Information and Communications Technology - Essay Example

The Current Learning Methods and Advantages of ICT in Based es and Section # of Information and Communications Technology is the term concerned with the management of computer systems in a way so that it facilitates the handling of information and the excessive use of communication through wires for the transmittal of important information. This term has greatly affected the learning of subject=based lessons. The overall impact is that schools are integrating ICT on a wider scale through blogs, installing LAN facility and setting email account of teachers. Teachers themselves are using databases to upload marks, using expert advice through emails and designing interactive quizzes and games. Students themselves find it convenient to use ICT to learn rather than traditionally attending lessons. Moreover, developments in ICT like the virtual field trip are also highly appreciated and are enhancing the learning of students in subject based lessons. WHAT IS ICT Information Technology is a revolution of contemporary times. It is a concept, a term which has changed the way this world functions and integrates itself into one unit. Defining information technology is a complex task because it encompasses so many things and its scope is so huge that it is difficult to simplify and state. If we try to define information technology in a very comprehensive and compact way, we can say that it is concerned with everything regarding computer-based information systems, especially with the software and hardware that are used to help them function. The software applications and computer hardware that are used to support all these computer systems form a major part of this study. Moreover, whether we think of the study, their design, their further development, the implementation and use, them being support systems in many fields or their effective management, it all lies in the term information technology. Information is the most valuable intangible asset that can be possessed by an individual, a team or a big corporation. Information technology is that revolution in science which allows for this information to be safely kept by these people. It deals and places high importance on the efficient and effective use of this information through helping its conversion, proper storage, first-class protection, relevant processing depending on the type of information, its transmittal to the correct person and timely retrieval. It does all these steps ensuring and making the information's security its top priority. Our research paper has its topic "Advantages of ICT". ICT stands for Information and Communications Technology. This term has replaced the term "Information Technology" further broadening the term so that it inculcates in itself the concept of communication which is growing and expanding its wings with an accelerating speed. Communication has become electronic, facilitating its happenings through two computers, connecting two people through wireless connections and bringing the whole world closer. Another substitute for the term is IT & T, which stands for Information Technology and Telecommunication. Communication through these computer-based information systems has become widely popular and this resulted in the integration of the term "Communications" or "Telecommunications" with "Information Technology". In modern times, this term has widened in its scope like anything. It focuses on so many various aspects of computing, technology and communication through technology. Therefore, many fields lie under the umbrella of Information and Communications Technology. Because of its wide scope, people who are IT specialists can be known to be specialists in many things at once. INTRODUCTION TO RESEARCH QUESTION Information communications and technology is a technology that can be very effectively used in the field of education. Its advantages are numerous is it is applied in the right context and in the right way. Our research is basically to find the effects of using ICT in subject-based classes. Subject-based classes are those in which the teacher focuses on a single subject for example, the teacher will put all their energies in enlightening and transferring the knowledge of just one particular subject. It will be just Mathematics, Art, History or Biology. Basically, we want to find the impact of ICT on the teacher, the pupil and their learning experience as a whole. ICT BEING INTEGRATED INTO SUBJECTS WITHIN SCHOOLS Information and communication technologies are being increasingly integrated into the premises of the schools for the purpose of fully imparting quality education. Day by day, schools are realizing the heightened importance of ICT and the important role it can play in enhancing the educational matter that is imparted by teachers. Not just that, he management of the school also realizes that making the school an ICT friendly place would allow for more interaction between the students and therefore, more of social mixing as well as networking. These informal networks are always healthy for a school as they allow for a spirit to develop, which helps students in identifying with each other when they are up against a rival in a game of football or a competition of cheerleading. But the first thing that the schools want to extract out of ICT being integrated in the schools is the efficient imparting of knowledge when it comes to subject-based classes. Firstly, through using literature from newspaper articles as well as Internet articles, we got to know that it is the management of the school which initiates the effective use of ICT in the classroom. On a school level, it opens up computer labs and allows the free usage of every student and teacher on these computers at any hour of the day, keeping in mind the school timings. The computers should also have a LAN facility which will allow those few computers in the school to be connected as well and their access to the World Wide Web will also be open. This will ensure that students and teachers have uninterrupted access to the Internet and there they can actually search for whatever material they find difficult and incomprehensible. The internet is a vast unending array of information. If effectively searched, it can give students the exact material on every subject they need, which will help to clarify their misconceptions and enhance their clarity. Moreover, if effectively searched by the teachers, it can give them interesting tips and tricks to teach a particular subject, whether it is Mathematics or Geography. When the books and journals were studied related to the proposal question, we got to know that the trend towards setting up blogs on a school wide level is gaining popularity. These blogs allow for additional support for the students if they are having any problems in their subjects, gives them ideas on how to go about a particular problem/ sum/ case study in their subject and further provides them links for other pages on the Internet where they can search for even better material. Knowing the right page to access for your particular subject is the major thing and blogs help in the sharing of these links as some one person might have the idea about that link and you might not. Therefore, implementing blogs on a school wide level will surely enhance the understanding of various subjects. When the personal experiences of the teachers, students and the management of the school was asked in the placement schools, we got to know that the schools are providing for smart boards and power point projectors to the teachers for allowing them to better enhance the subject's understanding in the mind of the student. Moreover, schools have set up teacher email accounts through which the students can interact with the teacher online and ask them for any problems as well as email them the assignments made or the reports done. The students are expected to follow certain guidelines for emailing their work and communicating with the teacher, so that this set up is not misused. TEACHERS INCORPORATING ICT AS A LEARNING AID IN THEIR SUBJECTS Teachers worldwide are increasingly relying on the use of ICT in their classes to teach certain subjects as these enhance the understanding of the student. They want to incorporate ICT as a learning aid along with their years of expertise, knowledge and experience when it comes to the particular subject. When literature from newspaper articles and internet articles was studied, we got to know that teachers are using computer software systems to develop and design interactive quizzes and games, which have a hidden motive of gauging the understanding of the student regarding the subject. The software allows for the easy making of these mind boggling quizzes and require no hassle on the part of the teacher. Moreover, giving student games to play, which are also helping with the learning of the subject, is also a very intelligent way of using ICT. In this way, ICT also gets used and students enjoy learning the subject. Moreover, the reading of these articles conveyed that the teachers are putting up websites which are specifically for the subject that they are teaching. In these web pages, the teacher uploads all the lectures that they give in the class, whether in the form of an MS Word document or in MS PowerPoint slides. In this way, if any student has missed a lecture, they can go to this website and download the specific day's lecture. Furthermore, the teacher can also take queries and listen to the problems of the students who are shy enough to approach them personally. This website would be specifically for that particular subject and for that specific class that the teacher is teaching. Therefore, it will provide a homely and known atmosphere to the student. When books and journals related to the proposal question were studied, they showed that teachers are using the email facility very efficiently. They are doing exercises where they ask the students to design as many questions as possible regarding the subject. They should be intelligent and well formulated. Then the teacher reads them and shortlists those to only five questions. These five questions are then sent to experts in the field who then answer them and communicate and email back to the students. Each student receives this email in their inbox and this gives them a sense of achievement as they just interacted with an expert in the field and allows for their better understanding. When teachers were personally interviewed in placement schools, we got to know from them that basically they use the PowerPoint presentation and the smart boards to help students learn better. Moreover, they also enter the test results into the MS Excel spreadsheet for all the students and the whole department to see. This way, there is better communication of results and each student does not personally have to attend to the teacher to get to know their marks. Furthermore, the teachers are encouraging the use of research through computers. This research can be done through online searching for the topic. Many teachers also feel that the classroom management is not changing when it comes to the incorporation of ICT in the classroom learning. They feel that managing the classroom is a responsibility of the chemistry between students and teachers. Therefore, computer related resources should not be thought to affect classroom management. The problems that they say are encountered while using ICT are that students rely too much on the spell checker feature integrated in the MS Word application. Another problem is that reliability on computer equipment can sometimes be low because often the equipment stops working due to reasons which are unsolvable by the layman of computer technology. ICT HELPING TO IMPROVE PUPIL'S LEARNING In recent times, there has been a diffusion of technology in the field of education and this is all due to the rapid growth of information and communications technology. This is the Information Age and using technology to support learning has become a necessity so as to make every student an information-smart person. This age requires that every student be intelligent enough to effectively differentiate good data from bad data, useful knowledge from irrelevant knowledge, and priceless information from worthless information. The ability to differentiate between all these types of elements is an essential quality which is being increasingly attempted to be infused in the student of today. Moreover, providing students with computers at home is the first step in taking them towards better understanding of their subject. Easy access at home will allow students to feel confident that they actually have many resources available at home for understanding the subject. It decreases the dependency of the student on the teacher. As studied in the newspaper as well as Internet articles, we found that today's generation of students are the social and networking generation. They are increasingly relying on ICT to supplement their learning and enhance their understanding. The only factor that students want to be provided to them is easy, unrestricted and free use of the Internet. They can themselves carry this use of ICT forward to their very advantage. Moreover, the students are happy to use ICT as an aid to learning as this generation has been born surrounded by information technology. They have the techniques and the skills to handle the computers like no other generation does. They will therefore be extremely pleased to find this technology diffusing in the learning of things and in the acquiring of education. When we go through books and journals which are related and based on our research question, we get to know that students feel that ICT has made learning more convenient for them. It has decreased the barriers and ways in which a student can acquire the knowledge of that class. The students feel that ICT is the perfect supplement to the traditional way of teaching that is face to face teaching. In the accelerating speed that ICT is affecting the lives of the students and their learning of every subject, it can be very rightly said that it would not be a surprise if ICT replaces traditional teaching in the next era or so. The students are very much inclined and in favour of using technology to supplement the teaching of teachers and the researching of material which often has to be done to do assignments and term reports or to complement and verify their understanding of the subject. The journals and books which have information regarding our research proposal have also shown us many facts. One of them is that students do not find learning easier with information technology; they find it way more convenient. They find it approachable and easy to deal with and handle. Moreover, students who are trying to find admission in universities and under-graduate schools are trying to find IT provisions and the availability of the IT infrastructure has become a must in the university that they chose to go to. In terms of the personal interviews taken by students of placement schools, we found that they use ICT to organize their knowledge into PowerPoint presentations, which brings it in the form of bulleted points and allows for easy recall of the major point in a certain heading or topic. Moreover, ICT helps students work better when they have been organized as groups by their teachers because it helps in interaction even if the group is sitting at their homes. IMPACT OF DEVELOPMENTS IN TECHNOLOGY ON SUBJECT BASED LESSONS Developments are an ongoing process in the field of information and communications technology. It never stops. People keep on finding new ways of molding technology and using them for their further benefit. Likewise, the developments in technology can put a very great impact on the field of education and specifically the learning of subject based lessons. The most important resource for finding about the developments in technology was the newspaper and Internet articles. They provided up to the date information and focused on recent findings. Among these findings, there was the description of "the virtual field trip" which is a major development of ICT. In the virtual field trip, you take students to different places but through the computer screen only. For example, in a History subject class, students can be made to travel through different historical places and along with that, a narration can be accompanied which will describe all the places being visited. This will ensure their complete understanding as this time they will have virtually "visited" the places themselves. This has overcome the barriers of distance and the hectic management of a physical field trip. Another advancement and development is the Global Positioning Systems (GPS), which are basically remote databases connected to laptops worldwide and which allow for the easy access of all students to access these databases. They have automatic logging devices attached to them which make it easier for any person authorized to do so to enter relevant information. This information is then available for use by any student further enhancing their knowledge and giving them the confidence of the availability of such a large database on their disposal and their use. Students and teachers are now easily exchanging information with each other at the click of a mouse or the pressing of a button. And this increased interaction and the development of the student teacher relationship has effectively increased the education and understanding span of the students and the teachers also feel like they are doing a good job as they are now free of the hassles of doing all the register keeping. All the database and record maintenance is done by the computers and therefore teachers are free to utilize their energies in better imparting knowledge. According to books and journals based on our research question, video conferencing is a new development which is getting increasingly popular by the minute. This popularity has enhanced its use as a learning aid as video conferencing has opened the gateway of communication between two students. They can now talk to each other, discuss ideas and exchange important and useful links. Moreover, web cameras and camcorders can also be used for this same purpose: that is exchange of ideas and information between students. This interaction allows for healthy development of students as learners and gives them ways to learn better. Moreover, word processors and spreadsheets can be used in ways that people cannot even imagine. For example, maps, images and movies can be copied from the web and pasted onto the word processors and then decorated and highlighted likewise. This will allow for better recall by the students When we personally interviewed the management, students and teachers in placement schools, we got to know that the developments of ICT like electronic worksheets are putting a great impact on their learning. These worksheets make learning fun, easy and enjoyable. Electronic worksheets demand students to fill in the missing blanks, facts and figures. These also provide a whole range of exciting online resources for the student to explore and then learn from. This is a major development in classroom activities. Bibliography T.A. Goodison. 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