From my personal experience in school, it has
become more essential for practitioners to have a solid grasp on the use of ICT
for classes to run smoothly as I have personally witnessed lessons come to a
halt and have even had to help fix issues so that the lesson can resume which
was frustrating for students and the teacher.
Comi et
al. (2017) solidify my view as they write that ICT is only effective in
schools when the practitioners know how to put it in to practice and can
incorporate it in their lessons. They also find student performances increase
when teaching methods make them more aware of ICT but standards of work
decrease when students must actively take part in lessons using ICT.
Practitioners need to be digitally competent
in this modern era of education but the term is one that is a grey area and despite
there being multiple efforts to research this (Røkenes and Krumsvik, 2016;
Buckingham, 2006) it is still considered a ‘moving target’ (Tømte, 2015, p.
140) because of how quickly technology and expectations change. Therefore, how
can practitioners constantly know what is expected of them when it is not even
clear what being digitally competent is?
References
Buckingham, D. (2006) ‘Defining digital
literacy’, Nordic Journal of Digital Literacy, 4(1), pp. 263–276.
Comi, S.L., Argentin, G., Gui, M., Origo, F.,
and Pagani, L. (2017) ‘Is it the way they use it? Teachers, ICT and student
achievement’, Economics of Education Review, 56, pp. 24-39.
Røkenes, F., and Krumsvik, R. (2016) ‘Prepared
to teach ESL with ICT? A study of digital competence in Norwegian teacher
education’, Computers & Education, 97, pp. 1-20.
Tømte, C. (2015) ‘Educating teachers for the
new millennium? ; teacher training, ICT and digital competence’, Nordic
Journal of Digital Literacy, 10,
pp. 138-154.
Hi Sam,
ReplyDeleteAfter reading this post I agree that it is vital for teachers to understand the technology they are using and not to just include ICT for the sake of having it within the lesson. After reading Hew, Brush and Glazewski (2008), we must also consider that some teachers do not have the access to technology that others have. Without adequate technology to use, teachers will not have the opportunity to include different methods of learning using ICT, within their lesson plans.
Reference :
Hew, Kf, Brush, T, & Glazewski, Kd. (2008). Development of an instrument to measure preservice teachers' technology skills, technology beliefs, and technology barriers. 25(1-2), 112-125.
After reading the recent book 'What Makes a Good Primary School Teacher?' I noticed that there was not a mention of teachers capability in the field of technology (Gipps, Hargreaves & McCallum, 2015). I believe this shows that good teachers have enough ways of differentiating lessons enough without the use of technology. However, over the course of this module I have seen how technology can and will help. Technology proposes an exciting prospect to education. A new angle for learning. A change in evolution (Beauchamp, 2013).
ReplyDeleteBeauchamp, G. (2013). ICT in the Primary School From Pedagogy to Practice. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis.
Gipps, C., Hargreaves, E., McCallum, B. (2015) 'What Makes a Good Primary School Teacher?', 2nd edn. London: Routledge.