Thursday, December 6, 2007

ICT Research Summary

“The use of Information and Communication Technology in education would enhance human capacity, dynamize the teaching/learning environment, provide equity & access and, develop a responsible individual capable of functioning in a technology driven, knowledge- based society.” (Ministry of Education & ICT Policy 2005).

Information and Communication Technology

“The Ministry of Education recognizes that the use of Information and Communicative Technology is critical to the transformation of the society to ultimately meet the unusual requirements of an ever-changing global environment. It considers ICT as a means not an end in itself.”

(Ministry of Education Draft policy paper on ICT, 2005)

Introduction

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is an umbrella term that covers any product that will store, retrieve, manipulate, transmit or receive information electronically in a digital form. They range from personal computers, digital televisions and e-mails to robots. “There is no universally accepted definition of ICT because the concepts, methods and applications involved in ICT are constantly evolving on an almost daily basis.” According to the tutor 2 U website “it’s difficult to keep up with the changes-they happen so fast.” In the Educational Field “ICT are the computing and communications facilities and features that variously support teaching, learning and a range of activities in education” (Kent County Council 2004).

“ICT has become the buzz word of the 21st century”, (Ministry of Education policy on ICT 2005). It is regarded as a driver and enabler of economic development (Ssewanyana & Busler 2007). According to Ssewanyana & Busler (2007) globally in the year 2000, 539 million computers were being used which was projected to grow to one billion by the year 2005. Similarly the Internet users were 315 million in 2000 and the numbers were estimated to grow to 716 million users by 2005.

The incorporation of ICT into the Educational Curriculum has promoted a key step in bridging the digital drive. Globally, there has been a movement to incorporate ICT into all disciplines in what can only be described as a paradigm shift in the education system.

In Trinidad and Tobago the Ministry of Education as part of its vision 2020 statement, is attempting “to be the premier institution leading and transforming education through ICT” and is attempting to provide ICT recourses to all schools in the country.

“The Ministry recognizes that the use of ICT is critical to the transformation of the society to ultimately meet the universal requirements of an ever-changing global environment. It considers “ICT as a means, not as an end in itself,” (Ministry of Education 2005).

The Ministry further reiterates that ICT is a vehicle for providing educational opportunities for all and points the way forward by developing our students into critical thinkers, problem solvers and life long learners using ICT as the vehicle. This essay visits the implications of integrating ICT to support students learning, for teaching science and for educational policy.

Implications

Although the Ministry’s vision is clear and policy document are in place to introduce ICT in all schools in Trinidad and Tobago the reality of what is done in the schools and in classrooms is somewhat different. At St. Mary’s college, the context is very different from the Ministry’s goal in which ICT is not widely used to promote learning. Facilities are generally lacking and are limited to the subject area of Computer Studies. Restrictions are in place with respect to the computer facilities and teachers wishing to use them must give priority to the ICT department to conduct their classes which is usually booked for the entire day. Little or no integration of ICT into other disciplines is done except for the “elaborate whiteboard” of power point presentations when the projector is available. The pedagogy that prevails tends to be the dissemination of information that is didactic, authoritarian and non-discursive with little room for autonomous learning or development of critical thinking skills. This “sage on the stage” mentality has worked for this “prestige institution” since the results of high stakes examination are favorable with students gaining entries into many prestige Universities world wide.

The lack of ICT resources is one problem, but staff training in the use of ICT is another issue. Similarities with this school and studies done in Kenya are duly noted. “An absence of educational software was found, as was a lack of Internet access and use of e-mail. Some 35-40% of secondary school teachers have never used a computer.”(Wims & Lawer, 2007).

The incorporation of ICT, it is envisaged, will revolutionize the education system; however, it comes with a price, changes will need to be made. Two key changes must be the movement of students from being passive receptors to active learners and changes in the roles of teachers from being a “sage on the stage” to a “guide on the side”, or a facilitator. An old adage states: “tell me and I forget, show me and I remember, involve me and I understand”. Students need to take charge of their learning and get involved in their learning which is facilitated by using ICT.

An important tenet of ICT is student centeredness. Mc Combs &. Whisler (1997) advocates that student centered learning is “the perspective that couples a focus of individual learners (their heredity, experiences, perspectives, backgrounds, talents, interests, capacities and needs) with a focus on learning (the best available knowledge about learning and how it occurs) and about teaching practices that are most effective in promoting the highest levels of motivation, learning and achievement for all learners”.

Consider a student centered lesson that is being taught in Chemistry, where students utilize a web quest to build on their knowledge base in an inquiry curriculum. Student centeredness focuses on the cognitivist approach where there is active knowledge construction. “Within this is the concept of constructivism whereby a person learns by constructing his or her interpretations by combining new information with previous experiences” (Hensen 2003). This concept of constructivism is ideal when ICT is incorporated into lessons. Students can be observed working individually, or in small groups while solving a particular problem while the teacher acts as a facilitator and guide while the students control their learning. They work together to reach a common goal by sharing skills, ideas and experiences, and by supporting each other. They also received feedback and constructive criticisms from the teacher which is linked to real-life experiences. Therefore, learning is better achieved since the subject content, pedagogy, challenges and criticisms become relevant to the student.

Implications for teaching Science

The scientific enterprise is dynamic and has it roots grounded in empirical data. In schools, experimental recipes are used which presents little or no challenge to the mind. It is the meaning and interpretation of this empirical data that stimulate the thought process. ICT is an important vehicle that can be use to assist in the interpretation of empirical data. Low order thinking skills are initially involved in executing experimental procedures but higher order thinking skills are facilitated using ICT to interpret and generate meaning from the data. ICT is therefore an important cognitive tool. Jonassen (1994) argues that “technologies from the ecological perspective of Gibson (1979), affords the most meaningful thinking when used as a tool.”

“It promotes higher order thinking skills, such as complex cognitive learning activities and critical thinking. These tools are learner controlled in the sense that students construct their knowledge using tools rather than memorizing knowledge”. Jonassen (1996) further advocates that when students learn with technology, it becomes a “mind tool”. He defines mind tools as “computer – based tools and learning environments that have been adapted or developed to function as intellectual partners with the learner in order to engage and facilitate critical thinking and higher order learning.” According to Kim and Reeves (2007), Jonassen and Carr (2003) suggest the following as mind tools; semantic organization tools such as in concept mapping, dynamic modeling tools such as spread sheets; visualization tools such as Chemlab; knowledge construction tools as in multimedia authoring tools, and finally socially shared cognitive tools such as computer – supported collaborative arguments.

In science, students are expected to develop hypothesis, interpret graphical data and generate questions of a creative nature. This is coherent with higher order skills in which students develop factual, procedural, conceptual and meta-cognitive knowledge within the creative and critical domain. In keeping with the constructivist perspective “students are learning with computers and not from them”. Jonassen (2007), advocates that “learners function as designers, using the technology as tools for analyzing the world, accessing information, interpreting and organizing their personal knowledge and representing what they know to others”. He further reiterates quoting the words of Kommers, Jonassen and Meyers (1992) and Derry (1990) that “cognitive tools are generalizable computer tools that are intended to engage and facilitate cognitive processing. Cognitive tools are both mental and computational devices that support, guide and extend the thinking processes of their users. They are knowledge construction and facilitation tools that can be applied to a variety of subject matter domains”.

This inter-disciplinary nature of Jonassen's “cognitive tools” is evidently lacking in the context in which I operate. Teachers, apart from lacking experience with ICT envision it as a completely independent discipline reserved for use by ICT teachers in their subject area. What is evidently lacking is that teachers are unaware of the benefits that can be derived from the use of ICT as a cognitive tool.

Jonassen (2007) in his rationale for using technology as a cognitive tool presents eight major reasons. Firstly, he identifies “designers as learners” in which he explains that designers learn the most from the design and development of instructional materials. The process of articulating their knowledge about the domain of instructional design forces them to reflect on their knowledge in a new and meaningful way. He further explains that while designing and constructing materials designers of educational communications enable designers to understand the subjects they are teaching more deeply than the learners whose thinking will be constrained and controlled by the materials they are developing.

Secondly, Jonassen presents “learners as designers”, in which he explicates the term, “mindful” engagement. Thinking results when students try to represent what they know, which he emphasizes is embedded in the tasks and functional requirements of cognitive tools. Cognitive tools require students to think mindfully in order to use the applications to represent what they know. Catalyzing this thought process is the access to a set of intellectual tools to help assemble knowledge. He purports that “students should use technologies as tools, not as tutors or repositories of information”.

Jonassen’s third justification for using technology as cognitive tools is to promote “learners as thinkers”. Cognitive tools and environments activate cognitive learning strategies and critical thinking. They are tools that complement and extend the mind which engages students in “generative processing of information” (Wittrock (1974) quoted by Jonassen (2007)). This he emphasizes involves the activation of appropriate “mental modes, using new information, assimilating new information back into models, recognizing the models in light of the newly interpreted information and then using these newly aggrandized models to explain, interpret, or infer new knowledge” (Rumelhart and Norman,1978).

Knowledge acquisition is a constructive process in which cognitive tools, allow learners to engage in knowledge construction rather than knowledge reproduction. A typical example of learners as thinkers is the task of developing database in which students are involved in constructing their own conceptualization of the organization of a content domain. Cognitive tools provide an environment for learners to think while generating thoughts that would be impossible without the tools. They are what is described as “cognitive reflection and amplification tools that help learners to construct their own realities using the constructs and processes in the environment on a new content domain” (Jonassen, 2007).

Jonassen (1991) emphasizes that “learning theory is in the midst of another revolution”. This paradigm shift has occurred since then to constructivism. Constructivists claim that we construct our own realities through interpreting experiences in the world. Learners are therefore able to comprehend a variety of interpretation including those delivered by technologies resulting in ones own interpretation of the world, leading to independent worldviews. Computer simulated inquiry based learning allows for students to construct their own knowledge through inquiry. Here, the mind filters inputs from the world, instead of having the teacher interpret the world for them. In constructive environment learners are therefore actively engaged in interpreting the external world and reflecting on their interpretations.

Among the justification for technology as cognitive tools is the concept of learning with technology. It is suggested that on intellectual partnership is developed between the learner and the computer in which learning with ICT takes place. Students working with computer technology, instead of being controlled by it, they enhance the capabilities of the computer and the computer enhances their thinking and learning. This is the intellectual partnership advanced by Jonassen in which the whole of the learning becomes greater than the sum of its parts.

Computer systems are powerful catalysts for facilitating skills such as planning, decision-making and self–regulation of learning, which are the responsibilities of the learner and not the computer. Computer systems are not that of a teacher, but rather, that of a mind-extension, facilitating skills if used to promote reflection, discussion and problem solving.

The eight tenet proposed by Jonassen (2007) in his rational for technology as cognitive tools is the distribution of cognitive processing. He advocates that we should assign cognitive responsibilities to the part of the learning system that does it the best, for example, the computer memorizes and recalls information with greater speed and accuracy than humans. However, learners are responsible for recognizing and judging patterns of information and then reorganizing it while computer systems should perform calculations, store and retrieve information. In this way, division of labor is achieved with specialist’s performance and cognitive processes are distributed.

If someone were to ask me, “what is the major barrier responsible for the incorporation of ICT in my classroom, the answer would be myself. This is therefore a forum to allow for introspection and revisiting the role of a teacher in incorporating ICT in teaching. Deficiencies can be attributed directly to a lack of training which needs urgent attention in educational policies. Novak and Berger (1991) concluded “that teacher education did not prepare teacher educators to use technology in their teaching and provided little support on hardware, software or in service training”. "Teachers need to understand the potential of these essential tools, have opportunities to apply the tools, be supported in their exploration and have time to experiment with them”, (Laizen 1995). The implication of this approach means teachers are not only expected to select and create new instructional materials, but to learn how to use the technologies with a learner centered approach to pedagogy (Carrington 1993, Graham 1998 & Laizen 1995).

Hope (1997) advocates that teachers meet with resistance and are engaged in a psychological tug-of-war because school leaders pay little or no attention to their perceptions and the challenges they confront while integrating ICT in their classrooms. Coupled to this facilities are generally lacking and pleading to administration for help distils no reward. The Ministry of Education needs to step in and do there part in ensuring that their vision statement is achieved. This calls for resources, and curriculum reform in which ICT is incorporated into various disciplines.

This is indeed my personal experience in which repeated calls have been made to supply facilities in the department of Chemistry to allow improved instruction practice yet no success after three years have been achieved. This however should not be a deterrent in ones quest for professional development. Teachers need to become proactive and try their utmost best to circumvent the learning environment. When visiting the teachers' perspective on the use of ICT, it is imperative to consider teachers' attitudes, concerns, motivation, the role of the teacher, classroom management, support systems and computer coping strategies.

Clark (2007), quoting the work of Tharp, Fitzsimmons and Ayers (1997), in his research has shown that "teachers who had a spectrum of attitudes such as fear of possible failure because of a lack of knowledge of the technology and skepticism towards technology gradually changed towards an appreciation through classroom experience that convinced them of the positive benefits technology has to offer as a problem solving tool. “A positive attitude in teachers is pivotal so as to encourage and inculcate positive attitudes in students which will reinforce the knowledge gained, acquire understanding of the process and benefits of computer technology” (Senge, 1990) and dispel any negative attitudes.

Teachers concerns about lack of resources and not having up-to-date equipment as well as technological expertise needs urgent attention. In their studies, Novak and Berger (1991) pointed to teacher education programs, emphasizing that they generally did not address the integration of ICT efficiently. This is indeed the dilemma facing teachers in Trinidad and Tobago where teacher education programs is limited to some 120 teachers per year at the University of the West Indies, coupled to which ICT or multimedia incorporation in classrooms is sparsely dealt with. Effectual continuation of an innovation (ICT) results from motivation which inevitably leads to changes in teachers’ attitude. Teachers need a scaffold or support system in integrating ICT in their classrooms. The technology is rapidly escalating in sophistication as it is a formidable task to keep abreast with the changes. This can come from education through mentors as is proposed by Erickson (1995) which he envisaged will facilitate learning in a suitable manner and promote high quality education.

“The role of teachers must change to being a facilitator and mentor in the classroom” (Clark 2007). Teachers are responsible for planning and organizing activities; helping students to access information; processing it and communicating their understandings. This role allows students to become less dependant on their teachers as experts, Dexter et al (1999), quoted by Clark (2007).Classroom management is influenced by instructions which are directly connected to the use of ICT in classrooms. Teachers lack confidence in their computer skills are easily recognized by the behaviors of their teachers that could precipitate into chaotic classrooms.

Noss et al (1990) purport that “a critical barrier to continuing computer usage has been the lack of support from other members of staff (peer support), heads of departments and heads of schools”. These supports are influential and therefore needs immediate and continued attention while teachers are making a concerted effort to utilize the technology. Lack of support is discouraging in an educational setting (Clark (2007) quoted Cooper and Bull (1997) & Noss et al., (1990).

References

Jonassen D. (1994). Technology as Cognitive Tool: Learners and Designers

Jonassen, D. H. (1996). Computers in the Classroom: Mind tools for critical thinking. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prince-Hall, Inc.

Kim and Reeves T. (2007). Reframing research in learning with technology: In search of the meaning of Cognitive tools. Instructional Science, Vol. 35 No. 207-256.

Jonassen, D. H. (2007). Technology as Cognitive Tools: Learners and Designers. IT Forum paper#1.

Kent County Council ( 2004). Retrieved 10th November 2007. www.Kented.org.uk/ngfl/ict/definition.htm.

http://edutechwiki.unige.ch/en/cognitive-tools. Retrieved 14th November 2007.

Clark, P. (2007). Exploring the use of computer technology in a Caribbean context: Views of pre-service teachers. International Journal of Education and development using ICT. Vol.3, No. 1.

No comments: