There seems to be a growing consensus among researchers and practitioners in the educational arena that ICT is of great potential to bringing about changes in the field of education. Nevertheless, ICT tools, despite their abundance and ease of use and access, remain underused by many teachers. This being the case, this paper endeavors to shed light on some of the factors that stand in the way of an effective use of ICT tools in schools. Also, it draws on some recent models that have been proposed to address the factors in question in order to foreground some important teacher characteristics which appear to be necessary for effective use of ICT in education.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Setting the Ground
2.1 The nature and scope of ICT in education
2.2 Affordances of ICT in education
2.3 ICT in education: past, present and future
3. Factors affecting ICT integration
3.1 Teacher characteristics
3.2 Schools characteristics
3.3 Technology characteristics
4. The necessary teacher characteristics for effective use of ICT in education
5. Conclusion
Objectives & Core Topics
The paper aims to investigate the factors that impede the effective integration of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in schools and identify the necessary teacher characteristics required to overcome these barriers for meaningful pedagogical practice.
- The scope, nature, and evolution of ICT in educational contexts.
- Barriers to ICT integration related to teachers, institutions, and technology.
- The role of pedagogical beliefs and knowledge bases (TPACK) in technology adoption.
- Theoretical models (TAM, TPACK) for understanding teacher readiness.
- Strategies for innovative teachers to navigate school culture and infrastructure limitations.
Excerpt from the Book
The nature and scope of ICT in education
Information Technology Communication is defined as “the convergence of audio-visual, telephone and computer networks through a link system. It is a combination of all these elements, capped by a vision on how technology can help an organization to reach its goals.” (Yekini, 2014, iii) Thus defined, ICT will accordingly be a tool which serves educational institutions reach their goals in offering effective and high-level education to their learners. ICT is said to stress “the role of unified communications and the integration of telecommunications, computers as well as necessary enterprise software, middleware, storage, and audio-visual systems, which enable users to access, store, transmit, and manipulate information” (ibid, 11). This, as we shall see later, reflect a number of advantages of ICT when viewed from a pedagogical perspective.
When it comes to the scope of ICT in the field of education, it proves to be synonymous with what is known as e-learning (Patel, 2014). The latter is defined by Nichols (2003) as “the use of various technological tools that are either web-based, web-distributed or web-capable for the purpose of education” (p. 3, my emphasis). As far as this definition goes, the use of ICT in education then amount to the use of web-related tools to achieve educational goals. However, from a yet broader perspective it is viewed as “broadly inclusive of all forms of educational technology in learning and teaching” (Patel, 2014, p. 1). Generally, the aim behind the use of e-learning, according to Stockley (2003), are numerous, among which is “to provide training, educational or learning material in or out of the classroom” (p. 3).
Summary of Chapters
1. Introduction: Presents the research problem regarding the underuse of ICT in schools and outlines the paper's aim to identify factors and teacher characteristics relevant to technology integration.
2. Setting the Ground: Explores the definition, history, and educational affordances of ICT, while contextualizing its development from early computer-assisted language learning to modern web-based approaches.
3. Factors affecting ICT integration: Analyzes the diverse barriers to technology adoption, categorizing them into teacher-specific characteristics, institutional/school factors, and the inherent nature of the technology itself.
4. The necessary teacher characteristics for effective use of ICT in education: Discusses the specific knowledge and attitudes, such as those defined by the TAM and TPACK models, that enable teachers to use technology effectively.
5. Conclusion: Synthesizes the discussion, emphasizing that successful ICT integration requires a multifaceted approach involving teacher innovation, positive attitudes, and adaptation to school environments.
Keywords
ICT, education, affordance, teacher characteristics, CALL, e-learning, TPACK, TAM, pedagogical beliefs, self-efficacy, technology integration, school culture, educational innovation, learner-centered approach, structural characteristics.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the primary focus of this paper?
This paper examines why ICT is frequently underused in educational settings and explores the various factors—ranging from individual teacher attributes to institutional environments—that prevent its effective integration.
What are the central themes discussed in this work?
The work covers the definitions and evolution of ICT, the pedagogical affordances of technology, various barriers to integration, and the specific teacher characteristics (knowledge and attitudes) necessary for meaningful implementation.
What is the core research question addressed by the author?
The author investigates what specific teacher characteristics are required to enable educators to successfully integrate technology resources in their classrooms as meaningful pedagogical tools.
Which scientific models are utilized to analyze the problem?
The paper draws on several theoretical models, most notably the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and the TPACK model, to explain how teachers' knowledge and perceptions influence their use of technology.
How is the main body structured?
The body is structured by first grounding the reader in the history and definition of ICT, then categorizing the obstacles to integration into three areas (teacher, school, and technology characteristics), and finally discussing the necessary attributes of successful innovators.
Which terms best characterize this study?
Key terms include ICT, affordance, TPACK, TAM, pedagogical beliefs, self-efficacy, and educational technology integration.
How does school culture influence the use of ICT according to the author?
The author argues that schools act as social organizations that often resist external change; if a school culture does not value ICT as part of its definition of effective teaching, teachers are likely to exclude it from their practices.
What role does the TPACK model play in the analysis?
TPACK (Technological, Pedagogical, and Content Knowledge) is used to emphasize that mere technical knowledge is insufficient; teachers must possess an understanding of how to combine technology with subject matter and pedagogy to teach successfully.
What does the term 'elusive beast' imply regarding ICT?
The term suggests that because technology is rapidly changing and sometimes unreliable, teachers often struggle to keep pace with it, making the goal of seamless technology integration difficult to achieve.
- Citar trabajo
- Abdelmalek El Morabit (Autor), 2019, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in Education, Múnich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/464771
