ICT Tools, Roles and Application in Education and Language Learning

ICT Tools, Roles and Application in Education and Language Learning

Educational ICT tools can be divided into 3 categories: Input source, Output source and Others.

See the following graph :

http://www.elmoglobal.com/en/html/ict/01.aspx

3 MAIN ADVANTAGES OF ICT TOOLS FOR EDUCATION:

1. Through ICT, images can easily be used in teaching and improving the retentive memory of students.

2. Through ICT, teachers can easily explain complex instructions and ensure students' comprehension.

3. Through ICT, teachers are able to create interactive classes and make the lessons more enjoyable, which could improve student attendance and concentration.

3 MAIN DISADVANTAGES OF ICT TOOLS FOR EDUCATION:

1. Setting up the devices can be very troublesome.

2. Too expensive to afford.

3. Hard for teachers to use with a lack of experience using ICT tools.

Educational ICT tools are not for making educators master ICT skills themselves, but for making educators create a more effective learning environment via ICT.

(Source: http://www.elmoglobal.com/en/html/ict/01.aspx)

There are so many online tools in teaching and learning, for example wallwisher and prezi. Wallwisher is very useful. Students can mind-map, build mood boards for creative projects, or create research walls on a given topic. Plenary discussions can be initiated by topic walls made collaboratively, or by teachers. For instance, a Key Stage 4 Media Studies teacher could create a wall of YouTube film trailers to initiate a discussion on genre, classification or censorship. The other online tool is prezi. Prezi provides users with a large canvas upon which to pin text slides, video clips and images. So far, so PowerPoint, you might say. Whenever you or your pupils would use Microsoft PowerPoint, Prezi provides a more dynamic, engaging and visually attractive option. Innovative Science and Maths teachers of all key stages are already using Prezi to explain key concepts to pupils around the world.

(Source: http://www.pcpro.co.uk/features/372979/10-free-online-tools-for-teaching-and-learning)

In the twelfth plan, The Planning Commission has stressed that ICT tools must be used for significantly improving the educational services and for streamlining the admission process. Says Dr Veera Gupta, Secretary, Central Board of Secondary Education, “ICT is integral to the teaching learning process. In an age where massive expansion of education is required, we cannot do without the use of technology. ICT is vital for dissemination of knowledge, for evaluation and for keeping data and records. The role of ICT is multi faceted and it has to be exploited to the maximum potential.”

(Source: http://ictpost.com/role-of-ict-is-multi-faceted-in-education/)

The use of ICT in the English classroom extends beyond its motivational value to address key outcomes of the syllabus, and allow students to become competent users as well as consumers in English.

Research suggests that incorporating ICT into the English curriculum can:

• improve writing and reading skills
• develop speaking and listening skills
• support collaboration, creativity, independent learning and reflection (Becta,2003a, Becta,2003b, VTC,2003) (cited in Becta 2005)

As an interactive and collaborative medium, ICT allows responding, composing, and publication to be easily shared and offers students the opportunity to explore the language of texts more creatively and develop as speakers, writers and readers for an ever widening range of purposes and audiences. ICT can enable students to:

• access information and respond to a widening range of texts
• organise and present information in a variety of forms
• broaden the range of audiences for their work
• compose a widening range of texts for a broad range of purposes
• compose for real audiences. ICT can support them in their choice of genre for audience and purpose.
• identify key characteristics and features of text
• develop understanding of language and critical literacy (Becta,2006,ICT in the Curriculum)

(Source: http://www.englishteacher.com.au/AboutUs/OfficialStatements/ICTsinEnglish.aspx)

Reflection:

I studied more about ICT Tools, Roles and Application in Education and Language Learning. The benefits of ICT in education is a tool in supporting the development of knowledge for students. It may help students for understanding the lesson clearly. It is a facility to identify the students' information easily. It is very useful as social media which is used to support the process of learning. It is also used for discussion and submission of opinions among the members of school. It is used as a tool to improve the quality of education. It can help students and teachers in improving the effectiveness and efficiency of the process of learning and teaching. It is very important because it is used to facilitate students in achieving the educational goals.