ICT: A teaching tool, not replacement

WITH the Ministry of Education's (MoE) eHijrah strategy to implement ICT into education, experts reminded teachers that technology is meant to be used as a teaching tool and not as a replacement for explicit teaching.

At the Brunei International Conference in Engineering and Technology (BICET 2012), MoE Director of ICT Department Hj Abd Rahim Derus presented a paper "Integrating Information & Communication Technologies (ICT) in Education: the Bruneian Perspective", where he provided an overview of the eHijrah strategy to fully implement ICT into Brunei's education system by 2017.

In an interview with The Brunei Times, Hj Abd Rahim pointed out the importance of keeping a balance between direct or explicit teaching and making use of technology in teaching. Such practise is what he described as "blended learning".

"We are not going to fully digitise everything. It's still going to have a blend of traditional (teacher-student) teaching," he said, "otherwise, we don't need schools anymore if everything's online."

He added that it is important that students get social interaction with their peers and teachers in school. The danger of using too much technology, he said, is that children can get "too much engrossed in their devices, they can forget about their surrounding, social environment".

On the other hand, he said that technology promotes collaboration among students as it helps the more reserved students to overcome their shyness in interacting with their peers face-to-face.

"At times, it may not be appropriate to use technology to teach something so teachers have to look at appropriateness and effectiveness of their teaching or pedagogy."

"Moderation is the key," he stressed.

Travis Smith, National Manager of Expanding Learning Horizons, agreed with Hj Abd Rahim's views that technology should only be used as a tool, like any other teaching aid in the classroom.

In an interview with the press during the THiNKBIG Innovate Dialogue, Smith said that teachers need to be aware that the purpose of implementing technology into education is to expand their pedagogical potential.

"There are times where you won't use it because it's better to be outside looking at things, or photographing things, or drawing things on the ground and moving around physically while playing games," he said.

"So teachers need to be mindful of the fact that all technology does is increase their pedagogical potential, it gives teachers more opportunities for students to create more things, more powerful than before."

Technology can open up many opportunities in learning, which would otherwise be impossible, such as giving students an international experience with children in other countries, Smith said. He gave the example of using video calling facilities to give students a chance at interacting with students overseas.

" You can't just get all the kids on a plane and fly all of them to Australia, to do that as an excursion but you might be able to easily skype into a classroom and talk to some students," he told the press.

"It (technology) is a tool like every other thing you've got in your classroom and you will choose the best that you can for it."

The Brunei Times