Information communication Technology which is for short known as (ICT) refers to a computer system to processes data to information and stores it for further use, while Education encompasses teaching and learning specific skills, and also something less tangible but more profound. In other words, it is defined as the process or art of imparting knowledge, skill and judgment; Facts, skills and ideas that have been learnt, either
formally or informally. An online dictionary wikipidia gives the meaning of Pre requisite as something that is “Required or necessary as a prior condition” From the above, we now have a clear view of what we want to achieve which is Information Technology as a necessity before any tangible development is realized in educational system, to a layman through the use of computers and other technological approaches.
What the pupils and Students required from the schools at this 21st Century
communicate effectively in speech and in writing
work collaboratively with others
use technological tools such as computers
analyze problems, set goals, and formulate strategies for achieving those goals
seek out information or skills on their own, as needed, to meet their goals
INFORMATION COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY IN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM
What ICT Might Do for Classrooms
One excellent reason for introducing computers into schools is that, according to the authors of the Education for the Twenty-First Century Act, is that 60% of jobs in the this century require computer skills. So, on the most obvious level, computers can make classrooms more relevant. Of equal importance is the fact that if used correctly, computers can facilitate training of students in the modes of action and interaction that twenty-first century lives requires. Below are what to expect if Information communication Technology is used in our educational System
1. ICT as Tools for Self-Directed Learning
At one time it was possible to train young people to perform tasks that they could then apply throughout a lifetime. The apprentice blacksmith would learn and use the same techniques used by his father, his grandfather before him, and so on back through the ages. Today, however, the pace of technological change is so great that a set of skills learned yesterday can be obsolete in a year or so. Therefore, to be successful, people have to be able to teach themselves, to retool, to find for themselves the resources that they need for learning new skills to keep pace with their changing environments. All too often, however, our schools encourage students to think of learning not as something that they do but as something that is done to them. Schools also teach, incidentally, covertly, that learning is something that one does at some particular time in one’s life or during the time that one is in school. Computers can help to change that mindset, that paradigm of externally motivated, one-time learning. Computers allow students to take charge of their own learning and to proceed at their own pace.
2. ICT as Tools for Collaborative Project Work
Information and service workers, those who will make up the vast majority of the 21st century workforce, typically operate in project teams. They need to be able to communicate effectively with one another, to establish project goals, to plan strategies for attaining those goals, to break up the work among team members, to report their progress to one another, to evaluate this progress, and to synthesize their individual efforts into a final product. Networked computers are excellent tools for such collaborative project work. Students can use scheduling software to plan their projects, communicate over networks about their projects, store project components in a central place, use individual software tools (such as word processors, Internet browsers, and graphics programs) to carry out specific project tasks, evaluate their progress using online evaluation forms, and design elegant final products for sharing with their teachers and classmates.
3. ICT as Research Tools
An information-age job, by definition, requires that one be able to gain access to information, and computers are unparalleled tools for doing just that. In the past, a student with a research project was limited to the few resources available in his or her school or community library all too often a few aging encyclopedias and a handful of tattered books on a handful of school-related topics. Today, the resources of the world are a keystroke away. Homework help, vast libraries, reference works, museums, government and educational archives, news reports these are but a few of the many resources available on the Internet. Instantly, and with little effort, the student has access not just to local resources but to the resources of the globe.
4. ICT as Exploratoria
One of the problems often confronted by educators is the difficulty of getting students to envision what is being described by all those words in textbooks. What is the structure of a DNA molecule? What did the universe look like seconds after the Big Bang? Just where Crete was, and how was Minoan civilization destroyed? How does the heart work? How did Heinrich Schliemann figure out from reading the Odyssey where the ruins of Troy were buried? What is the water cycle? What does the interior of the earth look like? Computers can show students these things, not passively, in the mode of television, but interactively. A student can call up a map of ancient Greece and follow the path of Odysseus through the Mediterranean from Troy to Ithaca or can pretend to be a water molecule, enter a root hair, travel up the stem of a plant, and evaporate into the air. Computers can take students where they otherwise could not go and make learning into a thrilling, self-directed journey.
Reference:
www.singaporemoms.com/parenting/Constitution_of_Ireland
Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2007. © 1993-2006 Microsoft Corporation
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education
