In this study, I will examine the relevance of ICT in elementary school. This paper will deal with the strengths and limitations of ICT in elementary school. I selected one school which uses ICT and tried to find out its outcome through my short visit and secondary data. At the end, findings revealed that students in class were highly motivated through the extensive use of ICT. ICT is potentially a useful tool both for managing education and for teaching.
ICT in education is a crucial tool for making learning easy and concept understandable. ICT is decreasing the burden of tasks of students and teachers. Its presence in education is also not new. “In India, radio in education dates back to mid 1940s, educational television to early 1960’s, interactive television to early 1970s and computers in education to mid 1980s. However, educational radio, television, computers, etc. hung independent of each other like isles. ICT as a more comprehensive umbrella that implies convergence and hybridization of technology is a recent development in Indian education.” (Mukhopadhyaya. M . 2006,pp. 5 )
First of all, we will try to know about the exact meaning ICT. Basically, ICTs stand for information and communication technologies and are defined, for the purposes of this primer, as a diverse set of technological tools and resources used to communicate, and to create, disseminate, store, and manage information. These technologies include computers, the Internet, broadcasting technologies (radio and television), and telephony.”( ICT in Education,pp.02)
Difference between passive computer-aided unilateral technology vs interactive technology.
Any source of information if it is received for sake of acquisition of knowledge, it would not considered as interactive mode of learning. Learning happens through interaction, discussion, discourse amongst groups and in classroom. For instance, a teacher entered classroom and delivered his/her lecture with help of projector method, tape recorder or radio. It will not serve the meaningful and purposeful until there is discussion, queries among them. So, lack of discussion and interaction, will lead to passive learning. Passive learning may be called as ‘Banking learning’ (Paul Freirre) where teachers deposit all the information and students become as passive receivers.
Each of the different ICTs-print, audio/video cassettes, radio and TV broadcasts, computers or the Internet may be used for presentation and demonstration, the most basic of the five levels. Except for video technologies, drill and practice may likewise be performed using the whole range of technologies. On the other hand, networked computers and the Internet are the ICTs that enable interactive and collaborative learning best. Their full potential as educational tools will remain unrealized if they are used merely for presentation or demonstration.
Learning through play and child-initiated activity is central to school education for children. But the introduction of ICT can play meaningful and significant role in reaching out with quality education for all. It can also add value to school education (e.g. by developing life skills, achieving higher order thinking skills, etc.). It can enhance school attraction and child friendliness, and school effectiveness contributing to better learning and performance in examination and also better school management.
Examine importance of ICT in educating elementary school children in India
It is normally agreed that ICT is a crucial resource in education. ICTs are used in education that has made an impact on education systems. Children use computers from an early age and continue to university level. Children are taught practical ICT skills that are transferable into the work place. “The study explored what organizational factors affected perception, how to use ICTs and how to use a new learning management system. Previous study shows that three factors affect the use and perception. These are the user characteristics, and leader perceptions, technology training, and management approach.” (Grainger and Tolhurst 2005)
ICT can be used for students to enhance school attraction and effectiveness. It can be used for capacity building of teachers, heads of schools and senior educational personnel in the districts and states. ICT can be work more effectively in management of schools and management of the education system through e-governance.
These are two questions arise here. Whether ICT enhances learning achieving higher order cognition or not depends upon the choice of technology and quality of programme delivery. For example, There are good number of studies that indicate either ‘no’ or marginal effects of educational television. There are large numbers of studies/ experiments that indicate positive learning outcomes with interactive video and television, online education, computer aided learning, etc. But its potentials remain largely unexplored. Technology, by itself is not universal remedy. But it can be made to work through well-designed interventions.
Radio and TV broadcasting can be used in elementary school
Radio and television have been used widely as educational tools since the 1920s and the 1950s, respectively. There are three general approaches to the use of radio and TV broadcasting in schools.
1) Direct class teaching, where broadcast programming substitutes for teachers on a temporary basis;
2) School broadcasting, where broadcast programming provides complementary teaching and learning resources available.
3) General educational programming over community, national and international stations which provide general and informal educational opportunities. (http://www.apdip.net.)
Encounters with ICT accompanied by guided interaction can enhance three key areas of learning. These are dispositions to learn, knowledge of the world and operational skills. By optimizing the learning benefits of ICT requires a responsive, reflective pedagogy which values pleasure and engagement as well as operational skills.
Can it be used with equal efficacy across school/regions for different s-eco groups of the society?
I visited a Shirgaon Collegiate High school which is located Sinhudurg district of Maharastra. There is a little village located near Goa. It lies between the Arabian Sea and the Sahayadri hills. It is a non-government school. Fee structure of school was 60 rupees but defers class wise. Students come from middle class family.
In this remote place in 2002 NIIT and ICICI bank installed a kiosk centre in same school. There are first two computers into twenty children share each. Free public computer kiosk for children. This facility is for use by children under 15 years of age. There are no instructors or teachers. All activities at this kiosk are continuously monitored from New Delhi.
Those computers had no mouse. They had a finger touch joystick four of the six buttons are meant to direct the cursor. The remaining two were the right and left clicks of the mouse. Seeing the number of children visiting the kiosk NIIT installed 50 to 60 games on the computers. First of all, the children just had fun on the computers. Later, the crowd at the kiosk increased. They began playing games and tiring of them opened other programmes like paint brush.
Computer lab, the software package had its links to sites in Marathi, Hindi and English and related to children’s school subject. Children could not use the computer lab in the school for long hours. There were over 60 students using the few computers. Children could not learn much .Their teacher could only give them a demonstration. In comparison with computer lab, the kiosk was always open. Whenever the children had time they could do anything.
Children learnt very soon how to open browsers, click on link and open sites. They would pick up on the sites related to their school subjects. Thus while searching websites; they stumble on the Google link. Despite their poor English they realize that what research meant and start searching for games. They discovered a whole list of such websites. They realized something new that there is a thing like search engine. Children searched also about things for books and websites
There, ICT provides children what they want to learn and study. ICT has come up an exploratory idea in which children get space for study and discover how to learn, what to learn for them in what way they like. In fact, there was one documentary named ‘ICT Harvest’ is made by Swati Desai a creative consultant. This documentary also was made with financial support from HIVOS and Comet Media Foundation 2007.From 2002 to 2007, NIIT an IT Training and Developing Organization undertook a study investigation what children did when left themselves with a computer and a high speed internet connection. ICT teaching pedagogy seemed to me based on non authoritarian. ICT allows students exactly what they want to study, space what they want to do.
Another interesting aspect that make me to think of the teacher [Attar] who discovered his vocation with ICT[ Information and Communication Technology] and persisted to keep these effort alive. Earlier he knew nothing but later through his sincere effort he became the master of computer. He learnt in summer vocation. He did not give up his positive hope and at last became successful computer teacher. He takes his class with help of projector. He shows video of water cycle prescribed in class iv science book. Children understand very well, usually, about the matter of state, function of water in forms of condensation. Perspiration and evaporation.
So, above base, yes, ICT may be used in equal efficacy across school and region. But the potential for using ICTs well in education and in building human capital depends on a number of factors that differ from one region to another, and especially between rural and urban region. It is important for countries to bear these differences in mind when making investments. One of the most important differences between regions is the availability of hardware. A computer is essentially an individual device, most useful for one person at a time. Everywhere, youngsters tend to have better access at home than at school.
Access to the Internet varies widely, even among regions broadly comparable levels of income. High-speed access to the Internet also varies. The educational effectiveness of ICTs depends on how they are used and for what purpose. And like any other educational tool or mode of educational delivery, ICTs do not work for everyone, everywhere in the same way.
But getting the best from ICTs depends on several variables, including the appropriate design of software and hardware; the training and attitude of instructors; and the realization that different students have different requirements. It also requires a willingness to experiment, effective use of ICTs in education and training is likely to require quite different pedagogical techniques from traditional classroom teaching.
The school I visited they do not have their own website. But student can download important things during any time when they had time. It was free access of net. That school used Project-based learning (PBL) which is a constructivist pedagogy and class-oriented learning approach. Unlike traditional learning which is short-term, subject independent, teacher-focused, and mostly constrained to classroom settings ,PBL involves long-term, theme-based learning and student-centered activities that focus on daily life problems and allows learners to use an inquiry-based approach to engage with issues and questions that are real and relevant to their lives.
How is ICT used? For different subjects? For learning? By whom- teacher/student?
In project-based learning, teachers actively supervise students by taking the role of project facilitator instead of instructing them. Teachers support students not only as a source of knowledge, but also as co-learners/peers in their activities. In a PBL environment, teachers are no longer the centre of learning. Rather, students design their own activities and answer driving questions. Through the process of question-raising, cooperation, data collection, communication, and result demonstration, a highly engaging atmosphere and rich learning environment that focuses on students is thus created.
Even, “NCF 2005 has acknowledged that Educational technology and ICT are significant tools to achieve constructivist learning in the new generation of Indian classrooms. It admits that there a lack of detailed curricular ideas of how technology could or should fit in.”(Shuchi Grover,2007,pp.1)
With limited ICT resources available in each classroom, it is essential that the organisation of those resources be such that there should be a demonstrable equality of access. This is achieved by adopting the following organisational and pedagogical strategies as appropriate to the activity being taught:
Planning activities that allow sufficient time for all individuals to take part.
Effective teaching input (whole class, group or individual) to allow completion of task without further teacher intervention.
Planning short, time limited, skills focused activities.
Identify clear learning objectives in planning and teacher input.
Working individually, in pairs, or in small groups.
Splitting larger projects into clearly defined pieces with different groups or individuals taking on responsibility for specific parts,
Maintaining ICT registers/task lists etc. to encourage individuals to complete tasks at appropriate times when equipment is available, and to provide evidence of equality of access.
Clear instructions in the event of being “stuck” or equipment failure (e.g. use of class “experts”).
Allow opportunities for work to be printed for display, evidence, publishing on the school web site etc.
For what purpose?- most important aspect of your study!
The purpose of my study was to looking at the alternative ways of applying ICT in primary schools in informal educational settings in school. The results are anticipated to shed light on the potential applications of ICT in the Schools which offers the students a stage to present their technological competence and collective web. Also through the use and teaching of ICT the school aims to:
Meet National Curriculum requirements in ICT;
Help other curriculum areas achieve National Curriculum requirements through the support of ICT;
Allow staff and children to gain confidence in, and enjoyment from, the use of ICT.
Allow children to develop specific ICT skills as set down in the school’s scheme of work;
Ensure that staff and children alike understand the capabilities and limitations of ICT and gain insight into the implications of its development for society;
Allow staff to develop professionally by enhancing their teaching skills, management skills and administrative skills.
Strengths of ICT in Education
Here I would like to state with support from article that “ICT could do much that a book does, presenting text and pictures screen by screen, together with adjust aids to learning. For instance, Cavalier and Klien (1998) described ICT support for teaching 10 and 11 year olds about prospecting for minerals. He goes on saying that what is needed is playing to the strengths of a resource, whether it is text, software, video or audiotape. Ict can provide various kinds of support and some can be replaced by other surrogates such as a textbook.” Newton,D.P. (2000,pp.98-100).
There are following various strengths of ICT.
Use of packages: word-processing, dtp, spreadsheets.
Special facilities for pupils with disabilities.
Teacher and pupil communications improve.
ICT provides links with other schools or with businesses.
Computers in schools provides wider access to ICT and encourages new ways of learning.
Changes in teachers’ knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes:
Changes in how students engage with content:
Changes in relationships among teachers, students, and parents:
Changes in the use of ICT tools to promote students’ learning:
Makes visible what are normally invisible processes.
Allows learners to experiment and test their ideas about the topic.
Can repeat work again and again and again.
ICTs to make administration more efficient may also raise the overall quality of education
Enables learners to create and combine new representations in different media.
Allows learners to manipulate and annotate information and create their own examples and solve problems.
Facilitates inference by directing attention to what matters.
Interactive teaching packages are available on CD for different subjects.
Children can learn in varied ways in the classroom.
There are many CD-ROMs available for each level of the national curriculum.
A cheap, fast way to access a huge amount of resources that are regularly updated.
Accessible 24/7 – allowing students to continue their work at home. Encourages computer literacy, helpful in an increasingly technologically orientated world.
Teachers can upload course documents so that students misses a lesson, they can download information and do the work in their own time ( it was not available being visited school)
Encourages student-driven lessons, where students take responsibility for their learning.
Government promises high-speed broadband internet access for every university, hospital and doctors' surgery which would allow schools to be linked and to share resources.
Teachers no longer need to pass round bundles of end-of-term reports in paper envelopes, but can fill
5. Limitations of ICT in Schools
Lack of Human Resource.
First, most of the school staff are not very literate and lack basic computing skills. Second, the root obstacles are teachers leaving the schools. When a teacher leaves the students often lose their ICT class in which they are interested.
“Many srudies ( Seth,1983 SCERT 1982, Mohanty and Giri 1976, Sord 1982,Nagaraju and ramakumar 1983, Pillay 1987) on media indicate the utilization rate to be as low as to to 20 percent. This is only a quantitative figure. Quntative analysis is far more frightening. Very often such use amounted to putting on the sets and the teachers taking time off.” (M.Mukhoadhyay,1990,pp.5)
Third, the teachers with technology skills will not travel far away to teach in school which lack convenient facilities. Head teachers said that in 2002, the school did not have any teachers who have IT or related knowledge. Fourth, insufficient training of school staff in ICT is a problem for the integration of ICT..
Infrastructure.
That school has no adequate infrastructure. The lack of infrastructure in hardware and software in the schools is due to shortfalls in the budget. Lack of interest of the Education Service Area in the quality of the ICT delivered leading to a limited number of computers, systems out of date and slowness of the system.
Strategies /policies.
The school lacks ICT strategies at the school level and the education public sector level also lack an internet safety policy. The students perceive that the internet could corrupt the morals of their society through easy access to pornography and exposure to negative cultures and parents worry that if pupils become immersed in the internet, they might lose their traditions and internet welcomes fashions and trends from other parts of the world. Apart from it, there are various loopholes also which followings are:
ICT is very expensive - not all students get the same opportunities
It can be boring sitting in front of a computer for a long time.
Computers cannot interact on a personal level e.g. fuller explanation.
It becomes harder for the teach teachers to organize the teaching of new concepts.
Some students find it hard to use computers
Student’s minds are more likely to wander from their set task.
Not all teachers are keen on ICT but, are forced to use it.
Low level of access and usage of ICT in the education system
Low community/school readiness to accept and integrate ICT
High cost of access and usage of ICT
Limited human capacity to leverage ICT in education
Lack of coordination amongst the various ICT initiatives
Lack of prioritization
Limited availability of digital learning material
Lack of effective monitoring and evaluation
Lack of clear understanding of linkages between ICT and expected Education outcomes
Lack of project management skills.
Lack of awareness about the benefits and limitations of ICT in education
Limited infrastructure such as power, connectivity, and equipment
Technology is never a substitute for good teaching. Without skilled instructors, no electronic delivery can achieve good results. But neither can traditional classroom teaching, come to that.
Less need for schools
Being taught the wrong things
A lot of distractions
No outside contact
Job losses for teachers, etc
There is a lot of incorrect information on the internet
Students will learn more theory and less practical
Being taught sometimes the wrong things
Hacking, creates viruses, plagiarism, and a lot of distractions from free porn sites, music,videos,chatrooms,/messangers/emails.
.
Conclusion
Therefore, undoubtedly, one can assume that ICT is potentially a useful tool both for managing education and for teaching. ICT is not a panacea for all ills in education. ICT is an effective tool in the hands of the teachers for teaching and students for learning. ICT needs the hand and mind of the teacher. ICT and e-learning offers opportunity to raise educational standards in schools. The findings revealed that students in class were highly motivated through the extensive use of ICT. Through long-term engagement with ICT, students were empowered to conduct both wider and deeper exploration of their selected topics of interest. I am reminded of the famous quote of President Nelson Mandela, “The Internet and education are the two great equalizers in life, leveling the play field for people, companies and countries worldwide”.
References
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Newton P. Douglas (2000). Teaching for Understanding: What it is and how to do it, Routledge & Falmer Press, London: New York.
Shuchi Grover, Technology as a tool and enabler in the post NCF 2005 Constructivist Classroom in India.
Nararjuna, G., “What Policy Should India Adopt for ICT in School Education”, Short Discussion Paper in. Consultation on National Policy on ICTs in school education, 2008, New Delhi.
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