ICT integration

Information and communication technology in teaching and learning (EDN419) is one of the most effective teaching and learning tool. The children nowadays are born in the world of technologies where they spend their entire lives surrounded by technologies like computers, video games, cell phones and all other toys and tools of digital age, which we call it as “digital natives”. Our students being digital native, the teachers should be equipped with relevant pedagogical skills and ideas in using ICT in order to meet the learning experiences of the students.

After learning about the topic “ICT integration” I can now integrate ICT in the lesson. Using the ICT for the sake of using is not integrating ICT.It requires a lot of preparation, planning and follow up activities. ICT should be integrated in such a way that it adds values to the lesson. For instance like if you were to teach about water, the students should be able to compare and understand about the water problems in and around the world and make out the value of water henceforth. 

Reflecting up on my teaching practices, integrating ICT in the lesson made my lesson more effective, interesting and meaningful. Most often I have taken the students in the computer lap to show some videos, rhymes, songs and pictures which were related to the topics. With the help of those ICT I was able to give some practical examples on the current situation of other countries and add some values to the lesson which seems abstract when taught verbally. Through it I was able to take my students thinking out of the four walls of the classroom as well. 

 
However, integrating ICT in the lesson requires a lot of time and planning since we have to choose the most relevant ones out of thousands of information given. It is economically challenging on teachers as well since the wifi connections in the schools are too weak to download the information. Thus, most of the time, teachers have to use their personal hotspot.

fig.1 videos I have integrated in lesson