There is plenty of evidence that suggests that the use of new technologies in the classroom is only beneficial in terms of supporting school teaching and learning.
Whilst teachers may believe that they already use effective teaching strategies within the classroom without the use of ICT, it is widely accepted that ICT can vastly improve upon existing teaching strateigies. (Kent 2009) For example, if you were to run an inquiry based lesson in the library with students finding information within the books available to them – the use of the internet would allow them to widen their research, be taught the most effective ways to find and decide on the validity of information on the internet, and to further engage them in the task. The use of ICT in the classroom doesn’t mean that your strategies in teaching your class must change - it simply means that the existing teaching strategies can be amplified in numerous ways.
The use of new technologies in the classroom is also said to aide in the accepted new role for schools, in “facilitating lifelong learning”. (McKavanagh et al. 2002, p. 14) The nature of lifelong learning is driven by the changes in technologies and work practices. Often the people who are completing further education are training for a diverse range of careers within a particular field, retraining due to changes in the workplace technology and structures, or undergoing a dramatic career change – making it more important than ever to incorporate new technologies into our teaching within schools.
For our students, ICT plays a large role in their lives – and should therefore be something we try to integrate into the classroom. (Kent 2009) Both adults and students use technology for a large part of their everyday lives – which means that as teachers we should discuss the ways in which technology is used with our students and what is considered both safe and effective use of ICT. ICT also plays a large role within a vast amount of careers and jobs and studies in higher education – so in teaching students about the use of ICT, we will be better preparing them for the workforce after school, or their further schooling.
Teachers are often time poor, and because of this – they need as many resources available to them as possible. (Shelley et al. 2006) ICT allows for this, in that it expands the resources a teacher can use within the classroom – whilst allowing them to meet other teaching standards – such as catering for multiple learning styles and creating opportunities for student directed learning. For example, the use of wikispaces or blogs could be used as a collaborative tool for students in learning about a certain topic – and they can direct the discussion about the topic into areas that are both engaging and meaningful to them – whilst creating an end product that is visually appealing and of use as a constant reference. New technologies are also a useful resource for teachers in terms of planning lessons, scheduling and presenting information – with the proper use of sites like Diigo, online planning tools/diaries and electronic whiteboards.
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