There is an argument that teachers in primary schools aren't given enough training to comfortably facilitate children's learning with the use of I.C.T (Chai et al, 2011). After working in a primary school for two years, I'm disinclined to agree with this belief as staff were made to attend multiple I.C.T training days. Many teachers incorporated this training regularly during practice.
Chai, C.H., Koh, J.H.L., Tsai, C.C. and Tan, L.L.W. (2011) Modeling primary school pre-service teachers’ technological pedagogical content knowledge (tpack) for meaningful learning with information and communication technology (ict). Computers & Education [online]. 57 (1), pp.1184–1193. [Accessed 12 October 2016].
After reading your post and thinking about my own experiences, I strongly agree that within primary schools, teachers do have a good understanding and use of technology during lessons.
ReplyDeleteI recently read an article that described children's education in a relevant way to this post. Beauchamp (2013) describe children's education as no longer being 'done to them' but now as being "done with them as active partners". This statement encourages the view that teachers are able to do enough through ICT to help children learn.
Beauchamp, G. (2013). ICT in the Primary School From Pedagogy to Practice. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis.
In reply to your post, it can be said that the level of teacher ability regarding ICT can vary greatly depending on where you are and in what setting you are observing. I concur with Smeets (2005) that this ability is important, along with the teacher believing in the work they are doing and that ICT can be a positive factor in education.
ReplyDeleteFrom my own schooling experiences, I have observed differences in teaching within the same school with some teachers being more open to ICT in the classroom than others and these are the teachers who used technology to a higher potential. This potential was still not being maximized however and ICT was sometimes just used as a substitute still.
Reference:
Smeets, Ed. (2005) ‘Does ICT Contribute to Powerful Learning Environments in Primary Education?’, Computers and Education, 44 (3), pp343-355.
Whilst there is a debate about whether I.C.T is being implemented effectively by practitioners, there is also the matter of whether it is effective for learning or not. Throughout my schooling, I.T has always been useful for recording ideas. On the other hand I learn new information best when I am interacted in an activity or group task "technology has to fit the student and the student has to be motivated to learn to use it" (Ashbrook, 2011).
ReplyDeleteAshbrook, P. (2011) The Early Years: Harness Your Tech Side. Science and Children [online]. 49 (4), pp. 26-27. [Accessed 19 October 2016].