ICT Current Trends

The purpose of education is to prepare students for the world beyond schooling. This suggests that education reflects the structure of the current society so as to properly equip students with the appropriate skills and knowledge, which will lead them to future success. Therefore, in today’s digital world, it makes sense that technology would play a key role in educating our students.

An example of a new educational technology which has been making waves with its innovative design and functions is the Interactive Whiteboard (IWB), which caters for all type of learning styles (visual, auditory and kinaesthetic). An IWB is essentially a large touch-screen device connected to a projector and desktop computer, and the desktop is projected onto the surface. This device can be used in conjunction with a wirelessly controlled device such as the tablet, which allows the teacher to move about the classroom and engage with the students as opposed to remaining at the front of the classroom for the duration of the lesson as was prescribed with use of the traditional whiteboard (Gage, 2006, p.21).

Another aspect of the IWB that makes it so engaging is the ability for the student to give their opinions interactively via the use of Student Response Systems, a small device on which the students can vote on multiple choice questions and provide their own answers on single response questions within the class. When  making a student makes point in a class discussion and their thoughts are written on the board it makes their given point feel valid(Howell, 2012, p.96). This is why the inclusion of these devices is so powerful to have in today's classrooms.

The Interactive Whiteboard also helps keeps students on task, as the teacher has all the resources they could possibly need at their fingertips, this results in a flowing lesson which doesn’t involve all the stopping and starting which can cause students to lose both interest and focus (Gage, 2006, p.25) . For more on Interactive Whiteboards take a look at the video below:

 

Other digital trends within the educational world include online applications such as Wordle. Wordle gives its user the ability to create a word collage- this can be useful for educational purposes through utilising it to “represent a specific topic and stimulate discussion and debate” (Howell, 2012, p.234).

An example of a wordle word collage

Another online educational trend is Social Networking, which is often referred to as Web 2.0 (Howell, 2012, p. 158).  A large sum of people worldwide are signed up to the Social Networking site, Facebook. When Social Networking began to be included into schooling, people probably couldn’t see how it could be used for educational purposes because they would had only ever used it in a social context. However, it does have a place in the classroom and can be a beneficial teaching tool (Howell, 2012, p.158).

An example of how Social Networking can contribute to the educational environment is the setup of a class Facebook page, this lets teachers share important information with the class at the click of a button. It also acts as a device with which learning can continue outside of the classroom environment, and in addition it allows the shyer students who may not feel comfortable giving their opinions in front of the class the opportunity to share their thoughts and ideas, which as mentioned previously is a very important aspect when it comes to gaining confidence in the classroom.

Refrences:

Howell, J. (2012). Teaching with ICT: Digital Pedagogies for Collaboration and Creativity. Australia: Oxford University Press.

Interactive Whiteboard video [YouTube video] 13 March 2007. [cited 2013,21 May] Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjdNPMZJbLs

Kent, P. (2007, November). Pedagogy before Technology: The pedagogical Underpinning of the Effective Intergration of ICT.

Wordle Collage [image on the internet] 23 May 2011. [cited 2013, 21 May] Available from: http://www.worldlanguagetech.com/?p=150