In a previous posting, I discussed Dina’s argument that:
‘technology has to teach the student something of value on its own before we can justify asking a teacher to pour energy and resources into it.’
I also considered some of the deficiencies associated with ICT that weighed on a teachers mind when they considered whether or not to include a computer-based element to a lesson.
But then I considered Emma’s argument that ‘there are immense educational possibilities’ for ICT and that ‘rather than finding the floors in ICTs within education, instead list the immense benefits.’
This gave me cause to ask: why is it that there is such a great divide in education based ICT experiences? For starters there are the issues of training, funding and access to resources- these all strongly determine the possibilities of integrating computers into the classroom.
But what about schools (and students and teachers), that are theoretically granted equal opportunities? Much, I believe, is determined by the teacher’s philosophy on how children learn. Their beliefs guide what they look for in the way of ICT resources and how they would include it in the general lesson structure. Resnick (1998) notes that ‘most applications of computers in education…take traditional activities and simply reimplement them on the computer…activities themselves are not changed in fundamental ways.’ So if the learning style promoted is passive consumption, then students aren’t really gaining anything new from the situation, regardless of how elaborate or aesthetically pleasing the technological resource is.
For a constructivist teacher on the other hand, learning is viewed as an active process and technology is a universal material for students to create and express the meaning ascertained from their personal encounters (Resnick, 2002). When directed from this perspective, ICT experiences have the potential to ‘engage students, to teach them, to stimulate their understanding…to help them assume responsibility for their own future learning’ (Resnick, 2004).
Based on these arguments, the conclusion I have reached is that the potential of technology to reap educational benefits is strictly guided by the beliefs held by the instructing teacher about how students learn effectively.
References:
Resnick, M. (1998). Technologies for lifelong kindergarten. Educational Technology and Research, 46(4)
Resnick, N. (2002). Rethinking Learning in the Digital Age. In The Global Information Technology Report: Readiness for the Networked World, edited by G. Kirkman. Oxford University Press.
Resnick, M. (2004). No thanks. I prefer playful learning. Associazione Civita Report on Edutainment.
Retrieved from Massachusetts Institute of Technology
http://llk.media.mit.edu/papers/edutainment.pdf
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