You might be looking at the Computer Use (Ed) module, wondering what all the fuss is about. Fear not, I initially wondered about it too!
To my mind, the affordances of technology had always seemed obvious: Tech allows us to do cooler things than before, duh! (Then again, I remember the 80s, and I’ve always been a bit of a SciFi geek… so there’s that.)
But it isn’t all as simple as that. Not only can Information and Communication Technology (ICT) be incredibly helpful – it can also be incredibly frustrating, or even scary. This ambiguous potential seems amplified when it comes to the business of teaching and learning. Some teachers/learners love ICTs, while others loathe it. The problem is, however, that we often have to fend for ourselves when it comes to adopting technology for learning and teaching – whether we have a choice in the matter or not. How do we do this, and why?
Both these questions are important to consider if we are to benefit from ICT in education. “Why” is, in my opinion, the first question we need to consider before we can get to the “How”. I am not going to give you an answer though – as I want you to reflect on this and come up with some suggestions (you’re welcome to use the comments section below).
Why do you think ICT is/isn’t important in your teaching practice?
Maybe looking at some of the “How” ideas can help us reverse-engineer the issue:
One of the more common hiccups I’ve encountered in teaching practice relates to misconceptions about getting technology into the classroom. What exactly does it mean? Aren’t we trying to get technology out of the classroom? Can’t we just teach the way we always have? And that’s the point, really… I’m sure you’ve been in classrooms (or lecture halls) where the facilitators are quite chuffed with themselves for “using technology to teach”, mainly by translating their handouts and notes into a PowerPoint presentation. Some advancement on this approach might be a facilitator using clickers (once) to demonstrate polling. While these instances are indeed examples of using technology in the classroom, they are not exactly shining examples of integration.
What is the difference between using and integrating technology in our educational practices? The following chart, by Aditi Rao (2013), highlights some important distinctions that might help us think about the matter:
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| Source: https://teachbytes.com/2013/03/29/whats-the-difference-between-using-technology-and-technology-integration/ |
One way to look at it, is to see using ICT as a perfunctory nod towards innovation in education, while integrating ICT can be seen as a fundamental acknowledgement of the augmentational and developmental potential such innovation might hold for our pedagogies.
How do you see it?
FWMK
