Activity 9 - School Readiness Framework

What I consider to be the most important elements of school technology readiness:

1. The School's Vision, Mission or overall Philosophy of ICT
2. Teachers and students ICT use and integration capabilities
3. Ways in which ICT knowledge, skills and attitudes at the different levels will be assessed: 

• Entry
• Adoption
• Adaptation
• Appropriation
• Invention

4. Each school has its own context and based on its context this will determine its readiness for ICT.

5. All involved will then need to understand their roles: being responsible and accountable for the teaching and learning process

Overall, what is to be viewed is the impact ICT will have on students'performance, after all is set in place with using and integrating ICT across the curriculum.

Activity 8: Impact of ICT on schools

How I think ICT will impact positively on schools in the medium term future:

"How is the availability and use of ICT changing the use of existing classroom spaces?" 

 

With ICT classrooms no longer have to be confined to a physical space:

a) a class in a room

b) a class in a computer lab

With ICT teaching and learning can take place anytime and anywhere once there is:

a) wireless connection for internet and intranet

b) each person has his or her own device

c) there are available resources 

d) and shared software applications

There will be classrooms without walls: e-connected classrooms.

"How is ICT use changing the way teachers and administrators approach curriculum delivery?"

ICT informs and transforms teaching and learning. The curriculum is restructured to include ICT in all subject areas where different information is integrated across the curriculum.

Administrators manage and coordinate the learning resources via online school networks and teachers facilitate learning with ICT.

With ICT classrooms are no longer teacher centered but learner centered.

Activity 7: Models of technology adoption

Staff ICT Development Training Plans depends on Staff ICT Development needs.

In schools the availability of ICT does not guarantee that the teachers and students are able to actually use and integrate ICT in teaching and learning.

Teachers need to be equipped with the knowledge, skills and attitudes of ICT.

This can be done through properly structured Staff ICT Professional Development that is organised to give:

a) Just-in-time training
b) Technical support training
c) Opportunities for teachers to share best practices through communication and collaboration

For technology to move from the adaptation stage of teaching and learning using technology to the adoption stage of teaching and learning with technology teachers need to embrace the feel of comfortably working with others as they change their pedagogy to empower students to learn via their facilitation of learning with ICT.

Activity 6: Role of the teacher

What teacher roles will best tap into the strengths of technology?

Facilitative and reflective role:

The teacher facilitates learning as he/she creates the learning environment for students and students learn through manipulation of the learning tools.

The teacher reflects on his/her pedagogy and use the appropriate methods for students' learning differences and learning styles.

What are the strengths of technology in the classroom?

Technology supports, enhances and extends learning.

How do you know when the technology use will be appropriate?

When the technological tools and/or applications are used as a mean for students to learn about concepts, and not as an end to the way in which students learn.

Appropriate use of Technology in my school:

• Is the use of ICT simple, yet well-supported?

The use of ICT is made simple once well-supported. Anyone can take up an ICT device and try and use it however, if there isn't a goal in mind and how to accomplish the goal it makes it harder to truly use ICT to its full potential. 

• Are you sure that you are not including ICT just because you think it is important to know?

Including ICT in schools is a great way of making learning easier and fun, since the tool will be doing the processing of the complicated work however, the learner will be doing the thinking as he/she creates the product to be shared with others.

• Are learners who are working with ICT focusing on the content?

Learners who are working with ICT focus on the content when there is an interest in them to do so. The teacher as the facilitator is therefore, there to guide them, encourage them and monitor their learning. Thus, the end result will be to focus on what content is needed at the time.

• Is your role facilitative i.e. are you giving the learners the opportunity to work with ICT on their own?

Yes, the teachers' role (my role) is to allow students to discover what they want to learn as they construct meaning or make sense of the content (concepts) as they relate them to real-life situations.

• Does working with ICT enhance the learning process?

Yes, it does.

Yes, they are.

• Is ICT a part of the learning process, and not an add-on?

In my school yes, it is part of learning and not just and extra activity to do.

Technology as a tool to support learning:

The three sets of lessons are focused on pedagogy and not technology. The main goal of each lesson is for the students to learn subject content while using technology to obtain or create and share information.

What I feel about my teacher development experience with colleagues:

I believe that working along with my colleagues gives me the pedagogical and technical support I need to effectively little by little integrate technology in the classroom.

In addition, I also give them the support they need as I assist them in also creating ways in which they can use technology within their classes.

The support goes twofold. In addition, we are all facilitating learning with ICT.

Activity 5 - Myth of computer literacy

Computer literacy myth is that once we give students the computer they will learn all the necessary skills they need to learn by following the computer applications.

Computer literacy in the first place is not all about just knowing how to operate the applications on the computer while using the computer but it is about integrating the knowledge and skills of these applications in different subject areas to cover learning various topics. 

However, yes, the learner can discover things by his or her own self when just given the computer with the applications to learn but there needs to be guidance as to what learning objectives are to be covered for what purpose that should be the overall outcome.

Again, yes, the students are able to make their own learning outcomes and try to achieve these outcomes, but will they be able to achieve them without a logical guideline? The students will still need a guideline in outlining if they are going the right way or not.

Main principles of ICT integration (in my view):

• Students are interested
• Students are active participants of learning
• Students are able to make connections to real-life context or situations
• Students are able to discover things on their own
• students are able to communicate and collaborate with their peers as they learn new things

Whose responsibility I think it is to teach ICT:

I believe the teaching/instruction of ICT is a shared responsibility. A teacher is responsible to facilitate the learning environment to ensure that what concepts are to be taught through real-life scenarios are given, however students are responsible for their own learning as they learn what interest them at the time and are then able to learn about ICT as they use ICT to learn about other things they need to know to function in society.

Activities 4 - Is their a need for teachers?

What Vygotsky suggests should be the role of schooled learning?

School learning is to develop what students already know. It is the act of connecting old knowledge to new knowledge by making real-life connections.

How could we make schooled learning more effective?

We can make school learning more effective by reaching students were they are at. We should make complex concepts simpler for the learners age and stage in order for them to understand fully what certain concepts are and then gradually guide them to the more complex ideas or thoughts about these same concepts.

What are the key roles of the teacher?

The key role of the teacher is to guide or facilitate students learning. This means to allow students to think and as they think the teacher provides the right support or props to help students to develop their thinking in the right path.

To add to the above statement: 

I believe that teachers are facilitators of learning. Therefore, yes there are computer applications that allow students to learn certain information and skills, however the teacher guides the students on the right path to learn specific content needed for their age and stage.

In addition, students learn through social interaction with one another as they try to accomplish a learning goal together.

Self-Activity

Think about a child who is about to begin school:

1. Make a list of the various things the child might have learnt prior to starting school (for example, list the tasks learnt at home, ways of communicating and rules of behaviour in the community).

Tasks learnt at home

How to use the bathroom

How to dress one’s self

How to feed one’s self

How to tie one’s shoelace

How to pray

Ways of communicating

How to talk

How to say you’re sorry

How to behave

How to share

How to help someone in need

Rules of behaviour in the community

Don’t play with matches

Don’t stick anything in electrical sockets

Don’t leave fight with others

Throw your garbage in the bin

Put away things when you are finished using them

Activity 3 - Roles of learners learning with ICT

The most powerful lessons that I learnt about online collaboration:

Using technology enhances, extends and expands learning. Students active participation in collaborative project-based activities increase their performance, since the students are making sense of their world by making connections with what they are doing, that can later on be used in real-world jobs.

Students are responsible for their own learning.

Students gravitate towards persons that have the same interest as they do. 

The most important points that I take from the Learners’ Charter:

Students learn best through - 

(1) active engagement,

(2) participation in groups, 

(3) frequent interaction and feedback, and
(4) connections to real-world contexts. 

Activity 2: Attitudes and perceptions of ICT

Based on the reading teachers age was not an underlying factor towards the use of ICT, their attitudes and perceptions of ICT depended on their personal history and ICT training background.

Barriers of ICT use included:
1. lack of professional development training
2. lack of ICT technical assistance pedagogical support
3. lack of ICT skills at different levels

Overall the attitudes and perceptions of young and old teachers vary.

Where do I fit into all this that has been expressed on teachers attitudes towards the use of ICT?

As the main full-time ICT lecturer in the department as of 2014 and one of the future trainers of ICTs in education after this COL training, I believe that my attitude towards using and integrating ICTs in education is very important. Why? With a positive attitude and commitment to the cause I will be a leader and motivator to others in understanding that ICTs are not there to give us extra work, but are there to make the teaching learning process easier.

I know that so far my colleagues have expressed their concerns of their personal and professional development in ICT, since they have been asked many times in the last two years different ways in which they use ICTs in their lessons, and what are they ICT knowledge and skills needs. Even the few who were hesitant to use and integrate ICT in their classrooms right now are interested in knowing what is there that can be offered as support for them to be able to use their basic skills in ICT.

Overall, I must say with the national and regional push in using and integrating ICTs in education all of us at my department realize that we are important participants in this educational reform in ICT. We are not only in a higher educational institution, but in the department where teachers are to be trained with the necessary 21st Century skills, as a result we need to get with knowing and using these skills first for ourselves in order to model and facilitate the development of these skills in our student-teachers.

Therefore, ICT facilitates the teaching and learning process.

Activity 1: Rationale for ICT in schools

There are five main rationales for using ICT in schools. Under the rationales are related uses of ICT in schools.


Rationale 1: To build a resource of people who are highly skilled in the use of information technology.

Computer literacy 
Information technology as a subject

Rationale 2: To equip all students for a future in which technological awareness and basic computer skills will increasingly be important for greater numbers of citizens. 

Using educational software
Computer literacy

Rationale 3: To use the technology to enhance the existing curriculum and to improve the way in which it is developed.

Educators develop activities using online resources
Using educational software

Rationale 4: To promote change in education by moving towards a more relevant curriculum and a new definition of the teacher’s role. 

Facilitating communication

Rationale 5: To allow learners to seek information from databases, especially through the Internet, and use computer technology to communicate with other schools, colleges and learning communities.

Using the Internet to gather information
Using the internet for research and projects


How is ICT used in my Department:
1. Students and teachers research information via the internet
2. Student and teachers write, send and receive emails from each other
3. Students and teachers prepare lesson plans, lesson activities and lesson assessments using processor, spreadsheet, presentation and multimedia production programmes
4. Students and teachers communicate and collaborate with others using social media
5. Students and teachers use learning management systems for teaching and learning processes (EMIS and MOODLE)
6. Students and Teachers use ICT for personal and administrative purposes


"It is impossible for a developing nation to compete with developed nations in the field of ICT integration in schools"

Why would developing countries consider their initiative to integrate ICT in schools as a competition with the developed countries?

I believe there is a reason why developed countries are more advanced in integrating ICT in schools, than the developing countries. It is simply the following:

1. Developed countries have an economic and technology standard that is advanced in comparison to other countries based on their Gross Domestic Product (GPD)
2. Developed countries are able to implement educational reform strategies far quicker than other countries since they have the monies to sustain their initiatives
3. Developed countries will have more human development in knowledge, skills and attitudes due to the educational opportunities awarded to persons
4. Developed countries are investing more in schools' infrastructure, teacher professional development, curriculum and assessment
5. Developed countries have (reliable) access to internet, ICT resources, ICT tools
6. Developed countries easily communicate and collaborate with other developed countries and other countries on a whole due to their internet facilities

on the other hand

Developing countries are faced with challenges due to their lower economic standards and ICT advances. Such as:

1. Teacher preparation (training)
2. Curriculum
3. Pedagogy
4. Assessment (monitoring and evaluation)
5. Internet connectivity

Therefore, it isn't impossible for the developing countries to compete with developed nations in the field of ICT integration in schools, it is possible for developing nations over time with assistance of different projects from the developing nations and otherwise to have their full educational reform that has ICT as its fundamental learning tool for education in schools.

As stated earlier, I don't believe it is a competition, what I believe though that it is through communication and collaborative efforts that all will achieve integrating ICT in schools.

Therefore, ICT educational reform is attainable in my school over time.

Activity 0: Hello Activity

I am Terry-Ann Marsh-Roberts a proud Antiguan, a passionate educator, a supportive wife and a caring person, empowered with the opportunity to learn for the rest of my life.

As a civil servant of my country Antigua and Barbuda, I have the responsibility to train teachers with the knowledge, skills and attitudes needed in educational research, educational psychology and educational technology.

As a result, in order for me to manage the teaching and learning environment I have to ensure that the trainees under my care and I myself are capable in using and integrating ICT. Therefore, with our own devices (BYOD) which we received from our Government through the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Information, Communication, Technology and Science, we have been equipped to do so. However, at our department, at ABIIT, where we share the building and infrastructure there are 20 computers, one printer, one projector, one whiteboard and one projector remote control in each classroom.

The student teachers who we cater for are from public and private schools, from early childhood education to tertiary education.

Due to my involvement in education I enjoy being engaged in activities that personally and professionally develop me as an individually. In addition, I enjoy singing, cooking, hiking, swimming, and travelling.

I love to read and encourage others to make reading a part of their life.

I know from this course my media and information literacy skills will be improved and my ability to use and integrate ICT in education, by educating the teachers who come from the schools that will return to the schools, will be more developed.