Information Communication Technologies - Essay Example

Context Analysis and Pedagogical Issues Customer inserts his/her name Customer inserts tutor’s name Customer inserts grade course 31,03,2012. Introduction Technological advancements come with changes in all aspects of modern life in respect to how people do their daily chores, socialize, interact, entertain, and transact business. One aspect where this novel approach brought significant touch is how people learn. E-learning as a component of modern technology, entails using information communication technologies such as computer systems, online discussion boards, blogs, audio and visual tapes, and podcasts among others in facilitation of virtual learning process. Adopting e-learning in modern educational context helps eradicate the rigidity characterized by the traditional classroom where learning confines to a particular stipulated time and place. This allows students to embrace accountability for their learning process it also makes the process more flexible because both students and teachers will have unlimited access to a wider and broader resources of information that aids learning. It is from this perception that I believe in the introduction of using computer session to teach English at King Abdul-Aziz high school where I am a TESOL teacher (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) could add some value to the learning process. This is also supported by the fact that currently almost all facets of life are in the run to embrace technological advancement. Educational process determines all spheres of life events in such a way that its relevance becomes the basic recipe. This must cut across all aspects emerging from all corners of the world to make your students in a better position of acclimatizing to any environment during or after they leave high school to join other aspects of life like higher education, vocational training, and so on. Not only is the use of computer in teaching English embraces techniques that becomes vital later on in life but also exposes students to a wide array of relevant information that would otherwise not be available in a traditional session owing to the availability of connectivity to online. 1.1 The main aims and objectives Information communication technologies influences how people work, interact, socialize, play and more significantly how they learn as echoed by Rovai et al. (2004). In the high school of which am using as the educational organization, teaching English to Arabic speaking students is of critical importance as it helps the students fully understand other disciplines taught in English language. Among the main aims and objectives of the educational organization in relation to teaching English at the high school includes To explore ways in which effective learning is enhanced To establish systems suitable for promoting the use of the English language To ensure that each students fully understand English prior to joining institutions of higher of learning To establish a learning environment that ensures student’s needs are effectively met To facilitate a learning process which is centred on the student To ensure that students are empowered in being accountable for their own education This approach offers an ample environment that sets the trend for future learning in the sense that e-learning would gain acceptance bit by bit until its full implementation becomes viable. Exploration of this target is important to offer benefits to both students and their teachers in English language development, which will of course improve performance, reading and writing skills, which will make communication efficient, and also ensure other subjects taught in English follow suit in the near future. 1.2 The issues that exist with respect to learning at the workplace King Abdul-Aziz high school have no computers in their classrooms, the school has a computer laboratory which serves all the students. The absence of this is a major setback in enhancing e-learning. Teachers with the zeal of embracing such advancement cannot effectively handle their aspirations. I being one, I find it hard to organise for computer sessions outside my classroom during English sessions. The absence of machines in classes is in fact a major setback which needs a bold step in enhancing a fully functional institution with operational web enhanced learning. The school also lacks sound mechanisms in the segment to encourage teachers to make extra efforts in using the facility. This has made most teachers never to bother about e-learning. The spirit in the institution at large still holds the crude method of delivering lectures using old yellow notes that have never been refreshed; this is particularly true to most senior English teachers. It is thus true that the inability of teachers to comprehensively and adequately carryout their teaching role on virtual spaces and use e-learning materials hinders this transitional process (Trucano, 2005). The institution has no policies and regulations of ensuring the school adapt slowly to using the e-learning, it is amazing that not all teachers have a basic knowledge of using ICT; this could be another hindrance in the quest to march ahead by embracing changes that come along. Most students who visit the laboratory do not go there to do their homework or search for educative materials, in fact one day on my stroll, I met a group of them playing games yet they had assignments that they could easily get vital information from the online. I largely attribute to this inefficiency to lack of regulations and policies that seek to make students appreciate the importance of using e-learning. This is the change that needs serious intervention to enable a vibrant learning environment, which could set pace for other institutions to follow suit. E-learning has countless advantages to all stakeholders, teachers would find it very easy to execute their teaching chores, and students would have numerous learning materials stored in different mode that suits their understanding and improve their scores and communication skills. Many students would be accessing English learning materials over the internet, which would otherwise be unavailable. Through e-learning, students have the opportunity to interact with others, conduct research, retrieve additional information, listen, and learn spoken English through videos and online tutorials and more importantly participate in learning at their own time as supported by Horton (2001). HELIOS (2005) indicates that e-learning is greatly impeded by teachers lacking the necessary skills and knowledge required to plan and teach virtual classes and teachers failing to receive the much needed support, training, and guidance required for developing e-learning instructions by the relevant stakeholders. Zemsky and Massy (2004) notes that lack of physical contact and interaction between teacher and learner infringes on the culture of learning in class room setups thus raising apprehension among teachers. Moreover, teachers are not accessible to suitable design and development e-learning tools, which help them to effectively plan and deliver instructions online as indicated by Abrami and Bures (1996). Not all students are equal when it comes to learning process and solving problems even after exposure to the same learning materials. In classes where students have different capabilities of mastering facts, when exposed to a universal tool that stimulates their thinking process they are all likely to adapt to it very fast and make then share some qualities that could not be in a conventional session. This method could easily make them improve in their speed of comprehension, speaking, reading, and so on. This additional support to the students will ensures effective learning process and become more flexible (Naidu 2005). The other e-learning issue that not only impact learning in my area of expertise but also in virtually all e-learning situations is the lack of reliable internet connection and e-learning materials accessible to learners as supported by Holmes and Gardner (2006). Not every student is accessible to virtual tools that facilitate learning which makes it difficult for them to learn online effectively (Rovai, et al., 2004). Lack of internet and virtual tools may happen because of costly internet, limited virtual tools, and lack of effective and efficient technological infrastructure. These issues are the paramount factors that drive the need of using computer in the school class sessions. This will centre learning process to students, according to Cartelli (2006), effective e-learning only occurs when the learning activities are centred on the student where the student takes charge of their learning, when the students are actively engaged through active learning and when they are allowed to participate in solving class problems. E-learning allows for development of relationship among fellow learners, and between the learner and the teacher as the involved parties interact through e-learning systems such as blogs and online discussions. To ensure that e-learning becomes effective, learning should be placed in real world contexts to offer real meaning, where students and teachers are able to reflect on learning and teachers are not only able to assess the performance and progress of students but also give them feedback (Vrasidas, 2004). 1.3 One aspect where a web-enhanced e-learning environment could be used to bring about change at high school My conviction of pioneering the need to use King Abdul-Aziz computer laboratory to aid learning English comes with a number of assessments that are self explanatory. Although there is only one computer laboratory in the school this should not be a hindrance, in fact, I believe for a start it is not a bad idea. Even as the whole world embraces technological inventions to help run processes, education should not exclude this. Zhang and Barber (2008) asserts that effective application of computer technology changes the entire process in that it instils some insight that change all aspect from mode of delivery, conceiving of facts, utilization of knowledge, and widespread acquisition of limitless knowledge in almost all frontiers of learning. This paradigm shift in making my high school students experience an early debut in using technology will help them improve their literacy, communication techniques, and expose them to avenues of extensive language explorations (Chan & Kim, 2004). Using computer laboratory to teach will also break the boredom that most students experience on a face-to-face class interactions, this will add some motivation to their quest of knowing and learning additional language skills, which makes their learning process approachable (Cennamo, et al., 2010). These factors will turn out to good results in the English scores and language skills. Using computers in teaching students a language they are learning from scratch could hasten their integration process and even change their perception about the system. Current students prefer and enjoy using computers; this is the basis of championing application of this technology in teaching. This may change the learning environment and call upon the institution to implement using computers to teach other subjects as well, which will be good news for embracing technology. For instance, a study done by Lee (2004) came up with commendable findings about how learners perceive the entire process which uses computer technology. Networking makes those learning alternative language indulge their effort fully by getting encouragements in interacting with native speakers online (Lee, 2004). Studies show that effective application of e-learning process, in this context using the school computer laboratory in teaching English, will give students an opportunity to interact with educative materials helpful to their learning development process (Chan & Kim, 2004; Chang, 2007). This is true because resource materials on the web enhanced mode of learning is enormous, learners have an opportunity to either chose text, videos, or other modes of delivery suitable to their comprehensive capabilities (Appel & Mullen, 2000; Jones, 2003). When one compares the merits of offering different instructional approach in a learning process, story based model is inferior to text based packages offered online (Herron et al., 2006). The paradigm shift in this will boost comprehensive, vocabulary, and other models of mastering especially foreign language. In managing English sessions in a computer laboratory, seeking relevant authority that maintains and carry out troubleshooting of the machines would be the first priority. Their presence during learning sessions is necessary to keep all computers working and also help students in case of technical breakdown. These sessions would need reorganization of teaching hours to incorporate the change. This will make the entire process run smoothly so that during English computer sessions time is spent wisely. Institutions would need to train them on their specific lines of specialities on how they would need to deliver (Ahern & El-Hindi, 2000). This should also take into account the need to restrict students from accessing certain sites over the internet that does not contain valuable materials for the minors (Kotter, 2002). 1.4 The nature of the change The paradigm shift involves the nature of teaching English in which as opposed to the traditional mode of delivery the process shall include using computers during learning process. This will involve using computer laboratory to help student’s master key elements available from the internet. Students would have an opportunity to access various learning materials stored in different formats ranging from texts, audio, video clips, and other forms of communications applicable to using the school computer laboratory. Division of class sessions would be in two parts, the interactive part that can happen within or without the laboratory and the other session in the laboratory that gives students a massive exposure to different language practicing techniques. This change is long overdue because students are the primary beneficiaries. This would improve learning process; make students practice some of the basic skills on their own during or after class session. They would also have an opportunity of selecting the most appropriate method of learning from the various delivery modes on offer by this technology. Students will grasp relevant Language ideas and get English skills on their own (an individualised mode of learning) (Chan & Kim, 2004). Using internet connectivity makes the change justifiable in the sense that, it will enable students get familiar with updated English language. Learning in such an environment makes students develop effective communication skills, which is likely to help them in future at furthering their education and work places. This will make them better improve scores in subjects taught in English (Ahern & El-Hindi, 2000). With intensive implementation of the program students’ chances of accessing a wider array of resources stored by the institution for a given learning process increases, they could also use internet at the same time, interact with other students through collaborative groups online, email their tutors, and complete their assignments online (Johnson et al., 2000). This change will be cost effective because of the anticipated benefits, which outweighs the costs. The benefit is valuable and goes beyond expectations. Conclusion King Abdul-Aziz high school can move forward in embracing novel models of teaching English to students by using the single computer laboratory as a case study before implementing the installation of the same in classrooms. What are lacking are policies and sound mechanisms that encourage students and teachers to appreciate using the laboratory in class sessions. Knowledge utilization from this aspect becomes limited despite the availability of resourceful language materials in the World Wide Web. Conclusively, using school computer laboratory among TESOL teachers requires competency before embarking both teachers and trainers’ needs professional training on using the facility to efficiency. This will ensure adopted of the mode of teaching that could either support the conventional teaching practices or stand on its own after effective implementation. The most important aspect to remember is to ensure that students’ remains focused on learning and that their needs are efficiently met to ensure positive learning outcomes and experiences. References Abrami, P.C., & Bures, E.M. (1996). Computer-supported collaborative learning and distance education. American Journal of Distance Education, 10(2), 37-42. Ahern, T.C., & El-Hindi, A. (2000). Improving the instructional congruency of a computer-mediated small-group discussion: A case study in design and delivery. Journal of Research on Computing in Education, 32(3), 385-400. Appel, C., & Mullen, T. (2000). Pedagogical considerations for a web-based tandem language learning environment. Computers and Education, 34(3-4), 291-308. Cartelli, A. (ed.). (2006). Teaching in the Knowledge Society: New skills and instruments for teachers. London: Information Science Publishing. Cennamo, S.K., Ross, J.D., & Ertmer, P.A. (2010). Technology Integration for Meaningful Classroom Use: A Standards-Based Approach. Belmont USA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning. Chan, W.M., & Kim, D.H. (2004). Towards great individualization and process oriented learning through electronic self-access project e-daf. Computer Assisted Language Learning, 17(1), 83-108. Chang, M. (2007). Enhanced web based language learning through self-monitoring, Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 23(3), 187-196. HELIOS. (2005). Is eLearning improving access to learning opportunities? HELIOS Thematic Report No. 1. Retrieved from http://www.education-observatories.net/helios Herron, C. A., York, H., Corrie, C., & Cole. S. P. (2006). A comparison study of the effect of a story-based instructional package versus a text-based instructional package in the intermediate- level foreign language classroom, CALICO Journal, 23(2), 281-397 Holmes, B., & Gardner, J. (2006). E-learning: concepts and practice. London: SAGE. Johnson, W.L., Rickel, J.W., & Lester, J.C. (2000). Animated pedagogical agents: Face-to-Face interaction in interactive learning environments. International Journal of Artificial intelligence in Education, 11(1), 47-78 Jones, L. (2003). Supporting listening comprehension and vocabulary acquisition with multimedia Annotations: The students’ voice. CALICO Journal, 21(1), 41-65. Kotter, M. (2002). Tandem learning on the internet: Learner interactions in virtual online environment (MOOs). Frankfurt: Perter Lang. Lee, L. (2004). Learners’ perspectives on networked collaborative interaction with native speakers of Spanish in the US. Language Learning &Technology, 8(1), 83-100. Naidu, S. (2005). Learning & teaching with technology: principles and practices. Upper River Saddle: Routledge. Rovai, A.P., & Wighting, M.J., & Lucking, R. (2004). The Classroom and School Community Inventory: Development, refinement, and validation of a Self-report measure for educational research. Internet and Higher Education, 3(4), 263-280. Trucano, M. (2005). Knowledge Maps: ICT in Education. Washington, DC: info Dev / World Bank. Vrasidas, C. (2004). Issues of pedagogy and design in e-learning systems. 2004 ACM Symposium on Applied Computing, pp. 911-915. Zemsky, R., & Massy, W.F. (2004). Why the e-learning boom went bust. The Chronicle Review, 50(44), B6. Zhang, F., & Barber, B. (2008). Handbook of research on computer-enhanced language acquisition and learning. Hershey USA: Idea Group Inc. Read More