EDU430 Handouts and Additional Material Lectures 1-227

EDU430 ICT in Education · Handouts and Additional Material · Chapter 1 My Story-My School · Topic 1 Formative Years

Since antiquity knowledge has passed from generation to generation through stories. We all have stories to tell. To commence with I, felt my story might have some utility. Maybe it can provide some insights into the role of technology in education? What do we mean by pedagogy and the science of learning? How the two configure in relation to technology and integration into education? How has the classroom evolved and technology incorporated? I remember my aunt who was a professor, author of numerous articles and few books, sitting beside her typewrite and researching her work. The click clack of the keys remains with me today. These were the times of romantic early and mid-sixties - The US invasion of Vietnam and the daily carpet bombing on Hanoi used to be the first news on the BBC. My aunt was extremely active in writing articles against the super power who invaded a small country for no reason - there was no Osama Bin Laden hiding in the North Vietnam. Now she writes her articles against the invasion of Iraq and Libya using a word processor. These days the computer has been incorporated in most classrooms but does it act a little more than a word processor with some research component? The answer sadly is no – the classroom may appear different yet for the most part remains the same.

Definition of ICT

ICT is concerned with the storage, retrieval, manipulation, transmission or reception of

digital data.

Communication Technology

Communication Technology implies the knowledge, skills and understanding needed to exchange information verbally or nonverbally. It is processing of information in terms of accessing information, decoding information and sending it via a medium. Communication Technology is the electronic systems used for communication between individuals or groups.

Topic 2 The Story of My Education

This is then the story of my education. I was an only child and father (who was a senior officer in the Pakistan Army) passed away, only a year after birth. The responsibility of my upbringing fell solely on my mother. We resided in Multan with my maternal family. The question of education was a critical one, since we had no personal resources it was imperative that I acquire a good education and look after my family. Being the sole child and much loved my schooling started a little later than usual and initially I was educated at home. When I started my home education; I had great difficulty with English. A solution was proposed by my aunts and my mother: my grandfather would teach me. He was a professor of English and it was said about him that he had no peers in his field. I was repeatedly told how lucky I was that my grandfather would teach me English. While my grandfather taught me English, a local preacher was employed to teach me recitation on my mother’s insistence. The combined learning experience was tremendously traumatic. My grandfather would sit in our veranda overlooking our back garden and I started avoiding going in the veranda. If I needed to go to the back garden I hide behind my mother’s legs. If this was being lucky I shuddered to think what unlucky would be! Why was this experience so painful for me? My maiden encounter with English commenced through the Radiant Reading books. These books, as far as English teaching went were very good and I believe remained the books of choice for many years to come in so many schools. The problem was that they were designed for people with an English background, i.e. their mother tongue was English. Despite the fact that I had mastered the English alphabet and knew the words; when it came to reading and stories I could not understand. I had tremendous difficulty in learning since I was unable to comprehend - for me making meaning of what I was studying was essential - Now I see several experts of pedagogy insisting that deep learning takes place only when you relate it to your experiences - you make sense out of it? Memorization and understanding are both components of the learning process. While memorization is a critical part of learning, it is only a small part. Without comprehension, and only memorization, there is no understanding. Comprehension is derived from how particular information is related or understood by a person in a personal context – it is experiential in nature. Having learnt a little about Pedagogy now, I realized that our brain is wired to learn in a particular manner. We learn through association to an experience or context which we have gone through. If you try to teach and there is no association this leads to an inability to learn. This, I now understand, was why my early learning experience was so painful. Was Radiant Reading the right methodology for learning English? Later we will discuss in detail what pedagogy should be applied for learner like me and how can technology assist in the process

. Information and Communication Technology

"ICT is defined, as a diverse set of technological tools and resources used to communicate, and to create, disseminate, store, and manage information" (Mangal, 1997).

Characteristics of ICT

• ICT is the integration of Hardware and Software Technology.
• ICT fosters the dissemination of information and knowledge.
• The nature of ICT is digital and virtual.
• ICT is global, anywhere, any time.
• ICT is a key enabler in the creation of networks.

Topic 3 School and Early Challenges

Having completed home schooling my story turns to my first school. I was enrolled in Muslim High School in Multan. A private school, supported through charitable donations. The school’s business model was such that in the English medium primary classes the fees were higher and tapered off as you progressed to high school. While in the Urdu medium counterpart of the primary school the fees were negligible. Here we discuss the school’s business model since these days with the aid of technology we can alter these models. Allowing us to creating educational opportunities for the underprivileged, which did not exist earlier? It was in the third grade that I faced my next educational challenge, involving Urdu penmanship. In comparison to English where writing meant the current phonetic placement of alphabets, Urdu was a much more complex proposition. Apart from the correct conjoining of alphabet, the placement of accents, indicating the proper pronunciation, proved hard for me to grasp. Added to this was the fact that some knowledge of Arabic and other source language was also needed. For instance when writing a prophets name, it is followed peace be upon him is used. This is written in Arabic and in Arabic style. Things came to head in the third standard, when my teacher called my mother and told her that things could not continue in this manner. Seeing my difficulty my mother told me to that I had to correctly learn the words and then joining them would not be such a problem. Similarly, for the Arabic honorific, she told me to use an abbreviation, instead of the entire phrase. It was with great difficulty that I progressed. In those we had assessments on a daily basis. Teachers had sufficient time to pay individual attention to each student and to be able to check these assessments on a daily basis. The teachers were motivated and the student body small enough to allow individual attention. If this is not the case then we will look at alternate pedagogy and technology which can engage students and provide them with the required attention. Finally, it was time for Urdu penmanship assessment. Having finished my paper, I glanced at a class fellow’s paper and noticed that apart from his beautiful handwriting he had used to the entire phrase (peace be upon him) in Arabic with all the appropriate accents. That was the probable last straw and I just tore my exam sheet and left. I never forgot the incident. It happened that I was traveling by bus and met the same person; whom I recognized instantly and even remembered his name after a forty year interlude. He was quite shocked and had no recollection of me. Two lessons derive from this story, the power of association and the requirement of a particular subject and how its learning can be improved. Memorization is integral to the learning process. Marvin Minsky in the Society of Brains, a very interesting book on the science of a brain, states that the critical thing is association. We only remember things by which we are directly affected, and tend to forget the rest. If we started to retain all our past experience we would be solely lost in them. We will then look at how we can engage the student and create learning which will be retained. Similarly, we have to consider how technology can assist us in learning subjects like penmanship.

Computer Informatics

Informatics’ is the study of information processing

Educational Informatics is the study of the application of digital technologies and techniques to the use and communication of information in learning and education. Educational Informatics is the development, use, and evaluation of digital systems that use pedagogical knowledge to engage in or facilitate resource discovery in order to support learning. Studying the techniques and impact of ‘digital technologies’ within the context of the ‘use and communication of information’ in educational settings. Educational informatics represents the intersection of three disciplines: teaching and learning, information science, and information communication technologies (ICTs)

Computer Network

Inter connected collection of autonomous computers.

Topic 4 The Power of Association

My tussle with education had not ended. In the fourth standards mathematics proved to be another subject with which I had difficulty. Concepts such as Zouazaf-e-Aqal & AdayAzam (???) translated into Urdu had no meaning for me. The learning process entails understanding something and remembering it, i.e. Memorization; the second step is to DO and the third Act is to Connect. The Do involves solving a problem through certain procedure and its application. But most crucially pedagogists maintain that long term learning involves connecting this to real life in a personal context. If there is no comprehension of the term or the applicable procedure employed how is a concept be understood? These Urdu terms are not used in everyday language and even those extremely proficient in it never utilize these terms. What sense does it make to a fourth standard student? While Urdu should be utilized a means to of teaching it, in fact it is my medium of choice, but terms used should be ones that make sense to student and real life connectivity to the concept being explained.