The Impacts of Information Technology on Education - Literature review Example

Running Head: The impacts of Information Technology on Education Name: Lecturer: Course: Date: Introduction Information and Communication Technology (ICT) continually transforms the ways in which knowledge is passed and the ways in which teachers and students interact in the learning process. Traditional learning methods are increasingly losing the capacity to meet the changing student needs in today’s educational systems. On the other hand, new technologies present teachers with opportunities to tailor learning to meet individual student needs and to improve access to course materials and simultaneous communication (Crandall, Ae, & Ellie, 2010). In regards to this, this essay uses three approaches to discuss ICT and its impacts in education: namely ICT as means of communication between teachers and students, as a means for storage and retrieval of information and ICT as channel through which instructions can be delivered. On this background, this essay argues that the impact of ICT on teaching practice depends on teachers’ and students’ knowledge and proficiency in using the technology. In turn, this can influence the levels in which communication between the learners and educators are effective in addition to the effectiveness in which the learning content can be delivered. Based on this premise, this essay examines the impact of technology to the development teaching practices, the resources used by both educators and learners in the learning process and factors that make the learning process more interactive. Definitions Information and Communication Technology (ICT) comprises the technologies that help collect, store, process, transfer, receive and retrieved data. Simply put, it describes a set of techniques and disciplines involved in collection, processing and handling of data. Some researchers have however defined it as the study of creation and use of technologies to process information and to help in communication. The concept of ICT has been extended to include forms of electronic communications (Crandall, Ae, & Ellie, 2010). On the other hand, while ICT may be applied to describe the interaction between the use and data, IT may be used to describe a one-way communication. Additionally, it can be regarded as the convergence point for communication. Other researchers have however described IT as the scientific study of information systems, products and services. For the purpose of this essay, the term ICT is used generally as an umbrella term that encompasses any communication application such as computer technology, internet, satellite, radio, television and computer hardware and software (Yaw & Enguah, 2012). Teaching practices Information technology has encouraged the development of teaching practices. Aside from its role in provision of knowledge, IT has helped inspire creativity leading to further creation of knowledge. They have also improved dissemination of knowledge to students (Zin et al., 2010). Past and ongoing studies have been able to establish that rapidly growing technology have increased its interests in education, as it provided space and opportunities for teachers to contribute their knowledge and ideas with more flexibility and making the teaching practice more adaptable to specific student needs (Manuguerra & Petcoz, 2011). A study by Zin et al. (2010) found that application of information technology in a learning environment promotes understanding of concepts, terms and processes in multimedia, while at the same time providing effective teaching and learning. On analysis, technologies are effective towards this course as they help to visualize information effectively and interestingly. Technology also improves cooperation and enhanced correspondence between a teacher and a student leading to improved teaching practice. This is effective in situations of unilateral communication where implementing multimedia can be beneficial to the teaching practice, specifically in dealing with passive students. Students and teachers are also not limited by time and space (Crandall, Ae, & Ellie, 2010). Additionally, strategic use of technology in learning can help students achieve better understanding in their fields of study. This is since technologies ensure diversity in learning as they integrate the use of animations, graphics and texts that create interests in the learning processes (Zin et al., 2010). A study by Manuguerra and Petcoz (2011) established that students are able to learn more effectively when technologies are seamlessly incorporated into their curriculum. Manuguerra and Petcoz (2011) however suggests that the prevalent of sophisticate multimedia systems do not provide as much benefits as anticipated, depending on the methods they use in delivery of the message to students. Indeed, in a survey of educational technologies in Malaysia, Zin et al (2012) found that educational technologies have in actual fact posed some serious challenges to educators because of their complexities, and hence demand much more than the student involvement. Due to this, fear of losing control has been cited as being among the factors leading to resisting the adoption of technologies in teaching (Zin et al., 2010). Resources used by both educators Because of the continued dynamism of technology, teachers need a range of resources to support their teaching practice and to communicate with the students. Generally, the diverse nature of resources implies different resources can be effective for special situations. Resources such as video-recorded lectures can be useful for communicating directly to individual students. This can be used effectively as an online resource when uploaded to the internet for student downloading (Crandall, Ae, & Ellie, 2010). In any case, recent technological advances have brought about tablet PCs such as iPad, which have facilitated the teaching methods, by taking into consideration general student needs as well as being sensitive to their individual student needs. As a useful information resource, iPad can be used to motivate, inspire and engage student using high level communication and presentation tools. The benefits of audio recordings have also been suggested by Manuguerra and Petcoz (2011). A key shortcoming of this resource however is that students who use audio recordings are in some way disadvantaged as they are not able to view teaching aids such as formulas, graphs, tables, graphics and presentations generated during lecture. Recording videos of lectures that can be streamed online for student downloading offer much more benefits compared to audio recordings. Manuguerra and Petcoz (2011) argues that in some instances however, the possibility of having video is limited to a small number of lectures that take place in larger lecture theatres. The researcher however reiterated that using tablet PCs or an iPad can be effective for teaching in such situations as they allow an educator to write directly on the screen before recording complete lecture-visuals in addition to the audio. With the recorded video and audio resources, distance students are able to learn from the recorded content in almost a similar way as those attending the lecture. Further, a range of apps used in iPads allow educators to attach notes, handwrite and insert images or even make recordings onto student notes. Additionally, assignments can be submitted through online educational programs such as online course management system or emails and returned directly using such resources (Crandall et al. 2010). Such kinds of apps allow collaborative marking systems, where files hosted on shared network drive can be accessed and attended to by other educators from their tablets or computers (Manuguerra & Petcoz, 2011). Interactive learning process A growing body of evidence suggests the significance of increased level of interactivity ensuring improved learning during individual, group or class learning activity. This comprises a shift from using ICT principally as a tool, participant of object in interaction to application of ICT as a dominant tool for promoting interaction (Beauchamp & Kennewell, 2010). Based on this background, a key function of ICT is in promotion of interactivity, or the capacity to respond dependent on the actions of the learner (Beauchamp & Kennewell, 2010). Critical to the type of and effectiveness of interactivity is the teacher-learner relationship. This is in addition to the capacity to provide a framework useful for action taking during the learning process. An analysis by Beauchamp and Kennewell (2010) showed that elements of orchestration can be used to examine the capacity of ICT to effectively contribute to the efficacy of interaction. Further analysis showed that activity with ICT, different from tasks that used non-ICT resources in the technology, also played a role in promoting orchestration, in addition to that of the student and teacher. For the learning process to be more interactive, the interactivity model suggests that there is a need to develop dialogic, synergistic and dialectic interaction software for group learning with feature that can promote contributions from each member of the group. In any case, Beauchamp and Kennewell (2010) argue that current developments in the logical and physical designing of resources web-based simulations that support collaborative interactions remove the peculiarity between interaction in the group and interacting with ICT. Conclusion Information technology has affected teaching practices and the resources used by learners and educators. In addition, they have made learning more interactive. Technology has helped inspire creativity leading to improved dissemination of knowledge to students. Resources such as video-recorded lectures can also be useful for communicating directly to individual students. For instance, recent technological advances have resulted to innovations such as iPad, which have facilitated the teaching methods, by taking into consideration general student needs as well as being sensitive to their individual student needs. These lead to improved learning practice. For the learning process to be more interactive, the interactivity model suggests that there is a need to develop dialogic, synergistic and dialectic interaction software for group learning with feature that can promote contributions from each member of the group. Based on this background, it is critical to understand that the impact of Information Technology on teaching practice is two-sided, and can either be beneficial or detrimental to teaching practice depending on the readiness of teachers to use them. The effectiveness of technology in classroom use is therefore dependent on teacher confidence and competence in using ICT. In any case, while there is a general consensus that multimedia technologies has assist in exploration of ideas as learning instruments, there is a need for further empirical studies on its real impacts. References Beauchamp, G. & Kennewell, S. (2009). Interactivity in the classroom and its impact on learning. Computers & Education 54, 759–766 Crandall, J. Ae, K. & Ellie, S. (2010). The Impact of It: Pedagogical Perspectives In University Education Settings. Journal of International Business Research, suppl. 1(9), 23-31. Manuguerra, M. & Petocz, P. (2011). Promoting Student Engagement by Integrating New Technology into Tertiary Education: The Role of the iPad. Asian Social Science 7(11), 61-65 Zin, M., Syahiran, M., Bhari, A., Sulaiman, R., Rahman, A., Mahdi, F & Jamain, M (2012). Education Quality Enhancement via Multimedia Technology. Asian Social Science 8(10), 103-108 Yaw, N. & Enguah, S. (2012). Use of Information & Communication Technology (ICT) in Tertiary Education in Ghana: A Case Study of Electronic Learning (E-Learning). International Journal of Information and Communication Technology Research 2(1), 62-67 Read More