Modern technology (ICT) in the classroom
Connor R.
United Kingdom
New Technologies
Katherine and Michaela
Australia
New Technology
Kirullus
Australia
New Technology
Nick F.
United Kingdom
New technologies
Josie, Bronwyn, Jess, Tiggy, Georgia & Alex
Australia
'What new opportunities does technology bring for learning?'
Marie and Bethany
UK
New Technology
Crystal, Natasha and Ruchka
Australia
New Technology
Manjot J and Ziya
Australia
Modern technology (ICT) in the classroom
Connor R.
Year 9
The Forest Boys School
England, United Kingdom
Technology has been the highlight of this era. Generally, technology is associated with the computer; in the richest countries most people possess one and the invention has advanced hugely in recent years. They have provided a vista of opportunity, a portal to the world and one of the leading technological materials for communication.
Surprisingly, the child use of mobile phones has created much controversy, scepticism and general inquisition due to the suspected radiation danger, cost and vulnerability to damage or even theft. However, the computer has quietly slipped into the hands of millions of children, despite the huge risk of inappropriate material being viewed or used, the hazard of viruses, loss of important data or the feared unsociability amongst the susceptible. Let’s not even discuss the cost.
Nowadays, it is expected that applicants for most jobs are IT-literate. Students are taught the subject, take a GCSE and there is even speculation about it becoming a core subject in many educational institutions. DfES (Department for Education and Skills) issues packs for all subjects to include ICT, the government standards body even offers lesson plans and teacher references for download. It is incredible how widely recognised ICT is. In many schools computers are used even in the main subjects where, for decades, pen and paper has been the norm.
This is an interesting concept, computers in schools. However, technology is still progressing; new graphics cards, dual core processors, highly detailed LCDs, even talk of 24mb broadband being essential in the future for many programs. Am I implying computers in schools will have to be updated constantly? Absolutely not - the internet and basic documents, a small HD and a prehistoric processor does the trick. In my school the computers are 566 MHz each. It’s pathetic. Then technicians try to overload it with freebie security programs, documents and system optimisers. They encourage the use of Windows 97 Office and praise the Windows 95 OS. If students were given cheap laptops, (hopefully slightly better than the $100 laptop being built currently by optimistic Greek-American computer scientist, Nicholas Negroponte, for third world children - if schools are generous enough!), they wouldn’t use them for cramming with rubbish. Students would use the internet, word processing and other simple tasks. And then the second computer, of which most children have lying around at home, can be used for those informal occasions.
It will be a slow, expensive and laborious process for schools, nonetheless it is somewhat inevitable. If each student had their own laptop, there would be hardware and software problems to address, vandalism, inappropriate material accessing, lack of concentration in class, amongst many other dilemmas, including the simple newbie to the complex computing world.
The first step will, of course, be financial. Browsing the web I found myself simply astonished. Knowing this country’s standard, schools would opt for a second-hand, old OS, low specs computer, preferably in bulk, costing from around £50 each. A system would probably be devised whereby the pupils of the next year to enter a school will receive a laptop, and laptops will be brought for the next four years until every pupil has one. It would be essential that the students leaving the school hand their laptops to the year starting, following a clean format presumably. Let’s say the year contains 200 pupils, it would cost the school £10,000 a year for five years, totalling £50,000. Add any other expenses and the grand total would be around £55,000-£60,000. This is superb. The laptops would last around 10 years, meaning that around 2,000 pupils would have had their own laptop every day. Learning would improve dramatically through research and speed of typing, exam results would increase. This would be more of an investment than expenditure.
What a great opportunity this era of technology has brought. Now let’s investigate the downside to this concept. Spelling and handwriting skills would lack in children; they wouldn’t ever need to write again. This would provide a problem when the test comes, would the examiner be able to read the handwriting? Or would it be illegible, full of mistakes and crossings out? The teacher would have trouble marking; work could just be copied from the internet, the word processing program would auto-correct spelling mistakes, the computer would recognise sentence problems. Ultimately, everybody’s work would be identical. Does this one problem outweigh the advantages of having ICT in the classroom? A student would believe not (it would be easy for the pupil to research and learn), the government and headteachers would believe not (they would get great exam results for the country, the statistics would look good) and teachers will have no trouble marking. However, I believe we must be sceptical of this modernisation of the system.
New Technologies
Katherine and Michaela
Both 11 years
Overnewton Anglican Community College
Melbourne, Australia
Powerpoint
New Technology
Kirullus
13 years
Overnewton Anglican Community College
Melbourne, Australia
New technology increases the likelihood that every student in Australia or world-wide can learn better. Technology gives opportunities to every student, no matter which subject he or she enjoys. New technology includes USBs, laptops, internet, and iPods.
Computers
Computers throughout the past two decades have been used excessively in industries such as engineering. A student who really hates work or learning can be inspired by a computer and its programs. An example would be Bill Gates. He didn’t continue school, however he loved computers, so he concentrated on them exclusively and he made the most commonly used programs in the world, and they are Microsoft Word and Microsoft Windows. Bill Gates is now the richest man in the world because he had maintained confidence and his conscience told him to try his hardest. Everyone should take this as one of the greatest examples ever.
Computers also assist students with learning at home. Laptops which are known as notebooks are computers, except they are portable. This also encourages students to do work at home, or wherever they want to do work. This makes work more relaxing and convenient.
USBs
The USB is one of the latest technologies. USBs are mainly used for work storage. They come in many varieties. There’s the 128mb, that is 88 floppy disks, 256 mb, that is 176 floppy disks, and so on. They are usually finger size - that’s what makes them unique and why people buy them. These little finger size memory sticks also encourage people to get involved with technology and start to make read articles about it in newspapers, and many more things. Memory sticks help people save their work and access work faster. They also help you to save a greater amount of work, so you can complete school work and so you don’t get in trouble.
iPods
iPods are one of these USBs, except they are used in music and work. The iPods are the same as MP3s, except larger in size and capacity. The variety of sizes they come in are 2gb, 4gb, and 30gb and 60gb. They can be used as external hard drives for your computer or for music that can assist students into doing a course for music in a university. Apart from saving music, how can an iPod assist learning? The iPod also can be used as an external hard drive for computers and for work, so it’s a USB, except it has a larger amount of memory. iPods also are used to transfer work or programs.
Internet
The internet is a line that allows you to access websites to gain information. This gives students opportunities to do excellent projects because of research. Many students can type up something they are interested in and they gain information as quickly as possible. The information that we download is often the latest, so we are able to read up-to-date facts. This is the new way of learning and many people purchase this line for work, to talk to their friends and socialise, instead of using the phone and for emailing work or anything else. The internet comes in many varieties: there is dial up, broadband and wireless internet. The internet can also be used for downloading programs, games, and so on, however when you are downloading, you can download a virus.
Finally, we can see how technology makes an effect on learning. Lots of devices help us to access the latest information from all over the world. We can store lots more information, like music and graphics. We can socialise with people from around the world
New technology
Nick F.
Year 9
The Forest Boys School
England, United Kingdom
Synopsis: This essay shows how new technology is used to help/change learning in the classroom.
The use of ICT (information communication technology) is increasing, with computers becoming used ubiquitously. ICT has closed numerous jobs but has also opened many. ICT use has also grown in schools across the world, and has brought many new opportunities.
Hardware like interactive whiteboards and student laptops are used in schools. There are many benefits from using ICT in schools, some examples include the following:
• students have more control over their learning, greater access to resources;
• easier to teach pupils, powerful aid to learning;
• assists individual learning needs; and,
• especially helpful for the lesser able, for example, those with dyslexia.
Student laptops and other hardware provide more control and independence over your learning, as well as providing a large variety of resources. Laptops provide this by being able to connect to the internet to find out information, pictures, graphs, and so on. Furthermore it provides a large variety of programs (software) that a pupil can use.
Student laptops and interactive whiteboards present a powerful and descriptive aid to teaching. Teachers can save and open documents when they want to, and are able to use a variety of software and hardware, and create a small network to send and receive information between different teachers/pupils.
Technology assists individual learning needs, such as what type of learners pupils are. They can use the PC/laptop to suit them and their personal learning style. Most people’s learning styles can be recognised by their actions on a PC/laptop and the software they use. Some main learning types are:
• kinesthetic: they learn best through a hands-on approach;
• auditory: they learn best through verbal lectures, discussions, talking things through and listening to what others have to say; and,
• visual: these learners need to see the teacher's body language and facial expression to fully understand the content of a lesson.
This new technology has been found to be especially useful when teaching lesser able pupils, such as dyslexic pupils. Research shows that most dyslexic pupils are kinesthetic learners, which is why dyslexic people learn a lot from PCs/laptops.
There are disadvantages, such as the hardware and software costs quite a lot. Training for the teachers will cost money. The technology can remove verbal communication between the teachers and pupils, which can be detrimental, especially for learners whose learning style is auditory or visual.
Overall, technology is proving to be a very useful method for both pupils and teachers for teaching and learning and there are many benefits for using this technology in classrooms.
New technologies
Josie, Bronwyn, Jess, Tiggy, Georgia & Alex
Year 6
Ravenswood School for Girls
New South Wales, Australia
See our website presentation at: http://rlc.ravenswood.nsw.edu.au/ntl/index.html
What new opportunities does technology bring for learning?
Marie and Bethany
Year 8
Ossetts School
West Yorkshire, UK
View their powerpoint on the at http://www.ossettschool.co.uk/ossett_web
New Technology
Crystal, Natasha and Ruchka
All 12 years
Overnewton Anglican Community College
Melbourne
Australia
To view their powerpoint Click
New Technology
Manjot J. and Ziya
Both 12 years
Overnewton Anglican Community College
Melbourne
Australia
To view their powerpoint Click
Here
