Positive and Negative Impacts of ICT on Education - Essay Example

ICT encompasses a wide variety of audio-visual resources and “combinations of hardware, software and human resources that enable users to achieve more than they could with hardware and software alone, such as the Internet” (Kennewell, 2004, p. 5). These technologies have created new opportunities for students to interact among themselves, with their faculty and with course content inside and outside the classroom. The associated changes in the way in which knowledge is produced and used are of key relevance to education in the twenty-first century (Gibbons, 1998).

Academia has to find ways to maximise the benefits offered by the new technologies. The term blended learning is used to describe a solution that combines different delivery methods. These can be a mix of various event-based activities such as face to face classrooms and online learning (Williams, 2002). However, this does not appear to define blended learning which should be viewed as an opportunity to revisit how courses are developed, scheduled and delivered through a balance of physical and virtual (internet and ICT) instructions, “bricks and clicks” (Bleed, 2001).

Blended courses combine the traditional presentational format and computer based learning opportunities, enabling teachers to employ a variety of instructional techniques. ICT can be used to selectively present case studies, tutorials, self-testing exercises, simulations or other online modules in place of lecture material. As a result, the focus shifts to active learning through discussion and debate. This form of active learning “involves putting our students in situations which compel them to read, speak, listen, think deeply, and write” (Dodge, 2001, p6).

Theories and principles of learning need not be bent to incorporate the effective use of ICT to supplement classroom practice; blending the use of technology into