Prelim Lesson#2
Prelim Lesson#2
Prelim Lesson#2
Learning Tool
Obstacles to Using ICT Effectively
The use of ICT as an effective tool for student learning inspired a
growing debate among educators and policy makers.
1. Implementation failure
2. Lack of teacher support
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Implementation Failure:
Absence of a Shared Vision
Often, the impetus for a
technology initiative stems
from the educational policy
makers.
If this vision is not adequately
communicated to the
teacher, the success of this
technological initiative will
be in jeopardy.
Implementation of technology
into educational programs
fail when the initiatives do
not originate or are not
shared with the teachers.
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Implementation Barriers:
Variances in Objectives
“… technology is integrated
when it is used in a
seamless manner to
support and extend
curriculum objectives and to
engage students in
meaningful learning. It is
not something one does
separately; it is part of the
daily activities taking place
in the classroom.”
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Implementation Failure:
Variances in Objectives
The initiative to incorporate technology effectively into
classroom instruction must begin with the curriculum
objectives. This ensures a consistent goal. A mismatch
between values of the teacher and the technology initiative
will cause an incorporation failure.
5
Implementation Failure:
Planning and Leadership
School divisions require tech planning and leadership in order
to ensure the success of integrating technological
initiatives. This involves the provision of clear goals and
a collaborative effort between the policy makers and all
educational stakeholders
Failure to provide sufficient inservicing or modeling of effective
technology usage will lead to unsuccessful implementation.
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Implementation Failure:
Lack of Access and Resources
Successful tech programs and initiatives hinge on:
1. a clear vision and
2. the availability of the required technology.
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Implementation Failure:
Remedies
1. As teachers, administrators, and policy makers develop a
unifying set of goals that links technology initiatives to
curricular goals, teachers are provided the sufficient time,
resources and opportunities to implement the use of
technology in the classroom.
9
Lack of Teacher Support:
Teaching Conditions
Technology initiatives can only be successful if they are compatible
with the conditions of teaching.
10
Lack of Teacher Support:
Technological Skill of Teachers
Teachers require continuous support and training to
effectively integrate technology initiatives.
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Lack of Teacher Support:
Accountability
If teachers are held immediately
responsible for changes that take time to
show results, the process will undoubtedly
fail.
• Significant changes to perspective and
pedagogy require time and support.
Comments from a principal of a school in New Zealand that is “part of the government's
ICT contract which provides professional development over three years to a cluster of
schools in our city.”
“What has pleasantly surprised us is that the focus of this contract has been
on learning and teaching. … We have focused on thinking and how ICT can help us
to think…. Now that information and data is so easily attainable, children are
being taught to use it to solve a problem, complete a task or apply to
existing knowledge in a new way…. They can co-operatively work on a project with
children in another country who sleep while they are awake!”
(Ballantyne, H. message posted to Change Agency electronic mailing list, May 23, 2003)
Changes in Teaching and Learning as a Result of ICT
(con’t)
From ICT in the schools - Government of the UK
“What is critical about the success of Mayo is not the use of technology
but the expectations of children and educators to work collaboratively.”
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It would seem that the shift is not just about technology. It’s about learning to work
collaboratively to construct meaning.
It’s a shift from a philosophy which supports a transmission
model of instruction
one which embraces constructivism, in which learners construct
that academic subject matter teachers who use computers most productively with
adequate resources tend to embrace a constructivist philosophy
that those who used computer regularly over a three-year period were twice as likely to
have made constructivist-oriented changes in their teaching practices and to be
more skilled at conducting parallel activities in the classroom.
He concluded that teachers are “creating classrooms where both they and their students are
engaged in authentic efforts at increased academic understanding.”
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Dias and Atkinson (2001) describe the progress teachers
experience as they move through the stages of learning to use
technology finishing with reexamining beliefs about education,
their subject matter and themselves. They refer to the Apple
Classrooms of Tomorrow experiment in which teachers at the
final stage of integration of technology into curriculum moved
into “interdisciplinary project-based instruction, team teaching
and individually paced instruction (p. 4).
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The Relationship of ICT and
Education
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What Do Teachers Believe
to be Their Role in the Future?
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What Do Teachers Believe
to be Their Role in the Future?
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What Do Teachers Believe
to be Their Role in the Future?
Some teachers believe that software programs, like
PowerPoint and other presentation programs, will have a
profound effect on student assignments and homework
projects.
One particular teacher wants students to take on more
responsibility concerning learning. Educators would become
less like a teacher and more like a facilitator.
The traditional physical structure of the classroom would be
reorganized. The desks and chalkboard at the front of the
class be removed; the new classroom would resembles a
library where students have the freedom to openly and
independently search for knowledge through access to
technology.
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3 Questions to Ponder & Discuss
1. What have you
experienced in your own
work with regards to the
use of ICT? If you have
noted changes in your
own philosophy or
practice, please describe
them with reference to
the articles you/we have
read.
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3 Questions to Ponder & Discuss
2. If implementation is successful and there is
adequate teacher support, does teacher
disposition and style of teaching play a role in
the success of ICT initiatives?
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3 Questions to Ponder & Discuss
3. If a true partnership between education
and technology is inevitable, how do we,
as educational leaders, envision our
teaching environment in 5, 10, or 20 years
from now?
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