ICT in Teaching and Learning

The computer’s presence offers new opportunities to improve the quality of education. At the same time it has created a new educational challenge: How can computers be put to effective use and which computing environments are available? The key question for educators to answer is: How do people learn to use computers today in a way that will not be obsolete in five years? The answer requires a vision of the future.  This vision has much to do with learning in a constructivist way. Learning by doing and learning by making are the keywords (Gert J. Muller, Consultant Tertiary Education, 2006).

That is what we try to do if we are looking for the direction in which teaching and learning has to transform to use ICT in an appropriate way in the future. We have to build learning environments with the use of ICT and think about the way we learn and teach in this environment. Then appears what learner and teacher have to know about the use of the computer. The way in which a child communicates with the computer and what child and computer talk about are essential to these learning environments. For example, when computers are uses as ‘teaching machines’ that control student interaction, assumptions are being made about the child, the content, the computer’s role and the role of the teacher.

     Important investigative questions for educators remain:

1.    What is the potential role of computers in education?

2.    How can educators use computers now?

3.    How will the compute change the content and context of schooling?

Take an example in primary school, in this kind of education learning means constructing. This reflects the idea’s of constructivism, what we took as the direction in which teaching and learning has to change for a genuine use of ICT.

Fogarty (1999) summarizes the constructivist bricks of a learning environment in seven terms: real live and learner based, rich, social interactive, differentiative, explorative and experimentive, intervened by an expert, metacognitive and reflective.

We need to look after what the use of the computer can offer in learning environments and what educator learner need to know to act with this personal learning instrument in a constructivist way. This will handle about learning by doing and learning by making.

Laurillad (1993) summarize what the top priority issues mainstreaming learning technologies for the role of practice (supported active learning, academic time), policy (investment, reward structure), and partnership (Complementary roles, shared resources).

The efficiency and enjoyment of study will be optimized if the media fit the learning objectives, if the choice of method for each medium is well matched to study logistics such as time or place constrain, access to equipment, etc., and if a appropriate balance is achieved across the range. It would not be good design, for example to offer everything through screen-based study using ICT methods.

      We should look for the right media forms for the different forms of teaching and learning. A method or technology we use depends from the vision on education. So the start of the use of ICT is always it the concept of learning. The primary process is leading and not the technical infrastructure. People make it work. As Albert Einstein’ (1879-1955) said “Computers are fast, accurate and stupid. Humans are slow, inaccurate and brilliant. Together they are powerful beyond belief”.