The Importance of Information and Communication Technology
Over one hundred years ago, a well known educator by the name of John Dewey was famously quoted as saying:
“If we teach today’s students as we taught yesterday’s, we rob them of tomorrow.”
This statement is as relevant and true today, as it was over a century ago. Technology has always played an important part in education. From the humble chalkboard to the mass production of the pencil, from the overhead projector to YouTube, technology has been used as a powerful tool to engage students and spark their curiosity.
Technology is everywhere, entwined in almost every part of our lives. It affects how we shop, socialise, connect, play, and most importantly learn. With an increasing presence in our lives, it only makes sense to have mobile technology in the classroom. I have encountered some scepticism from parents who believe that the drawbacks of using technology outweigh the positives. Digital distractions, screen time and cyberbullying are often used as arguments against the integration of ICT in the classroom, but if we don’t teach our students strategies to cope with these issues, then we are doing them an enormous disservice.
Part of providing our students with the best possible education is preparing them for the world outside the boundaries of the school walls, for a future quite different to ours. This means that they need the ability to learn both independently and collaboratively. It means teaching our students to utilise technology so that they may not only have strategies to deal with the negatives, but comfortably and confidently utilise its benefits well into the future. For most of us, this means we’re going to be learning right alongside our children (or in some cases, allowing our children to teach us!). It might not be in our comfort zone, but once we recognise that our students are going to need these skills in order to be successful, it becomes obvious that we really can’t afford not to prepare them properly.
Learning to communicate, collaborate and connect with others are essential skills for our students as they move into the world beyond school. ACARA, (The Australian Curriculum and Reporting Authority), recognise this in their outline of seven general capabilities that form part of the foundation for the new Australian Curriculum.
These general capabilities include a range of skills that have particular application to the world of work and further education and training, such as planning and organising, the ability to think flexibly, to communicate well and to work in teams. The ICT general capability in the Australian Curriculum, maps out the skills students need to confidently and competently use technology to communicate, think creatively, innovate, solve problems and engage with new disciplines.
Information and communication technologies are fast, automated, interactive and rapidly changing. They support the communication and representation of knowledge to many audiences.They transform the ways that students think and learn and give them greater control over how, where and when they learn. Developing the digital literacy skills in our students here at St Charbel’s, is not only important, but a vital part of ensuring our students success in life beyond school.
Ten Reasons Why Our Students NEED Technology in the Classroom
1) If used correctly, mobile devices and the applications they support, will help prepare students for their future careers.
2) Integrating technology into the classroom is an effective way to connect with students of all learning styles.
3) It gives students the opportunity to enhance the interaction with their classmates and instructors by encouraging collaboration.
4) Using technology in the classroom gives teachers and other faculty members the opportunity to develop their student's digital citizenship skills. It's one thing to use mobile devices, it's a completely other thing to know how to use them correctly and responsibly.
5) Integrating technology in education helps students stay engaged. Most students today have been using mobile devices like tablets and smartphones to play and learn since they could crawl. So it only seems logical to align today's classrooms with the way that your students want and are used to learning.
6) Combining new tech like VR (virtual reality) with traditional classroom instruction is one example of how the introduction of new technology can enhance the learning experience and create new opportunities.
7) When mobile technology is readily available and performing correctly in the classroom, students are able to access the most up-to-date information quicker and easier than ever before.
8) The traditional passive learning model is broken. With technology in the classroom the teacher becomes the encourager, adviser, and coach.
9) Technology helps students be more responsible. Owning your own device or borrowing the school's devices gives students the opportunity to improve their decision making skills as well as taking ownership of a valuable (and often times expensive) device. Again, this needs to be complemented by proper digital citizenship training to see the best results.
10) Technology transforms the learning experience. Students have access to an incredible amount of new opportunities. From learning how to code to learning how to better collaborate across teams and with their instructors--technology empowers students to be more creative and be more connected. New tech has super-charged how we learn today.
If your school is still debating how technology can benefit your students, teachers and administrators, I hate to break it to you, but the future of education is already here and you're missing an unbelievable amount of opportunities.