ICT Concepts & Tech in Teaching

• Lesson 2 and 3 focuses on understanding basic concepts of ICT and the roles of technology in teaching and learning.
• Key objectives include defining ICT terms, using concepts in communication, identifying the roles of technology, and appreciating its value in supporting student learning.

Key Terms and Concepts

• Technology: A mix of process and product used in applying knowledge, including tools from pencils to electronic gadgets.
• ICT Literacy: Using digital technology and communication tools to access, manage, integrate, evaluate, create, and communicate information.
• Educational Technology: The use of technology in teaching and learning, including non-digital (flip charts) and digital tools (hardware, software).
• Digital Literacy: The ability to find, evaluate, utilize, share, and create content using information technologies and the Internet.
• Digital Learning: Any learning accompanied by technology or instructional practices that effectively use technology, including blended or virtual learning.
• Online Digital Tools and Apps: Require an internet connection; Skype is an example.
• Offline Digital Tools and Apps: Can be used without internet, examples include Canary Learning and Pocket.
• Instructional Technology: The theory and practice of design, development, utilization, management, and evaluation of learning processes and resources.
• Software: Program control instructions and documentation stored on disks or tapes.
• Multimedia: Sequential or simultaneous use of various media formats in a presentation or self-study program.
• Internet: A massive network connecting millions of computers globally.
• World Wide Web (WWW): A graphical environment on computer networks for accessing documents with text, data, sound, and videos.
• Web Access: The ability to access the Internet to take advantage of available educational resources.
• WebQuest: An inquiry-oriented lesson format using web-based information.
• Productivity Tools: Software used for personal, professional, or classroom productivity (e.g., Microsoft Office).
• Technology Tool: Any instrument used for doing work, classified into data/calculation, design, discussion, email, and handheld devices.
• Blog: An online journal where information posted by teachers and students is arranged, serving for communication, instruction, or both.
• Wiki: An editable website, usually with limited access, allowing collaborative creation and posting of written work or digital files.
• Flipped Classroom: Uses web resources as homework for initial instruction, discussed during class time.
• Podcast: An audio or video clip about a single topic, functioning to retrieve and disseminate information.
• Google Apps: A cloud-based tool available to students, including Gmail, Google Calendar, Sites, and Docs.
• Vlog: A video blog where each entry is posted as a video.
• Facebook: A social networking site for presenting information.
• VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol): Hardware and software enabling internet use for telephone calls via IP.

Roles of Technology in Teaching and Learning

• Technology can be a tool and a catalyst for change and prepare future teachers to integrate technology in classrooms.
• Educational technology has three domains: technology as a tutor, as a teaching tool, and as a learning tool.
• Technology as a tutor can support the teacher by providing educational programs.
• Technology as a teaching tool facilitates and lightens the teacher's work.
• Technology as a learning tool makes learning easy and effective.
• Technology modernizes the teaching-learning environment and provides enormous support to teachers as facilitators of learning.
• Technology improves the teaching-learning process, making it more efficient and effective.
• Technology opens new fields in educational research and supports teacher professional development.

Technology for Learners and Learning

• Supports learners to learn on their own.
• Three categories of knowledge include declarative, structural, and procedural knowledge.
  • Declarative: Discrete pieces of information answering what, who, when, and where questions, learned through memorization.
  • Structural: Facts put together to attain meaning.
  • Procedural: Knowledge in action, based on facts but learned through the process of procedural knowledge.
• Technology enhances learners' communication skills through social interaction.
• Communication patterns include point-to-point, one-to-many, and many-to-many.
• Technology upgrades learners' higher-order-thinking skills such as critical thinking, problem-solving, and creativity.
• Critical thinking involves the ability to interpret, explain, analyze, evaluate, infer, and self-regulate.
• Creativity involves the ability to think flexibly, fluently, originally, and elaborately.
• SEVEN Creative Strategies (Osborn, 1963).
  • Substitute: Find something else to replace to do what it does.
  • Combine: Blend two things that do not usually go together.
  • Adapt: Look for other ways this can be used.
  • Modify/Magnify/ Minify: Make a change, enlarge, decrease.
  • Put to another use: Find other uses.
  • Eliminate: Reduce, remove.
  • Reverse: Turn upside-down, inside out, front-side back.