ICT as Communicative Tool

The lesson on communication tools helped me in building my ideas about how its applications enable and help learners for easy communication. I could also understand more on this system that it helps for easy communication between teachers and students or between students themselves despite the physical barriers either by space, and time beyond the classroom walls. The learning of the students can be effectively nurtured when students make use of ICT to communicate with other students, peers, parents and to the large community as a whole.

I had enough knowledge about this tool; communicative tools which included the use of e-mail, electronic bulletin boards, chat, teleconference (video conferencing), Facebook, electronic whiteboard and other social networking sites. However, something new that I could learn from the lesson is the two separate tools; synchronous and asynchronous of communicative tool. Synchronous communicative tools such as chat or video conference enable real-time communication, whereas asynchronous communicative tools such as e-mail, we-chat, blog and the discussion forums enable exchange of messages to people not live (not online at instant). I feel that synchronous communicative is more effective in situation which needs immediate response to help in solving urgent problems of the learners. Asynchronous tools are more effective in situations and activities that require time and where the delay of responses can be considered for discussion. However, there can be quality discussion in using either of the tools. Understanding the effectiveness of these two tools of communicative tool, I could learn enough which can help me in integrating those applications in my lesson planning in school settings based on the situations in which the tool would favor the best.

There are always benefits in using the tools. However, there are some limitations of those communicative tools. The educators and learners are challenged with use of synchronous communicative tool. The poor or weak internet connection network distracts and affects the discussion. The example on the same situation (Covid Pandemic); the online classes due to shutdown of colleges and school, some students cannot make their presence in the discussion or the students’ responses are delayed due to weak internet network. This ultimately affects teaching and learning. The discussion in synchronous tools loses focus because of the multiple discussions since many participants are into the discussion at a time. The discussion is even affected if the users lack knowledge for operating devices and the applications. For example, different tutors try using different applications and students’ presence is either delayed or missed during the very first try.

Similarly, I could also learn some of the disadvantages of using those applications. The discussion using the asynchronous applications reduces the discussion frequency since it is time delayed discussion. The participants can lose interest due to delayed responses from the other person and checking for the replies and discussion is an additional task which people do not like. For example, students post queries on VLE discussion forums and the person check for replies after few hours or a day. If the person does not find replies even after a day, the learning of the student and discussion is discouraged. Similarly, the person who blogs loses interest if the posts are not read and commented which can reduce the blogger’s post frequency and interest for making posts.

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Discussion in VLE discussion forum

We-chat used for discussion (Teaching and learning)

ICT in Education; Teaching and Learning

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and its integration in teaching and learning creates avenue for transforming and enriching the better education.

The technology can help educators in facilitating their teaching which will enhance teaching quality for strengthened education. ICT can be used as five separate tools to assist effective teaching and learning.

ICT as:

1.      informative tool.

2.      communicative tool.

3.      constructive tool.

4.      co-constructive tool.

5.      situating tool.

ICT as Informative tool

The applications which provide vast storage of information/content to learners’ activity is what I learned at very first when introduced to ICT informative tools. I could also learn that the informative tool can be regarded as passive repositories of information for the learners. Myself as one of the users just needs to activate and apply the information in learning which creates active learning. ICT has always been a great help to person’s curious mind through the support of vast information in those applications. The ICT has now become the most approached applications for any information learners look for. I could also reflect on my actions where I depend and think for the information from the internet for every queries I get. This solely indicates how importantly ICT has become for retrieving of ideas. 

The information provided can be seen in large amount in various formats which includes information in text, graphic representation, and information in sounds and through video/movies. These various formats of the information are very useful for the teachers in the planning. I can vividly remember how I made used of the information and ideas for planning my teaching lesson from all those formats during my teaching teaching practicum in one of the schools. Those formats really benefited me as a teachers to integrate those formats into my planning to cater all individual learners considering all learning styles and individual uniqueness. Information in different formats supports effective learning. Learners have choice to grasp information from any format they learn easily and better. For example, sounds for those who learn better through auditory sense, and text, video and graphics for visual learners. All formats of information have increased chance for learning with better choice and opportunities. These are some experiences I can relate with the ideas that I could learn from this tool. 

The lesson on informative tool could help me to see good list of ICT based sources on which learners can depend for information. The information sources such as Television, Radio and Internet. Moreover, I could understand about Internet which has gained popularity; most common and preferred source for the information by the learners. Including myself people prefer internet to rest of the sources considering it as most significant ICT tool for learning which also includes Social Medias, Chat room, Forums and Blogs. For example, in the current situation of COVID-19, learning through e-learning environment has gained importance and has become choice for teaching and learning. Students of the nation are taught through television and TV has now become most significant source of information for teaching and learning. Similarly, despite the shutdown of schools and colleges, college students are still into learning through use of internet; VLE (Virtual Learning Environment). Students login and learn through the text, videos, audios and graphics uploaded in forums for the information. Social media applications, chat room and forum have also gained importance for the exchange of information.

The information tool has huge benefits in teaching and learning. The students are advantaged with enough ideas and information to integrate/add on what they already know. The students’ engagement into use of ICT applications have benefited in developing their information searching skills and also learned on how to look for and evaluate resources on internet. Besides learning, it has also catered in enhancing critical thinking of the learners stimulated by the information encountered. These are some of the advantage  I could see for using ICT to rely for information.

		Internet as informative tool (VLE)