Unit 10 - ICT to Support...

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The contemporary curriculum guides teachers to facilitate the development of adaptable and flexible learners who know how to take on new tasks and situations, quickly and easily. Students will need to be good communicators who can competently discuss topics with others and effectively share their ideas in many forms and for different purposes.

Teachers use digital resources for a variety of purposes and in many ways, including:

 • As a way to introduce students to a topic 

• As part of a teacher lecture or demonstration

 • As a stimulus to group or whole-class discussion

 • To provide students with access to different text types

 • To engage students in activities that are not possible in the classroom

 • To allow students to work at their own pace as a review or extension activity.

WebQuests were created as a learning activity not long after the initial development of the worldwide web. A WebQuest is an inquiry based activity that embeds the use of a variety of learning resources – with most being digital learning resources available on the internet. The inquiry activity may take the form of tasks such as a problem to be solved, a position to be taken, a product to be designed or a work to be created. Teachers can create their own WebQuests that address curriculum outcomes and draw upon resources they have identified and evaluated. Or teachers can choose to use a WebQuest that someone else has created.

 It can be used every day as regular course material, but it can also be used to supplement other existing ESL materials. All teachers need to do is use it once in a while in class, internet provides unique and creative activities that teachers can incorporate into their lesson plans while students build on their English skills using a complete range of multimedia available on the Internet including: 1.Gain Invaluable Research Skills Through Unfamiliar Topics; 2.2        Internet Treasure Hunt; 3.Presentation Assignments; 4.News Tasks; 5.Email Buddies; 6.Surveys.

 It can be used every day as regular course material, but it can also be used to supplement other existing ESL materials. All teachers need to do is use it once in a while in class, internet provides unique and creative activities that teachers can incorporate into their lesson plans while students build on their English skills using a complete range of multimedia available on the Internet including: 1.Gain Invaluable Research Skills Through Unfamiliar Topics; 2.2        Internet Treasure Hunt; 3.Presentation Assignments; 4.News Tasks; 5.Email Buddies; 6.Surveys.

1.) A research study, conducted in Auburn, Maine showed that Kindergartner students using iPads scored much higher on literacy tests than students that didn’t use the device.

2.) University of California Irvine medical school reported iPad equipped medical students scored 23 percent higher on national exams than previously unequipped classes.

3.) According to Pearson Foundation’s survey More than six in ten college students and high school seniors agree that  tablets help students to study more efficiently (66% and 64%) and help students to perform better in classes (64% and 63%).

4.) A study from KIPP Academy in Houston, TX showed the percentage of students who rated either proficient or advanced (the 'passing' rate) was 49% percent higher in the 'flipped classrooms' using the iPads than in the traditional classrooms with no iPads.

   tablet and apps provide digital tools to help teach the curriculum.

1. Easy to use

Those preoccupied with the technology challenge have to admit tablets are way more intuitive and easier to use than desktop and laptop computers, or even paper books. I mean, toddlers can use tablets. Textbooks seem to be losing the battle on all fronts.

2. Direct Communication

Tablets connect all major stakeholders: students, parents and teachers. Handwritten notes or tasks can be lost in no time, intentionally or accidentally. This never happens with digital data: any feedback including criticism, kudos or concern, is out there for further reference. The ‘forgetfulness’ factor doesn’t fly any more. Neither for students – nor teachers.

3. Live knowledge base

The instructor can quickly deliver engaging material to the students in real time in just a couple clicks. Sorry, a couple taps! Furthermore, students can use recommended resources to do their homework. Tablets give students instant access to individual research, a tremendous knowledge base available at their fingertips.

4. Personal approach

As an instructor, you have to address a multitude of learning styles since not all students are equal. Some are slow runners, others are sprinters. Pace differs, interests differ as well. The teacher can use the e-Learning arsenal to overcome this barrier and deliver the same course in different ways. For example, show videos or invite students to play edu games.

The tablet also accommodates special needs. Learners who have a disability will appreciate the tablet’s flexibility, freedom of access and tailored curriculums.

5. More cost-effective than textbooks

When you get right down to it, in the mid- to long-term perspective, the tablet is, in fact, a really smart investment. If pays off well when you get the burden of supporting obsolete infrastructure off your shoulders. No dust, no price hikes, no surprises from textbook providers, no storage and damage issues. Full scalability and lightweight backpack that fits thousands of textbooks in a single device.

6. Faster visualization, quicker reporting

The tablet is a great incentive for cultivating scientific skills. For instance, students can document their field trips right away, be it camping, going to the zoo or a museum. It’s not just taking pictures, students can make use of interactive maps or facility-specific content available on smartphones and tablets.

7. Improving computer skills. Boosting creativity

Like it or not, computers rule the world, so it’s vital to learn how to rule computers from elementary school onwards. Besides, the convenient tablet format encourages creativity – draw, compose music or make films with no extra tools required. That’s how students become a creative force rather than passive knowledge recipients.

8. Hassle-free assessment

And yes, teachers gain a lot, too! Easier student assessment and classroom management, finding unique teaching approaches and reinventing gamification for new purposes – it’s all there, just one touch away. At last, the instructors are empowered with technology that spares them from tedious grading and provides more time for teaching!

9. Paperless homework

Some tech-savvy institutions have already adopted the system where students turn in their papers in a strictly digital format. Paper is no longer an option. Too ‘green’ for your taste? Might be, but this is definitely a direction many colleges are headed. Paperless innovation is the new buzzword. No more ink and notepads. It’s all digital, eliminating the paper and helping the environment.

10. Learning simulations

It might be too risky and costly to fly a jet or spaceship in a test mode, yet simulations give you the right feeling and some of the required skills. Pilots, soldiers, and surgeons have been using simulation games for an eternity. Now they are available on tablet devices. Playing is not all about distraction and procrastination, games can really inspire creativity and out-of-the-box thinking.

curriculum is taken as channel of influence.what shapes,what is taught and to whom. the teacher must have deep knowledge of their subjectQ's syllabus and abilities to apply it flexibly using ict tools and resources. The curriculum standards must be supported by packages softwares and computer applications. tablet and apps provide digital tools which may be used in teaching and learning activities and this result to increase students performances.this tablet if used very well may play a role in teacher's professional development while he is connected to the internet and keeps carrying research about his subject and assures interaction with other teacher through teacher networks

The way tablets were introduced at the School followed an increasingly common pattern: first a limited pilot with teachers using the devices, then a trial with children, and finally the full rollout across the school.

The process has included training teachers, evaluating apps and constructing courses using Apple’s iTunes U service, as well as frequently shaking up the strategy when, according to Edwards, the girls blaze through a course or app that he thought would present a challenge for their age group, and demand to move on to the next level. “When we’re planning for next year, we genuinely don’t know where they’ll be,” he says. “When you remove barriers, it’s amazing how quickly things move.”

It’s interesting to see how the tablets are being used across the school’s curriculum, rather than being hived off into specific ICT lessons, as they might be in schools where the devices are more limited. The Year 5 class use the Pages app to create field trip reports and mock up newspaper front pages, and other apps for tasks like creating comic strips about the sinking of the Mary Rose.

Their teacher tells me the emphasis is on using tablets to create, rather than consume; a message later reiterated when I sit down with the school’s principal, Tricia Kelleher. "If you're a school, you have to get beyond this just being a device that you use. You can create what's on it as well, and that's been the transformation in the last year. Otherwise, students are just being consumers,” she says.

A tablet and apps provide digital tools to help teach the curriculum in a such way that they provide apps that let the students explore the content to be taught and learnt. some apps have activities, quizzes, exams, games etc that help both learners and teachers to teach and learn the curriculum. they also provide opportunities to record, play and share what is to be taught or learnt in an easily way whether in a class or outside the class. thus, with them you learn or teach everything, every time and every where. a tablet and apps also provide teaching/learning digital materials such as videos, images, picture that motivate the teacher to teach and the learner to learn the curriculum. speaking, pronunciation, listening, writing and reading skills are also improved with tablets and apps. this also help in teaching the curriculum since it also focuses on those skills.