Saturday, August 25, 2007

CHAPTER 1-ICT AND THE LEARNING PRINCIPLES OF THE SCHOOL CURRICULUM


I’m back again…This is the session where I want to share what I have learned during Miss Chin’s lecture. The input that I manage to process is very useful for me as I’m ‘crawling’ on my journey in becoming a GREAT teacher.
Basically, the general ideas regarding the lecture can be shown as below:
Learning about ICT- Teacher and students develop skills in the potential uses of ICT to support learning.
Learning with ICT- Teacher and students use ICT resources to support the classroom curriculum.
Learning through ICT- Teacher and students use ICT to transform the process of teaching and learning in new ways.


Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) offer a range of educational tools and resources for teacher and students in extending their learning environment. The use of ICT has a great potential to transform classroom teaching and learning into more meaningful process when it is in line with the curriculum. There are a number of specific aims for ICT use as I list them below:


-to enable the child to use a range of ICT tools in a relevant curriculum context.
-to enable the child to develop and use ICT in the attainment of curriculum learning objectives.
-to foster the child’s confidence in his or her use of ICT, through enjoyable learning.
-to develop the child’s understanding and practice of the safe use of ICT
-to enable the child to use ICT to support his or her learning effectively and creatively.


Now, here it comes the fruitful discussion of the role of ICT in supporting the learning principles and how the ICT tools can help to support every dimension of the child’s development in the learning process. I’m so sorry because I will not discuss all the learning principles as stated in the notes. I only select three principles which I find the most appealing to me.
Firstly, I always believe that the child’s knowledge and experience are very important for the teachers to know since they are the base for the teachers to start the instruction. The children use their previous knowledge and experience, relate them to the new information then, construct the new knowledge. This is actually the practice of the constructivism theory. As teachers, we need to be aware of the children’s existing knowledge as it is the starting point for them to grasp the new knowledge. This can be supported by embedding the use of ICT in the learning activities. For instance, internet resources where the children can choose the appropriate sites to answer complex questions such as in the Web Quest. Besides, the combined range of ICT tools enables the teacher and the children to maintain a useful record of each child’s journey from the unknown to the known in the form of electronic portfolio.
Secondly, I feel that that every single individual in this world has their own space in creativity. In one of the learning principle which is the aesthetic dimension of the child needs to be developed by the teachers. Valuing the children’s creative response and expression of their own knowledge and experience is an important of the Primary School Curriculum. ICT provides a room to develop children’s creativity by offering a variety of content-free software tools such as multimedia and art design software. The presentation of their works allows the children to establish their own creative product and ideas. Besides, the activity will boost their confidence in presenting their work and feel good about them.
The third principle that really appeals me is the child as an active agent in his or her own learning. In developing the children’s progress, teacher needs to promote active learning among the children. This means that the child finds, manage, evaluate and use information retrieved from the websites suggested by the teachers. The active involvement in the learning process will somehow teach the children to decide at numerous junctures in the learning experience. It is very important to expose the children regarding decision making so that in the future they will become a better person.
In line with the National Philosophy of Education, the integration of ICT in our curriculum manages the teacher to produce a holistic product in the future. It is just the matter of the teacher or the ‘system’. Just a point to ponder on…..

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