Monday

what are the effective ways to encourage change using ICT to help improve learning?

I think the most simple way to encourage effective change in ICT is to ensure that training, and resources are made available for teachers. I have been on many ICT courses and have thought woohoo these ideas are fantastic I can use these only then to realise that what we simply lack is the computers or the technology to fully integrate these ideas into practice. Maybe we first need to assess how we can get more computers into schools. I would love to have a class that was an e classroom where every child had their own laptop which they could bring out at a moments notice look up information themselves, create blogs, webpages and type their writing straight onto word programmes. Wouldnt this be a sure fire way to get teachers to use the technology. Who has ever tried to use their class computer and found that it doesnt work or gone to the ICT suite only to find that there are not enough computers for your entire class and then what do you have, 30 kids who are fighting about whose turn it is and how much time the other person has had that they havent. By simply ensuring that all children had access to "working" technologies then I think teachers would be more likely to give it a go. A school that I taught in, in London had 2 portable laptop stations which had 30 laptops on each. This was fantastic as each morning before school children would come in read the daily news,, we would then do maths games on them, online reading, research from the internet, and publications. These worked so well as it was moved around between 2 classes and I found that in the time I was there I used the computers more with the kids than I had ever done when you had a set time to go to the ICT suite which meant that from week to week skills that were taught were forgotten or they simply didnt get a turn as they had to share the computers.

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