Roles of ICT in Teaching for Learning

3 Domains of Educational Technology:

1. Technology as a Tutor - Together with the teacher, technology can support the
teacher to teach another person or technology when programmed by the teacher can be
a tutor on its own.
2. Technology as a Teaching Tool - It is being used to facilitate and lighten the work
of the teacher. It will be good if the teacher can also create or develop technology tools
that are needed in the classroom.
3. Technology as a Learning Tool As a learning tool, it makes learning easy and
effective.
Roles of Technology
A. For Teachers and Teaching
1. Technology provides enormous support to the teacher as the facilitator of
learning
It transforms a passive classroom to an active and interactive one, with audio-visual
aids, charts and models, smart classrooms, e-learning classrooms which motivate and
increase attention level of learners. Many of these can be searched on the web.
2. Technology has modernized the teaching-learning environment.
The teachers are assisted and supplemented with appropriately structured instructional
materials for daily activities. These are varied available technology-driven resources
which can be utilized for remedial lesson or activities.
3. Technology improves teaching-learning process and ways of teaching.
This will make the act of teaching more efficient and effective. There are arrays of
teaching methods and strategies that can use technology which are found compatible
with learning styles.
4. Technology opens new fields in educational researches.
- The areas of teaching testing and evaluation are enhanced by technologies for
teaching and learning. Current educational researchers will no longer find difficulty in
interpreting tests, assessment and other evaluation results.
5. Technology adds to the competence of teachers and inculcates scientific
outlook.
- Through the utilization of theories of learning and intelligence, which are explained in
references uploaded in the net, the teachers are encouraged to imbibe skills to source
these information with speed and accuracy.
6. Technology supports teacher professional development.
-With the demand of continuing professional development for teachers, the availability
of technology provides alternative way of attending professional development online.
B. For Learners and Learning
1. Support learners to learn how to learn on their own.
-All teachers fully understand that subject matter or content is a means to achieve the
learning outcomes.
3 categories of knowledge according to Egbert (2009):
Declarative knowledge consists of the discrete pieces of information that answers the
questions what, who, when, and where. It is often learned through memorization of
facts, drills and practice. It can be learned by simple mnemonics or conceptual maps.
Structural knowledge consists of facts or pieces of declarative knowledge put together
to attain some form of meaning. An example of declarative knowledge is "pencil". The
idea that evolved from a pencil is an understanding that: "it is something you used to
write."
Procedural Knowledge is knowledge in action or the knowledge of how to do
something. It is based on facts but learned through the process of procedural
knowledge. Procedural knowledge is indicated by a performance task or graphical
representation of a concept.
2. Technology enhances learners' communication skills through social
Interactions. Described as transmittal of information from one person to another
as single individual or groups of individuals.
a Point to point two-way or one-to-one like Internet chat, phone conversation or even
face-to-face conversation.
b. One-to-many outbound like a lecture, or television. There is no social interaction.
c. Many-to-many like group discussion, buzz session, heads together. This kind of
interaction provides opportunities for social interaction.
Social interaction occurs in two ways where the participants ask for clarification, argue,
challenge each other and work towards common understanding.
Communication occurs through technology (directly between two persons via email, a
cell phone or other communication technology).
Communication occurs around technology like students discussing technology about a
problem posed by a software program
Communication occurs with support to technology like teachers and students interacting
about the worksheet printed from a website.
Benefits derived from technology-supported communication:
a. Enables any teacher to guide the learners virtually and making learning unlimited
because communication and social interaction go beyond a school day or a school
environment
b. Enhances students' freedom to express and exchange ideas freely without snooping
eyes of the teacher face to face.
c. Enables learners to construct meaning from joint experiences between the two or
more participants in communication
d. Help learners solve problems from multiple sources since there is limitless sources of
information that the teacher can direct or refer to the learners
e. Teaches learners to communicate with politeness, taking turns in sending information
and giving appropriate feedback.
f. Enhances collaboration by using communication strategies with wider community and
Individuals in a borderless learning environment
g. Develops critical thinking, problem solving and creativity throughout the
communication3. Technology upgrades learners' higher-order-thinking skills: critical
thinking. problem solving and creativity.
CRITICAL THINKING is a part of the cluster of higher order thinking skills. It refers to
the ability to interpret, explain, analyse, evaluate, infer and self-regulate in order to
make good decisions. With the use of technology, one will be able to evaluate the
credibility of the source, ask appropriate questions, become open-minded, defend a
position on an issue and draw conclusion with caution.