ICT & VELS: ICT supports knowledge-building among teams and enables team members to collaborate, inquire, interact and integrate prior knowledge with new understanding.

As a teacher candidate with science methods, ICT has and will contribute to the collaborative atmosphere in the scientific classroom. Student interaction and discussion is simply not just a face-to-face classroom activity anymore. I chose this VELS tatement because I believe that using ICT in science improves student inquiry and interaction.

In my experience, using ICT in education has been tried in a variety of ways, but most of which have had a positive effect on collaborative inquiry-based classrooms. Constructing an interactive, student-centred classroom using ICT has the capacity to reveal some profound learning. Teachers nowadays are provided with an vast array of options in which to set up an online community for their students to collaborate and organise.

There are many reasons to work towards a collaborative, student-centred classroom; one major reason being the real-world application of highly developed communication skills. In the global economy, the use of technology is essential for communication.  “Students apply a range of techniques, equipment and procedures that minimise the cost, effort and time of processing ICT solutions and maximise the accuracy, clarity and completeness of the information saving/manipulating.” (VELS, 2011)

As the trend to move from teacher-centred to student-centred classrooms continues, new ways to challenge and motivate students are required to help scaffold and guide students through inquiry or project-based tasks. Providing students with digital tools to solve problems and work as a team will promote learning as well as social cohesion with an efficient way to record and organise the classroom and help students to connect ideas from lesson to lesson.

Shifting towards an ICT-integrated curriculum is not without it’s challenges. I believe ICT will gradually make a comfortable transition into full use.

As mentioned previously, an overwhelming array of options are available, which can be confusing and difficult for teachers to know which to use. On top of that, new technologies are being created everyday!

The online world also has dangers which students need to be made aware of. This is a challenging assignment for teachers to properly execute, but for teachers who are successful, the rewards are plenty.

“Students use accepted protocols to communicate regularly online with peers, experts, and others, expressing their messages in language appropriate to the selected form of communication, and demonstrating respect for cultural differences.” (VELS)

There are endless possibilities for the use of ICT in collaborative activities, with students themselves offering creative input to using ICT for learning. It is becoming clear that learning through computers rather than around them offers more opportunities for students to go beyond the expected. (Letinen, 2003)

Science, in particular, has advantages when it comes to organising class data from experiments, discussions of results, and other collaborative means in the scientific process. Inquiry-based science has great potential and ICT provides many opportunities to guide and scaffold the scientific process.

In conclusion, ICT enriches student-centred, collaborative and team-oriented classroom activities and helps to manage an atmosphere where students build knowledge by asking the right questions and knowing which tool to use to gain understanding in the world.

References

(2011). "ICT for collaborative teaching and learning." The Education Forum. Retrieved September 14th, 2011, from http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=3289.

(2011). Victorian Essential Learning Standards: Information and Communications Technology. Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority.

Lehtinen, E. (2003). Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning: An Approach to Powerful Learning Environments. Powerful learning environments: unraveling basic components and dimensions, European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction.