On student engagement and interaction in IT-based education - Essay Example

The notion of pedagogy is strikingly complex (Anderson, 2005). Nonetheless, such notion could generally be defined in three ways: as a process of knowledge transfer; as a structure of information transfer; and as an art of teaching The third definition of pedagogy as a theory and praxis is considerably broad. This paper, however, heavily uses the term “pedagogy” as the process of teaching in which a particular knowledge or information is transmitted from one person or group to another. On the other hand, the question of how Information and Technology, or simply IT, significantly affects classroom learning can be substantially answered through the elements characterized in IT system and their intricate processes relating to the practice of pedagogy.

Wellington (1994) gives several factors in which present-day IT system is highly advantageous: (1) stores a huge amount of information; (2) performs complex operations and calculations; (3) processes and displays a set of data in many and varied formats; and (4) facilitates in communicating information. By and large, these factors are indirectly and probably directly connected to the process of classroom teaching since pedagogy involves information, calculation, processes, and communications.

Needless to say, IT is only a medium used in transferring a specialized type of data (i.e., body of knowledge) from one or numerous person/s to another. Engaging and Interacting Information and Technology widely facilitate the teacher’s pedagogy in encouraging and stimulating the learner’s engagement and interaction. . In general, IT as a tool stimulates the students to be engaged, if not engrossed, into learning experience via experimentation or technological manipulation. In the University of Minnesota’s Interactive Classroom, biology students in their freshmen year are able to create ideas or knowledge based from their group interaction using IT application.

In the context of conjectural paradigm, learners from this state-of-the-art classroom are able to visually and conceptually construct models, say, of the human body (e.g., cell structure) via the given interface. The biology teacher from said University says that the IT medium is a valuable tool for transforming a textbook-based knowledge into a new and fresh idea (University of Minnesota College of Biological Sciences, 2009). Another category is called revelatory paradigm; this paradigm primarily aims to permit students in discovering ideas or hypotheses in their own way.

Unlike the “anyone anyone” type of classroom pedagogy, interactive classroom as a method of teaching allows students to explore and discover the field or knowledge of biology in the way that suits their intellectual curiosity. Problem, Solution, and Impression One of the major obstacles of classroom education with respect to IT-based learning is the so-called digital divide. Like the notion of pedagogy, digital divide as a concept is varied. Besides economic in nature, the term “digital divide” entails the inability to acquire knowledge and learning via computer application due mainly to the adult person’s being “resistant to change” (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2000).

Moreover, the