Mid Morning Reflections: - ICT in schools, Attitudes and perceptions of ICT

Module 2

Activity 2: Attitudes and perceptions of ICT

After reading the article "Two generations of Teachers Differences in attitudes towards ICT", by Silvia Ferrero, it was clear to me that a number of conclusions can be drawn.

Will the underdeveloped nations every be able to compete with the developed ones as regards ICT integration in education?  This is a question that many are asking but there is another important question that is also being asked that may be at the heart of the anticipated reformation to see ICT integration in our schools.  This one deals with the decade old worry of how do we bridge the generation divide between the older teachers' perception to ICT integration in the classroom as compared to that of the younger teachers of our profession.  Or, is there really a generation divide as some have alluded to over the years?

Putting that aside, will the financial commitments made to see the introduction of ICT into our teaching and learning ever benefit us to the extent of improved results for our students?  Below are a few of the conclusions that were drawn by myself and the author after reading the article.

1. There is no measurable difference between the ICT skill level in younger and older teachers.
2. Expertise in the use of ICT in education has been a source of separation between teachers of different generations.
3. A lack of collaboration has negatively impacted the use of ICT in curricula activities among some teachers and their colleagues.
4. A lack of institutional support has caused teachers to be hesitant about the use of ICT in the classroom.
5. A lack of technical support  and professional advice can account for some teachers' negative attitude towards the use of ICT in the classroom.

After thinking over the above conclusions I had to hypothesize that "A lack of sufficient collaboration among teachers has caused many teachers to become hesitant about the use of ICT in the classroom."  This I beg to submit will form the basis for my further research into the lack of complete ICT integration into our teaching and learning at our schools.

Until next time.....

Mid Morning Reflections - ICT in Schools Introduction

Day 2

The mid-morning reflection.  Our day started with the review of what took place over the previous period.  We were then tutored into a number of new areas.  We had to go through the creation and update of a number of  predominantly online tools which were not new to most of us but probably under utilized by many of us.

We first had to have an up to date DropBox account where we were expected to keep most of our online storage of data and other items for the duration of the course.  This online storage medium allows persons to have access to their files where ever they go.  It will also act as backup to our offline storage in the event of something unfortunate happening. These files will be accessible remotely via desktop and many other mobile devices.

Reading Activity Reflections

Module 2

Activity 1: Rationale for ICT in schools

We then went on to another interesting activity.  The idea was for us to create a learners charter after reading two articles on ICT in education ITEM 1 and ITEM 2.  We had to create accounts for the persons who were new to this collaborative online Mind Mapping tool.  After completing the signup for a basic account the application was unleashed on us with much excitement.

As the world continues to undergo a technological revolution countries grapple to cope with the forever changing environment of our times.  The discussion in the articles were essentially on the rational for ICT in education as taken from a discussion at the World Economic Forum, Dakar 2000, which was quite relevant.  There were 5 rationales given:

Rationale 1- Underscored the importance of governments need to build a knowledge based society in ICT skills as a means of economic development.  This is indeed essential but it was explained in the article 2 that coming out of this initial thrust was an influx of lower end IT skilled persons onto the job market.  This outcome was not desired and it is proving to be a challenge for governments to gain economic benefits from this circumstance.

Rationale 2 - Made mention of the importance of technology going into the future as being very important for students and countries on a whole.  Here its importance is underscored even as consumer of IT and not so much as producers.

Rationale 3 - Brought home the point that in a changing world of increased ICT usage it is important that the curriculum within schools be adjusted to suit this new trend.  It is therefore important for the use of computers as a learning aid in and out of the classroom.

Rationale 4 -  In this rational the role of the teacher was brought to the fore with mention being given of teachers' role having to change as they leverage the use of ICT in the classroom.

Rationale 5 - Caused the first 4 rationals to be placed in context after considering the emergence of the internet as a source of data and as a tool for learning.  The access to online databases  has given new opportunities to learners through collaboration across schools and colleges across the world.

After all was considered the following are some of the main areas which will be given priority as part of future plans; the use of the internet as a means of gathering data in learning;  learning becoming research and project based; the use of computer aided software to provide drill and practice exercises as a means of reinforcement; to teach computer literacy in the proper context; to facilitate better communication skills; to not teacher IT only as a subject but to have the entire school population benefit from an array of useful ICT and computer literacy skills.

At my school ICT is integrated into teaching and learning on a relatively small scale.  Teachers have been eager in some cases to use technology to some extent in their classrooms but others have shown little interest.  Part of the issue is that resources are limited with the extent to which the technologies might be available to both teachers and students.  Most teachers are not trained on how they can integrate technology into the classroom and others have sought to use their initiative in this regard as they seek to get students more interested in their subject content.  Many have resorted to the use of technology in their lessons after all other methods have failed which have yielded positive results for the most part.  Some of them have left their classrooms as excited as their students upon witnessing the impact that the use of ICT was able to have on the general levels of interest in their classrooms.  Teachers are generally willing with the idea of technology use in the classroom.

Day 1

We are currently at the Grenada Boys' Secondary School(GBSS), my Alma Mater.

Gerald Roos from Cape Town, South Africa, is facilitating thhe training for ICT integration in schools which will run for the next 18 months.

I am rather happy and excited to be a part of this training group and hope that all will go well as we seek to bring ICT to all of our classrooms here in Grenada.

I have been a teacher at the Happy Hill Secondary School for the past 15 years.

Here at the GBSS I am in group with some wonderful people. They are all quite knowledgeable and eager to complete this long in coming and very interesting programme.

We look forward to working with the team through the Commonwealth of Learning network.  Mr Gerald Roos came all the way from South Africa landed on our airport and came straight to be with us this morning. He infact he came straight from the airport packed with his luggage and all his other materials so that we can have this become a reality.

Just a sneak peek into some of my life.