Introduction | Contexts | Effective ICT
Effective ICT
Effective use of ICT is guided by an understanding of its place, value and appropriateness in the teaching and learning process. Experience guides the user in arriving at this understanding and gives the confidence to go further.
The place of ICT
A key principle underlying the use of ICT is that it should support
learning and not lead it. A linguistic focus must always be maintained
without allowing over-concentration on attractive technology to dominate
the learning process. For example, a topic on Home may be linked to
a view of modern furniture and stylish décor. This could involve research
on the web sites of leading retailers or designers to locate suitable
images for illustration. The pages of multinational companies are often
multi-lingual, thus enabling the learner to access up-to-the-minute
vocabulary, phrases and logos. The task might be to produce a simple
advertising brochure or a photo guide to a dream home. To do this with
minimum technological difficulty pupils can use the wizards in desk
top publishing software. In this case, using the wizards reduces the
ICT load to Web research, copying and pasting images and inserting them
into the finished document. A linguistic focus is maintained without
any loss of appeal in the task itself and ICT enables the learning process
to proceed efficiently without dominating or distorting it.
The value of ICT
Well-used ICT enriches teaching and learning in many ways.
- An interactive whiteboard can be used to make teaching more dynamic and to enhance pupil involvement, especially if a slate or voting software are available.
- Useful advice can be obtained from The Review Project. This project published a CD-ROM, The Good Guide to Interactive Whiteboards, a valuable resource which may be in your school. Download a quick review of the advantages of the interactive whiteboard from this site.
- One great plus for the interactive whiteboard is that you can move between applications and go online and offline as you wish, all of which lends versatility to your teaching. You can also link to sound files and video clips.
- Integration across applications and skills integration are a great plus for learners. Tasks can include Web research, database work, oral presentation and creative writing. For example, a database can be built around web research on hotels in Paris or Barcelona. This can in turn be used for communicative oral tasks and finally a creative text might be prepared for a particular purpose such as, in this case, a leaflet for parents on a hotel that has been chosen for a school weekend trip abroad.
- Multimedia products and multi-sensory work are great attractions of ICT. Text, image, video and sound can all be integrated to create stimulating and varied learning materials. Pupils themselves can integrate media to produce highly attractive work which demonstrates their language competence in more than one skill area as well as their creative and ICT skills.
- Commercial CD-ROM’s and specific software such as Task Magic and Fun with Texts have multimedia and interactive capability. Activities require pupils to interact with the software and they receive immediate feedback, which enables them to monitor their own progress. Commercial multimedia products are reviewed at Teem and Curriculum Online provides guidance on software and hardware.
- Skills and learning styles. Because ICT enables flexible approaches to learning, activities can be designed so that pupils work not only with text, but image, sound and even video. Work can be organised so that pupils work collaboratively or individually, or so that note-taking skills are developed as well as ICT skills and so on.
- Cross curricular work can be undertaken with confidence using ICT.
The network can be used for sharing resources and storing and accessing
pupils’ work. Subject-specific software can be used within a modern
languages context. Linguistic focus can be adapted to another discipline
For example, a study of a region in another country can be shared
with the Geography department. The areas of study might include climate,
population, tourism (its economic impact or spatial distribution)and
infrastructure. The topic-specific language can be located on the
World Wide Web or through any available colleague who is a speaker
of the target language. Subject-specific software might be used to
analyse data or test hypotheses and other learning and ICT skills
might be used to complete a task in the target language. Science
across the World lends itself to stimulating cross-curricular
work in other languages with schools from around the world. - If you would like to work on a project with a school in another part of the world consult Windows on the World, a British Council database of schools wishing to participate in international projects and partnerships.
Appropriateness
In addition to knowing when to use ICT and understanding its value in enhancing teaching and learning, it is essential to know when ICT is appropriate and when it is not. Often, the maxim “little is more” is worth remembering.
For example, a study on a home town, a familiar topic, could be extended to focus also on the themes of heritage, modernity and image. For resources, the web site of the home town (or a cheap digital camera) can provide images. Key language can be researched on the website of a similar town in the country of the target language. The final product could be produced using word-processing or presentation software. These themes will need to be discussed and the language of argument and persuasion explored so that pupils can prepare a suitably balanced piece of work which will guide the reader or listener through the various issues and tensions in projecting an adequate image of a town around the themes of heritage and modernity. In this exercise many intellectual issues are tackled, perceptions are explored and language use remains the primary objective. The ICT used is relatively light but very appropriate. In this case, “little is more” describes the role and value of ICT.
On the other hand, a heavy ICT commitment might be needed in order
to achieve certain goals. A good example of this is the Global
Leap project, where video conferencing is used to bring together
pupils from around the world. In this case, the potential gains in linguistic
competence and developing cultural awareness in live encounters with
peers makes the technological demands very worthwhile and appropriate.
