ICT boost to students' learning

COLLABORATIVE and exploratory learning environments surrounded with an increased use of ICT can have a beneficial motivational influence on students' learning thus enhancing the quality of teaching and learning in schools and raising the standard of achievement in education in all subjects.

One of the main benefits for students in using ICT in their learning process is obtaining higher quality lessons through greater collaboration between teachers in planning and preparing resources on their respective subjects.

Development of writing skills (including spelling, grammar and punctuation) and fluency, originality and elaboration especially in language subjects will also be improved through this collaboration.

The Internet provides an easy and fast access to the use of current and authentic materials in the language being studied, which is motivating for the language learner.

This was said by Shahrizal Hj Emran, Head of Educational Technology Developmet Section for the Department of Information and Communications Technology at the Ministry of Education, in one of the parallel lecture sessions held yesterday in conjunction with the 18th anniversary of Teachers' Day.

The topic of discussion was titled "Interactive Technologies: Teachers' Tools for the 21st Century".

Through the use of ICT, the students are encouraged to conduct independent and active learning as well as assume responsibility for learning.

The students can use online facilities like youtube to conduct researches for themselves and through improved use of ICT, they can also make presentations by using powerpoint.

Students find learning in a technology-enhanced setting more stimulating and student-centred than in a traditional classroom due to the hands-on approach in the use of ICT.

However, there are still some challenges in trying to implement the use of ICT within Brunei, one of which is the pressing problem on how to reach, within a reasonable time, the needs of the poor, uneducated and those who live in rural areas.

Another important challenge is that effective integration of computers into education systems is unlikely to happen unless the process of learning and teaching between teachers and students in classrooms becomes interactive.

In 2004, the Ministry of Education introduced an e-Education project into the school system.

The project aims to provide reliable and efficient ICT resources in Bruneian schools, appropriate and relevant training for teachers, ICT pervasiveness in working and learning environments and appropriate transformation of teaching and learning environments. The Brunei Times