ICT in Education means Teaching and Learning with ICT

Post date: Apr 29, 2014 4:04:06 AM

By: Zenaida C. San Pedro Principal II The developments in the use of the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) or electronic media have influenced all walks of life. Education is no exception to this. The use of computers and the internet for enhancing the quality of education by making learning more relevant to life has been seen as an ideal by educational institutions. The citizens of tomorrow who are our pupils now are going to live in the age of the electronic media. Furthermore, a worldwide research has shown that ICT can lead to improved student learning and better teaching methods. A report made by the National Institute of Multimedia Education in Japan, proved that an increase in pupil exposure to educational ICT through curriculum integration has a significant and positive impact on student achievement, especially in terms of Knowledge, Comprehension, Practical skill and Presentation skill in subject areas such as English, Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies. Moreover, integrating ICT into education seems to be a necessary issue for educators / education administrators not only in Philippines but also in the world. In view of this fact, ICT, according to some observations, impacted the way our pupils learn because we use computers in our lessons. It increased learner effectiveness or performance gains and increased learner efficiency. It gives greater learner engagement or satisfaction and creates more positive attitudes of our pupils to learning. It is also through ICT, images can easily be used in teaching and improving the retentive memory of our pupils; we teachers can easily explain complex instructions and ensure pupils' comprehension; and we can create interactive classes and make the lessons more enjoyable, which could improve our pupils attendance and concentration.

However, we should also be wary of the disadvantages that ICT can bring to our pupils like they may become too reliant on computers and not learn other skills thoroughly enough. They may use the computer to do some mathematical activities rather than learning and understanding by themselves. They may be able to get a good result but not really knowing or understanding how to do / compute it or what it means. They may not fully engage in research and experimentation activities, but use search engines for resources. They miss out on a lot of information and interactions by doing manual research, like going into libraries, and talking directly to people which is often better and helps them gain a better understanding of the information they are getting. And most importantly, they may not use the fullest potential of their brains. But then, the importance of ICT weighs far more than its disadvantages since the use of ICT is inevitable. Thus, the DepEd City Division of Balanga in cooperation with the City Government provided every school with an Audio – Visual Room which is always available not only in the teaching and learning process but also with all the activities that required the use of computers and internet resources. They also provide seminar – workshops to the teachers. And the City Government gives laptop loans to the teachers to promote effective and life – long learning through ICT.