The role of information and communication technologies in teaching foreign languages

Information technology in secondary schools and its impact on training information technology teachers

In my opinion ICTs provides - motivation to learn. ICTs such as videos, television and multimedia computer software that combine text, sound, and colourful moving images can be used to provide challenging and authentic content that will engage the student in the learning process. Technology is a tool that can provide another way for children to learn and make sense of their world. ICTs play a fundamental and crucial role in teaching learning process at secondary class level. It makes teaching learning process more effective and successful. The usage of ICTs in schools is the implementation of new technologies without having analyzed their appropriateness, applicability and impact on various environments and contexts. The present studies identify the impact of ICTs in secondary school education students in government and private schools. The result revealed that impact of ICTs is highly significant on the based on type of schools.
The use of ICT in schools requires skilled teaching staff and visionary school leadership. Teachers and school leaders need to be knowledgeable about the potential that ICT presents during teaching and learning in schools. According to Higgins & Moseley, (2011) where this knowledge is lacking, policies formulated by government and investments made towards implementation of ICT in schools, frequently miss opportunities to realize the desired school reforms. The use of ICTs in Uzbekistan generally increasing and dramatically growing. However, while there is a great deal of knowledge about how ICTs are being used in developed countries, there is not much information on how ICTs are being introduced into schools in developing countries (Beukes - Amiss and Chiware, 2006). The use of ICTs by teachers to teach the students is highly advantageous. This is because its enable them to demonstrate understanding of the opportunities and implications of the uses for learning and teaching in the curriculum context; plan, implement, and manage learning and teaching in open and flexible learning environment (UNESCO, 2004). The integration of ICT may have a considerable impact on the work of teachers, in particular, if ICT is conceived as a tool that supports a change in pedagogical approach.
Not only teachers need to change their roles and class organization, but in particular they need to invest energy in order for themselves but also for their students to get ready to introduce and manage new learning arrangements. According to Ching (2016), ICT plays a unique but complementary role in each of these approaches, with new technologies requiring new teacher roles, new pedagogies and new strands to teacher education. To be successful integration of ICT depends on the ability of teachers to merge technology with new pedagogies. To achieve this, there is a need for extensive preparation, adequate time, and ongoing support for teachers to ensure they have the knowledge, skills, and confidence in teaching with ICT. The need to provide teacher education programs and professional development facilities for practicing teachers and pre-service teachers cannot be overemphasized.
The Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED) predominantly recommend such teacher-centered, whole-class, didactic teaching strategies which teachers of IT can find difficult to put into practice. There are features of teaching and learning IT that make a constructivist approach the only workable pedagogy. IT teachers cannot be ‘gods of knowledge’ as the content domain and the technology change too rapidly, and pupils may have better knowledge of these than teachers. This obstructs detailed, systematic instructional design and teacher-centered, didactic control of the learning process, and undermines traditional relationships between teachers and pupils. IT teachers who attempt to use didactic, whole-class, teacher-centered approaches to teaching IT often struggle to retain pupils’ attention. Even though pupils may be highly motivated, they can be disinclined to sit and listen to the teacher or to wait for other pupils to complete their work as the teacher takes the whole class step-by-step through precise operational procedures. Where learning materials based on traditional, systematic instructional design are used, learners tend to deviate from the given sequence or abandon it entirely, preferring to try and make sense of the situation rather than following a series of rigid steps (Boyle, 1997).
ICT enhancing Teaching-Learning Process:
The main consideration of ICT based education is the improvement of the teaching-learning process. The integration of information and communication technologies can help revitalize teachers and students. This can help to improve and develop the quality of education by providing curricular support in difficult subject areas. Teachers need to be involved in collaborative projects and development of invention change strategies, which would include teaching partnerships with ICT as a tool. Contemporary learning theory is based on the notion that learning is an active process of constructing knowledge rather than acquiring knowledge and that instruction is the process by which this knowledge construction is supported rather than a process of knowledge transmission (Jonassen & Reeves, 1996). In this domain learning is viewed as the construction of meaning rather than as the memorization of facts (Lebow, 1993). Learning approaches using contemporary ICTs provide many opportunities for constructivist learning through their provision and support for resource-based, student centered settings and by enabling learning to be related to context and to practice (Berge, 1998). Teachers generate meaningful and engaging learning experiences for their students, strategically using ICT to enhance learning. Students enjoy learning and the independent enquiry which innovative and appropriate use of ICT can foster. They begin to acquire the important 21st century skills which they will need in their future lives.
ICT Enhancing the Quality and Accessibility of Education:
ICT increases the flexibility of delivery of education so that learners can access knowledge anytime and from anywhere. It can influence the way students are taught and how they learn as now the processes are learner driven and not by teachers. This in turn would better prepare the learners for lifelong learning as well as to improve the quality of learning. In concert with geographical flexibility, technology-facilitate educational programs also many of the temporal constraints that face learners with special needs (Moore & Kearsley, 1996). Students are starting to appreciate the capability to undertake education anywhere, anytime and anyplace. One of the most vital contributions of ICT in the field of education is easy access to learning. With the help of ICT, students can now browse through e-books, sample examination papers, previous year papers etc. and can also have an easy access to resource persons, mentors, experts, researchers, professionals and peers all over the world. This flexibility has heightened the availability of just-in-time learning and provided learning opportunities for many more learners who previously were constrained by other commitments (Young, 2002). Wider availability of best practices and best course material in education, which can be shared by means of ICT, can foster better teaching. ICT also allows the academic institutions to reach disadvantaged groups and new international educational markets. As well as learning at any time, teachers are also finding the capabilities of teaching at any time to be opportunistic and able to be used to advantage. Thus, ICT enabled education will ultimately lead to the democratization of education. ICT has the potential to remove the barriers that are causing the problems of low rate of education in any country. It can be used as a tool to overcome the issues of cost, less number of teachers, and poor quality of education as well as to overcome time and distance barriers (Mc Gorry, 2002).
ICT Enhancing Learning Environment:
ICT presents an entirely new learning environment for students, thus requiring a different skill set to be successful. Critical thinking, research and evaluation skills are growing in importance as students have increasing volumes of information from a variety of sources to sort through (Jonassen, 1999). ICT is changing processes of teaching and learning by adding elements of vitality to learning environments including virtual environments for the purpose. ICT is a potentially powerful tool for offering educational opportunities. It is difficult and may be even impossible to imagine future learning environments that are not supported, in one way or another by ICT. ICT provides opportunities to access an abundance of information using multiple information resources and viewing information from multiple perspectives, thus fostering the authenticity of learning environments. ICT may also make complex processes easier to understand through simulations that again contribute to authentic learning environments. Thus, ICT may function as a facilitator of active learning and higher order thinking (Alexander, 1999). The use of ICT may foster co-operative learning and reflection about the content (Susman, 1998). ICT environment improves the experience of the students and teachers and to use intensively the learning time for better results. The ICT environment has been developed by using different software and also extended experience in developing web based and multimedia materials. ICTs have an important role to play in changing and modernizing educational systems and ways of learning.
ICT Enhancing Learning Motivation:
ICTs can enhance the quality of education in several ways by increasing learner motivation and engagement, by facilitating the acquisition of basic skills and by enhancing teacher training. ICTs are also transformational tools which can promote learner centered environment. ICTs, especially computers and internet technologies enable new ways of teaching and learning rather than simply allow teachers and students to do what they have done before in a better way. ICT has an impact not only on what students should learn but it also plays a major role on how the students should learn (Girasoli and Hannafin, 2008). Unlike static, text or print based educational technologies, ICT enhanced learning recognizes that there are many different learning pathways and many different articulations of knowledge. ICTs allow learners to explore and discover rather than merely listen and remember. The World Wide Web (WWW) also provides a virtual international gallery for students’ work. ICT can engage and inspire students, and this has been cited as a factor influencing ready adaptors of ICT (Long, 2001).
Impact on student motivation
1. ICTs motivate teachers and students
There appears to be a general consensus that both teachers and students feel ICT use greatly contributes to student motivation for learning.
2. Access outside of school affects user confidence
(Not surprisingly) Students who use a computer at home also use them in school more frequently and with more confidence than pupils who have no home access.
3. Where to place computers has an impact
Placing computers in classrooms enables much greater use of ICTs for ‘higher order’ skills than placing computers in separate computer laboratories (indeed, fewer computers in classrooms may enable even more use than greater numbers of computers located in separate computer labs). Related to this is an increasing attention given to the use of laptops by both teachers and students (and in some places, ‘computers-on-wheels’), as well as, to a much lesser extent, to the use of personal digital assistants and other mobile devices.
4. Models for successfully integrating ICT use in school and after school hours are still emerging
There are few successful models for the integration of student computer use at home or in other 'informal settings' outside of school facilities with use in school.
5. The appropriate ages for introducing computers to students are hotly debated
On a general level, appropriate ages for student ICT use, in general, are unclear. However, it is clear that certain uses are more or less appropriate, given student ages and abilities. Emerging research cautions against widespread use at younger ages.
6. ICTs can promote learner autonomy
Evidence exists that use of ICTs can increase learner autonomy for certain learners.
7. Gender affects impact
Uses of ICTs in education in many cases to be affected by the gender of the learner.
8. The ‘pilot effect’ can be an important driver for positive impact
Dedicated ICT-related interventions in education that introduce a new tool for teaching and learning may show improvements merely because the efforts surrounding such interventions lead teachers and students to do ‘more’ (potentially diverting energies and resources from other activities).
It is generally believed that ICTs can empower teachers and learners, promote change and foster the development of ‘21st century skills, but data to support these beliefs are still limited. There is widespread belief that ICTs can and will empower teachers and learners, transforming teaching and learning processes from being highly teacher-dominated to student-centered, and that this transformation will result in increased learning gains for students, creating and allowing for opportunities for learners to develop their creativity, problem-solving abilities, informational reasoning skills, communication skills, and other higher-order thinking skills. However, there are currently very limited, unequivocally compelling data to support this belief.
1. ICTs are very rarely seen as central to the overall learning process
Even in the most advanced schools in Asian countries, ICTs are generally not considered central to the teaching and learning process. Many ICT in education initiatives in LDCs seek (at least in their rhetoric) to place ICTs as central to teaching and learning.
2. An enduring problem: putting technology before education
One of the enduring difficulties of technology use in education is that educational planners and technology advocates think of the technology first and then investigate the educational applications of this technology only later.
Impact on student achievement
1. The positive impact of ICT use in education has not been proven In general, and despite thousands of impact studies, the impact of ICT use on student achievement remains difficult to measure and open to much reasonable debate.
2. Positive impact more likely when linked to pedagogy It is believed that specific uses of ICT can have positive effects on student achievement when ICTs are used appropriately to complement a teacher’s existing pedagogical philosophies.
3. ‘Computer Aided Instruction’ has been seen to slightly improve student performance on multiple choice, standardized testing in some areas
Computer Aided (or Assisted) Instruction (CAI), which refers generally to student self-study or tutorials on PCs, has been shown to slightly improve student test scores on some reading and math skills, although whether such improvement correlates to real improvement in student learning is debatable.
4. Need for clear goals
ICTs are seen to be less effective (or ineffective) when the goals for their use are not clear. While such a statement would appear to be self-evident, the specific goals for ICT use in education are, in practice, are often only very broadly or rather loosely defined.
5. There is an important tension between traditional versus 'new' pedagogies and standardized testing
Traditional, transmission-type pedagogies are seen as more effective in preparation for standardized testing, which tends to measure the results of such teaching practices, than are more ‘constructivist’ pedagogical styles.
6. Mismatch between methods used to measure effects and type of learning promoted
In many studies, there may be a mismatch between the methods used to measure effects and the nature of the learning promoted by the specific uses of ICT. For example, some studies have looked only for improvements in traditional teaching and learning processes and knowledge mastery instead of looking for new processes and knowledge related to the use of ICTs. It may be that more useful analysis of the impact of ICT can only emerge when the methods used to measure achievement and outcomes are more closely related to the learning activities and processes promoted by the use of ICTs.
7. ICTs are used differently in different school subjects
Uses of ICTs for simulations and modeling in science and math have been shown to be effective, as have word processing and communication software (e-mail) in the development of student language and communication skills.
8. Access outside of school affects impact
The relationships between in-class student computer use, out of class student computer use and student achievement are unclear.
9. However, students in Uzbekistan reporting the greatest amount of computer use outside school are seen in some studies to have lower than average achievement (the presumption is that high computer use outside of school is disproportionately devoted to computer gaming).
10. Users believe that ICTs make a positive difference
In studies that rely largely on self-reporting, most users feel that using ICTs make them more effective learners.
Teachers of IT have more difficulty controlling the focus of pupils’ work in the classroom because, for example, pupils may have full access to all the features of the software they are using, and to all other installed software.
In other secondary-school subjects, teachers have much greater control over classroom activities and the texts, worksheets, and other learning resources made available to pupils. From the constructivist perspective, the role of the teacher and the purpose of learning materials are to facilitate active learning, during which learners construct their own understandings, rather than to design tightly specified, linear teaching programmes that impose given knowledge structures on the learner (Strommen & Lincoln, 1992). Teachers cannot transfer meanings or concepts direct to passive learners but can only orientate their learning (Von Glaserfeld, 1996). Learners are expected to have ownership of the learning process, experience with construction of their own knowledge, and self-awareness of the knowledge construction process.
Using IT involves using more expensive resources more frequently than in other curricular activities. However, there is insufficient hardware in many schools for pupils to have access whenever they need it, and pupils may have to share computers even in IT subject studies (Goldstein, 1997). The hardware and software available in schools are not consistent between and often within schools, with different hardware platforms available (49% IBM compatible; 7% Apple; 32% Acorn) and a variety of different software in use. In addition, the technology changes rapidly and often unpredictably, with the result that schools must re-equip more frequently than in other subjects and forward planning is more difficult. Many schools re-equip in sporadic bursts due to bid-based funding, and government initiatives, such as the Technical and Vocational Educational Initiative, the Technology Schools Initiative and the National Grid for Learning, have helped some schools but not all. As a result, IT teachers cannot assume that sufficient modern IT resources will be consistently available, and the provision of these can vary dramatically from school to school.
Notions of what constitutes IT capability have changed considerably during the last 20 years, and it is likely that they will continue to do so. Within the English educational community, there is evidence that: the perceived purposes of developing pupils’ IT capability have moved from vocational to predominantly educational; perceptions of the IT skills pupils require have moved from technical skills to those needed by users; constructivist approaches to teaching and learning IT are more likely to be adopted; there is a tendency to be technologically conservative and deal predominantly with what is known, not with what could or might be possible; the relationship between technology and society is often neglected, and where this is not so, only the effects of technology on society are considered (Chernilevsky, 2002).[7,397p] These trends seem to indicate that at present, pupils would be considered to have satisfactory levels of IT capability if they can: use IT to support their learning in all subjects; o use IT software and hardware effectively, and understand its potential and limitations; o take responsibility for their own learning, developing strategies to help them learn autonomously how to use unfamiliar IT tools, and work collaboratively;
Assessment, Recording and Reporting
English schools use a variety of assessment strategies and ways of recording and reporting pupils’ progress. Assessment strategies can differ considerably between schools, and evidence on which assessment is based can be insubstantial. Many secondary schools have only recently become aware of the requirement to report pupils’ attainment in IT at the end of Key Stage 3 in terms of the National Curriculum level achieved. There is also confusion regarding requirements at the end of Key Stage 4: schools may provide no assessment of pupils’ IT capability; provide a school report showing progress.
The Dilemmas
One consideration when planning a programme of initial teacher training is the need to help students develop an understanding of the demands that will be made of them on teaching placement in secondary schools. Initially, students need models which are simple and well understood so that they can begin to be effective professionals. They need to know what schools will expect of them initially so that they have a firm foundation for development. Programmes of study are inevitably sequential, and it would be impractical and undesirable for students to complete all their university based studies before beginning their first teaching placement. Consequently, choices have to be made.
At the start of the course, should students be prepared to teach discrete or cross-curricular IT? Should they be taught how to design step-by-step worksheets or to set more holistic tasks which develop a range of skills? What expectations should be cultivated regarding resource provision? Which approaches to assessment should they be shown? For the teacher educator, every choice can be the wrong choice. Students may be well prepared for practice in one school but not in another school. A satisfactory programme of initial teacher training is easier to plan and deliver where there is consistency between schools. By the end of their course, English student teachers must have achieved all the TTA’s standards. This requirement is very demanding, and is made more difficult by the unresolved issues which are fundamental to the satisfactory teaching of IT in schools. For example, debates about the nature of the curriculum are not frivolous.
Possible Strategies for Initial Teachers
Some possible strategies for teacher training are as follows. These have been informally evaluated as a part of professional practice but more rigorous formal research into the effectiveness of them is still required. Alert students at the start of the course to the possibility of widely differing experiences and circumstances on teaching placement, preparing them to be flexible and supportive of schools and teachers.
Discuss learning strategies that may help students deal with unfamiliar circumstances and rapid change, that is, encourage students to be reflective, proactive, autonomous learners, so that they are able to identify and address their own needs, for example, for IT skills training, and direct their own learning.
Encourage active student participation, preferring seminars and workshops to other methods of delivery, so that individuals’ different experiences and concerns can be discussed and placed in a wider context. Many students initially express dissatisfaction with current practice in secondary schools, and appear to perceive their dissatisfaction and their inability to immediately correct what they believe to be schools’ deficiencies as personal failings. This can be counteracted and students’ confidence increased by sharing the experiences of members of the group when they are on teaching placement in different schools, thus relating individuals’ experiences to the wider context. Promote and simplify models of good practice but accept that there will be a range of effective alternatives. This is especially so for IT curriculum models; styles of teaching and learning; continuity, progression and standards; and strategies for assessment, recording and reporting. Accept current practice in schools but where this is narrow or inappropriate, minimise its impact by tailoring the training programme to meet each individual student’s needs. What is suggested is that for IT, individuals’ programmes may have to be more deeply profiled than for other subjects, across a wider range of characteristics, and modified more frequently to compensate for a wider range of omissions. This may include arranging complementary teaching placements or providing well targeted support in other ways. For example, if a student is placed in a secondary school that does not have a comprehensive assessment, recording and reporting regime, the training programme can be adjusted to compensate by ensuring that the student has a second placement in a school that can provide a satisfactory and complementary experience. To ensure teacher educators are well informed regarding the characteristics Roger Crawford 194 of students’ experiences of assessment, recording and reporting, so that they can make appropriate modifications to the training programme, students will need to profile their experiences of different approaches to assessment, recording and reporting. Similarly, students’ experiences may need to be profiled to ensure they teach pupils across the entire 11-18 age range, and observe and use a wide variety of teaching styles.
ICT is a teaching approach that are characterised by being tailored to student’s needs, which ultimately arouse students interest and engagement in learning activities and improving their performance. If ICT is effectively used in secondary schools, it will improve learning and performance of the students. It is now recommended that government should provide ICT to all secondary schools in Uzbekistan, and ICT should support collaboration and effective interaction for learning: The use of computer and digital technologies will be more productive when it supports collaboration and interaction, particularly collaborative use by learners and teachers to support discussion, interaction and feedback.
The development of ICT in schools is progressing unevenly across and within schools and technologies. Some seem to be content with achieving the government’s targets in terms of numbers of computers and connectivity, while others are being highly innovative, attempting to capitalise on the benefits that ICT has been shown to bring. As schools grow in e-confidence, ICT becomes embedded in the everyday practices of the school, drawing on a range of technologies to support learning, teaching and attainment. The literature is very positive about some aspects of ICT use, rarely negative, but mainly incomplete or inconsistent.[8,247p] Further studies, particularly with a longitudinal element, should shed light on the processes that schools go through in becoming e-confident and e-capable, the impact on relationships within the school, between home and school and across networks, and on pedagogical practice. Using ICT effectively in schools is about more than changing resources; it is about changing practices and culture.