Integrating ICT In Teaching And Learning: A Plan For Better Student Learning Outcomes

Teaching Philosophy

Technology is being used and applied in every business sector and the integration of latest techniques has shown marked improved in the industrial sectors all across the globe. Education and learning is one of the sectors that have also witnessed several transformations with the advancements in technology. The methods of teaching have transformed over the year with the emergence of online learning platforms and other technologies. E-Learning and Distance Learning have allowed the students to acquire knowledge and skills irrespective of their geographical location. The report covers a plan for the integration of ICT in learning and education.

Teaching Philosophy

Teaching philosophy shapes the structure, methods, and technologies used for teaching. For the current project of teaching following philosophies would be followed:

• The prime focus of teaching would be the development of individual students
• The environment of the classroom would be maintained as positive, friendly, fair and respectful between students
• All the students should be participating in the classroom activities and deal with issues for learning
• Assess the learning of the students through appropriate planning and monitoring techniques
• Teachers should keep communicating with the parents to ensure that they are aware of how their children are learning and development as well as feedback can be taken for improving teaching

Plan for Integration of ICT 

It is necessary to determine the approach to implement the technologies in the methods of teaching and learning. The approach shall be Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBoK). It is a project management methodology that comprises of five phases as initiation, planning, execution, control, and closure. The integration of ICT in teaching & learning shall be done with the aid of this methodology. The technologies that are to be integrated shall be identified in the initiation phase and a feasibility study shall be conducted to determine the applicability of the same.

The planning phase shall determine the estimates, such as schedule, costs, and effort along with the scope of the same (Jamali and Oveisi, 2016). The execution phase shall include the implementation of the technology for the organization or the education institute. There will also be migration of the data sets and services that may be needed and shall be done in the execution phase. The fourth phase shall be monitoring and control phase in which audits and reviews shall be carried out to track the performance and progress. Management of the changes shall also be done in this phase for improving the overall quality and outcomes. The last phase shall be the closure phase in which training to the teachers, students, and other administrative members shall be provided. Documentation and acceptance of deliverables shall also be done in this phase.

Classroom Set-up

The classrooms would have working areas for students where students would be able to learn through the use of different technologies such as interactive whiteboard, virtual reality, video conferencing, e-learning, electronic simulation, mobile learning, and more. These technologies would support the discussions and brainstorming that would happen between people.

The students would be exposed to the lessons through the use of different types of content including learner-centred content, engaging content, interactive content, and personalized content. For the presentation of this content, both synchronous and asynchronous methods would be used. Synchronous learning events are the ones that take place in real-time. The may include audio-video conference between the learner and the teacher, virtual classrooms, live webcasting, whiteboards, charts, and application sharing. Asynchronous learning is time-independent (Yoon, Lee and Wang, 2017). Discussion forums, emails, and blogs may be used as the platforms for carrying out this mode of e-learning.

Plan for Integration of ICT

Classroom Management

The classroom would be managed by the class teachers who would be assigning the assessments, mark attendance, and assign tasks to students in the class. For classroom management online, a mobile application that would have user interfaces for the teachers, administrators, and students. This application would have features like classroom calendar, attendance system, grading system, tasks, assessments, and discussion forums for students. This would teachers to keep monitoring the activities of students even after the class well as allow students to get connected to learning system even after class.

Interactive Whiteboard

The lessons videos and PowerPoint slides would be shown to the class using interactive whiteboard. On these boards, students would be presented with mindmaps and they would be able to do brainstorming. This technology would help the student gain learning from teachers that are not present in the campus through remote connections. They would also be able to participate in various learning activities. With increased interactivity between students and teachers as well as among students from the community, a positive environment would be created and the students would be motivated to learn(Skiba, 2013).

Virtual Reality 

Virtual reality (VR) is a technology that allows interactive computer-generated experience that is carried out in simulated environment. The technology offers the development of a virtual world that is strikingly similar to the real-world and incorporates audio and visual feedback. Other types of sensory feedback, such as haptic may also be allowed with the aid of this technology (Yilmaz and Goken, 2016).

Virtual Reality would be used in teaching to promotes interaction between learners and teachers through exposing students to real-world situations, processes and activities (Papanastasiou et al., 2018). The students would be able to use the technology for conducting actual procedures virtually to gain a hands-on experience.

Cloud Computing 

The school would have a cloud based database online for storing resources for students. This database would be connected to the library management system of the school such that the students would be able to access the necessary resources and books that school teachers would provide the students to study from or refer to while going assignments. The database would also contain other resources like practice sets or assessment sheets.

Cloud-based databases shall be done to organize and streamline the data operations. The adequate handling of the learning data and information will enhance the overall quality of the operations and will also promote safe data sharing (Hussain and Roy, 2016). The cloud-based databases will allow the students and teachers worldwide to securely access the data sets on the basis of their roles.

Social Media Communication 

Various social media platforms would be used between the teachers and students for posting and clarifying queries or questions. This would also allow students to follow and start discussions on specific topics related to their subjects (Isaacs, 2014). The school would have its own page as well as a group for student interaction such that the local page can be seen by potential students who can get connected to the authorities or managers of the school.

Classroom Set-up

Email Integration

The school would provide an email system to the students and teachers on which they can create their official or college email IDs for communicating with each other or others. For this, the school would use Google mail business account of the school. This email would be integrated with the cloud based Google drive database that students and teachers can use to share the documents within the school community online.

Blogging Platform

The school students would be using a blogging platform on which each student would be encouraged to create own blog as a part of an assignment. This blog would be used by the students to publish their thoughts, lessons learnt and views of the world online. Students would be able to read other students as well as post comments on their blog articles.

Pedagogy

There will be a lot of changes that will come up for the teachers and the learners with the integration of ICT in education and teaching. These changes shall be managed using a step by step process. The list of the changes shall be prepared in the change identification phase. The plan to manage these changes shall be formed in the next step (Shaw, 2015). The execution of this plan shall be done in the next step followed by the conduction of audits and reviews from enhanced monitoring & control. Once the changes are managed and handled, the changes shall be marked as closed in the list.

Risk Management

There will be numerous risks that may emerge in the integration process. Some of these risks may include technical faults and failures, information security attacks, operational mistakes, compatibility issues, quality issues, and legal issues. The risk management process shall include several steps. These shall include risk identification, risk analysis, risk evaluation, risk treatment, risk monitoring, and risk closure (Dey and Kinch, 2008).  

A risk management committee shall be formed in the project to make sure that none of the risks occur. Also, there shall be a disaster recovery plan in place to deal with the risks in case of their occurrence.

Conclusion 

ICT has become a necessity for every business sector. The integration of the business operations and activities with the latest tools and technologies provide several benefits, such as ease of operations, reduction of complexities, enhancement of accuracy, improvement of quality, and better performance. Education, teaching, and learning processes shall also be upgraded with the integration of latest technologies. Some of these include Virtual Reality, Internet of Things, Big Data Analytics, Cloud-based Database, and social media communication along with e-learning platforms and channels. With the use of the latest technologies and tools, the overall quality of learning and the ease of teaching will be achieved.

References

Dey, P. and Kinch, J. (2008). Risk management in information technology projects. International Journal of Risk Assessment and Management, 9(3), p.311.

Hussain, A. and Roy, A. (2016). The emerging era of Big Data Analytics. Big Data Analytics, 1(1).

Isaacs, D. (2014). Social media and communication. Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health, 50(6), pp.421-422.

Jamali, G. and Oveisi, M. (2016). A Study on Project Management Based on PMBOK and PRINCE2. Modern Applied Science, 10(6), p.142.

Papanastasiou, G., Drigas, A., Skianis, C., Lytras, M. and Papanastasiou, E. (2018). Virtual and augmented reality effects on K-12, higher and tertiary education students’ twenty-first century skills. Virtual Reality.

Shaw, D. (2015). Managing dualities in organizational change projects. Journal of Change Management, 16(3), pp.201-222.

Skiba, D. (2013). The Internet of Things (IoT). Nursing Education Perspectives, 34(1), pp.63-64.

Yilmaz, B. and Goken, M. (2016). Virtual reality (VR) technologies in education of industrial design. New Trends and Issues Proceedings on Humanities and Social Sciences, 2(1), pp.498-503.

Yoon, S., Lee, S. and Wang, W. (2017). Machine learning methods and systems for data-driven discovery in biomedical informatics. Methods, 129, pp.1-2.