Digital Skills And Technological Awareness

Incorporating technology in the classroom is a leading trend among educators in the 21st century. Teacher use classroom websites, technology tools, and online web assessments to keep parents and students informed, improve instruction, and individualize learning. Using technology to support communication helps keep both students and parents informed on what is happening in the classroom and the students’ academic progress. Integrating technology in the classroom helps increase student engagement and participation. Students use technology tools to help reinforce instruction and teachers may use it as a form of remediation. Technology can also help with differentiating instruction with the use of online assessments. Incorporating technology in the classroom can increase students’ success in the classroom and beyond.

In the articles “What Is The Future Of Technology In Education?” by Matt Britland and “New Class(room) War: Teacher vs Technology” by Samuel G. Freedman, two different viewpoints are expressed toward technology integration education. The authors show the implications of technology on the attitudes of teachers and students. Britland and Freedman agree that technology and theoretical framework are two inseparable facets but propose different solutions to the actions that should be taken to result in pedagogical expertise.

The leaders in education need to be informed to ICT possible benefits with the leader’s dangers and be active in lecturing them, from now ICT literacy development provides an appropriate venue for this. The development of an ICT addition model in schools is valuable for stakeholders in education to evaluate technology training for school leaders and create opportunities for principals to acquire ICT integration skills. (Selwood, 2003) said that when school leaders allow technology integration through vision and knowledge, schools can improve in instructional technology, which can lead to greater student achievement and better preparation for a technological society. (Bonifaz & Zucker, 2004) said that teaching students with laptops establishes a different environment than traditional classrooms and requires the teacher to have ICT knowledge and skills, effective ICT teaching strategies, effective classroom management as well as technical support. In a school setting, likewide (Cuban, 2001) said that ICT requires additional time and effort to utilize, and consequently may be used less frequently. (Abuzaid & Singh, 2008, Al-Jarf, 2007, Bauer & Kenton, 2005) said that this part introduces the conceptualized of ICT in education. (Fitzallen, 2004) said that attention is increasingly directed at the border of the questions merging

In Lavin, Korte, Davies). The result of the study further pushes the notion of how important it is for school staff to understand the given technology so they can distribute the information effectively to their students. All the technology in the world will be ineffective if the teachers themselves are not passionate of their work. “Technology has the potential to transform the learning environment from passive to active and more subject to the control of the learner.” (qtd. In Lavin, Korte, Davies).

In “Technology in Today’s Classroom: Are You a Tech-Savvy Teacher?”, Stephanie Hicks successfully argues, using primarily logical evidence, that teachers should integrate technology into education. Hicks begins by stating, “In today’s classroom technology abounds and students are extremely tech savvy,” using this claim to justify the need for teachers to implement the use of technology (188). Her statement regarding students and their technological knowledge logically introduces the argument because of its easily observable nature. In addition, because students have a sense of familiarity and experience with computers, it follows that the use of such technology would suit their educational needs. Hicks begins her argument by countering the

In general, most K–12 academic settings today utilizes technology for educational and non-academic use (Helms, 2014). Researchers agree that budgeting can share a significant impact on classroom technology integration because many schools do not have the funds to pay for teacher training and all of the cost associated with maintaining technology resources (Blackwell, 2014; Chou et al., 2012; Helms, 2014). The lack of adequate technology training, support and funding can also influence teachers’ attitudes (Kirkwood et al, 2014). A gap appears to exit in empowering teachers with technology skills to implement an interactive learning experience for all learning styles (Helms, 2014).

First, teachers’ attitudes towards technology, positive or negative, have a strong impact on whether or not they use the technology available. A descriptive study done by Mueller, Wood, Willoughby, Ross, and Specht (2008) supports this notion. The researchers surveyed in-service teachers who did and did not integrate computers in their classrooms. The goal was to identify the variables that best discriminated between these two groups. This study’s sample included 185 elementary teachers and 204 secondary teachers representing 94 elementary schools and 16 secondary schools. Each participant was asked to complete a survey. On the survey there were the following subcategories: computer integration, comfort with computers, computer use, computer training, attitudes towards computers,

According to So and Kim (2009), teacher training and a support system with integrating technology in the instructional practice should be structured in a holistic way so that they can see the connection. Through assessment based on a full deliberation of interrelationships between content, pedagogy, and technology, teachers can anticipate constructive sound effects of technology integrated task through student academic performances. Papert, Vygotsky, Dewey and Piaget’s social constructivism (SC) principles

A sample population of bank branch and food chain managers were used. The survey for technology integration conducted by Quality Education Data Inc. (QUED) showed that 10 teachers out of 100 had access to computers did not use them to motivate student learning.

The questionnaire addresses the difficulty faced by teachers in classroom when using technology based on participant’s response; some teachers feel intimidated in using technology and would rather opt for a low tech than a higher tech to teach pupils. This can be said to be due to lack of training or knowledge can make teachers less confident to make technology a priority to teach. However, with 8% of respondents stating that technology is “Not at all significant”, it can only be assumed that the technologies are either incompatible with the pupil’s profile, or have been incorrectly

Information and Communications Technology is not a cure for all educational dilemmas, even though today technologies are obligatory tools (Guri-Rosenblit, 2006). Information and Communications Technology when effectively incorporated into teaching and learning ensures interaction between learners and teachers, thus advancing cognitive skills development (Jones & Cress, 2001; Punie et al., 2006). Likewise, Information and Communications Technology has provided the tools needed to deliver education to remote geographical regions (Guttman, 2003). The integration of ICT is extensive, when looking at its existing widespread diffusion, especially among the young generation (Punie et al., 2006). Many researchers believed that ICT creates three important milestones: a) access to teaching and learning opportunities; b)

There is a need of a study which aims to measure the extent to which technology integration in educational system in Sri Lanka has been successful. So that this research paper commenced by probing ESL teachers’ views on technology integration in classrooms. The results of the current study indicated

Information and digital literacy play vital roles in our society and are necessary tools for citizens to have in this growing information age. Information literacy is “the ability to recognize the extent and nature of an information need, then to locate, evaluate, and effectively use the needed information.” (“Information Literacy Definition”, n.d.) Digital literacy is “the ability to find, evaluate, utilize, share, and create content using information technologies and the Internet.” (“What is Digital Literacy?”, n.d.)The purpose of this essay is to show the contrasting and similar experiences people have had acquiring both digital and information literacy. To do this, I interviewed two citizens from different generations, one a millennial

This social connection promotes input for the process of internalisation that Vygotsky (1978/1981) suggests as personal acquisition of the societal demands in a wireless computing economy. Wireless computing can have a strong impact on teachers’ uses by enlarging the likelihood of technology integration in teaching-learning (Moses, Khambari, & Luan, 2008). Thus, teachers must first develop understandings of effective use of technology in socio-technical structures, accept the technological demands, and develop strategies to use available technologies in their instructional routines (Vaatrapu, 2008). In others words, teacher must understand the core of teaching traditional cross-curriculum concepts with technological resources. Teachers need training to utilize wireless laptops technology, promote social interaction and reinforce students’ cognition skills effectively (GaDOE, 2008). The use of an instructional training method with established validity and noted premises will apply SC to assist teachers with classroom technology integration.

For this purpose it is necessary to create in the teacher an awareness of the possibilities of ICT which will lead to their willingness to learn it and resulting in the commitment and confidence to use it. Thus, teacher education institutions in the country must rise to the occasion to turn out ICT competent through in –service and pre-service courses.