English. " (BBC, 2012).
Overall, when it comes to implement ICT in the curriculum, there are issues that must be take into account, so it achieves its main goal, to give every student the opportunity to develop their ICT skills and be digital literate, in benefit of them and the whole digital community.
BBC news: How schools will boot up a new ICT curriculum: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18687248
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