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The advantages of integrating ICT in teaching

 




    Information and communication technology (ICT) provides numerous advantages to teachers and students in the educational process. ICT-based education, when done right, harnesses the power of technology and encourages creativity, providing a more efficient, enjoyable and engaging learning experience. Integrating ICT into teaching brings a range of opportunities, allowing teachers to deliver more comprehensive and effective instruction, create a more productive class environment and open new avenues of exploration and learning. In this essay, I will examine some of the advantages of integrating ICT into teaching.

   Integrating ICT (information communication technology) into teaching can provide teachers with a plethora of information and tools that they can use to help them with their classes. Technology such as the IoT (Internet of Things), which is the name given to describe the connection of devices via the internet, and blockchain- a secure, decentralized, digital ledger which records data immutably, can help to make teaching more efficient and secure. ICT can also help students with their math skills by providing them access to resources and information that might otherwise be unavailable to them. Additionally, ICT usage can also help speed up the process of student assessments by providing teachers timely updates on student projects and tasks (Thomas and Bartlett Publisher, 2020). Therefore, it is clear that incorporating ICT into teaching can be beneficial for both teachers and students alike.


   Integrating Information and Communication Technology (ICT) into teaching can contribute to an abundance of advantages for both teachers and students. ICT offers teachers convenience and efficiency to their classes, by providing access to a limitless amount of information and resources available at their fingertips (Salleh and Salehuddin, 2017). Additionally, current technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and blockchain, can improve teaching methods by providing secure databases and data safety that be used with ease in the classroom (Ujhelyi, 2017). Furthermore, for students, ICT can provide them with access to resources and information that they may not have access to without the use of ICT (Angeli and Valanides, 2005). With the capabilities of ICT, it is able to better students understanding of the learning material, giving them access to a greater amount of resources that they can use to enhance their work, learning, and performances (Kedeke, 2016). 


  Integrating technology into teaching, often referred to as ICT or Information and Communication Technology, can result in a greater impact on student learning and engagement. Research has found that incorporating ICT into education can lead to a variety of benefits, such as improving attitudes towards learning among students (Vu et. al. 2020). Additionally, ICT can help to foster collaborative learning, provide new and rich learning opportunities, give students a sense of autonomy, create more customized learning to fit students’ individual needs, and extend learning to multiple platforms (Scharffenberger, 2019). As such, ICT has the potential to both enrich and improve the quality of student learning. Despite possible challenges, such as ensuring technology is used appropriately in a classroom and being familiar with the technology itself, overall, integrating ICT into the classroom can lead to numerous advantages for both educators and students. 


  Integrating Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) into teaching can be accompanied by certain drawbacks. For instance, there is a lack of quality and relevant ICTs, which can decrease educational performance and engagement among students (“Identifying Challenges and Barriers”). Many teachers also lack basic training and knowledge, resulting in a deficit of Information Communication Technology skills and competency in the classroom (Vuorikari and Jokela). Additionally, the cost of integrating ICT can dissuade certain schools from doing so, resulting in a uneven access to ICTs among various school systems that are specific to geography, social class, and language (“Integrating ICT into Education”). Ultimately, when proper resources and training are not in place for both teachers and students, any integration of ICTs into teaching can be ineffectual and counter-productive. 


  In conclusion, integrating ICT in teaching has many advantages. It encourages innovation, engagement and collaboration between students and teachers. Furthermore, ICT can help close the digital divide and build students' digital literacy skills. Finally, ICT can provide access to the latest teaching materials and resources, as well as help increase students' interest in learning. All of these advantages can help to improve the teaching and learning process for both teachers and students.

Works Cited

Angeli, C., & Valanides, N. (2005). Theory and practice of ICT in Education: Greek students' ICT skills and teachers' views on the integration of ICT into Greek education. Computers & Education, 44(2), 157-173. Retrieved from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0360131503000952


Kedeke, T. (2016). The integration of ICT into the teaching of mathematics for high school learners: Exploring the teachers’ needs. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 48(5), 545-560. Retrieved from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00220272.2015.1045170


Salleh, M.S.M., & Salehuddin, I. (2017). Incorporating ICT into Teaching and Learning of Mathematics. International Journal for Innovation Education and Research, 5(2), 2-7. Retrieved from https://eduindex.org/ijier/article/view/635/444


Scharffenberger, N. (2019). Advantages & Disadvantages of Technology in the Classroom. Retrieved October 4, 2020, from https://www.edudemic.com/5-advantages-disadvantages-of-technology-in-the-classroom/.


Vu, P., Hoang, H., Nguyen, N., and Nguyen, H. (2020). “Attitudes Toward Learning of Students Using Technology Devices in Education: An Extension of the Technology Acceptance Model.” Technology, Pedagogy and Education, vol. 29, no. 2, pp. 145-158.

Ujhelyi, G. (2017). Leveraging the Internet of Things and Blockchain in Education. JOIV: International Journal on Informatics Visualization, 1(2), 19-23. Retrieved from https://joiv.org/index.php/joiv/article/view/132/60

Integrating ICT into Education. UNESCO, 1 July 2014, www.ictineducation.org/personal/challenges-with-integrating-ict-in-education.


Identifying Challenges and Barriers to Effective ICT Integration in Education and Training. Microsoft Education, 16 Mar. 2006, www.microsoft.com/education/wp-content/uploads/2006/03/ICT_Integration_White_paper.pdf.


Vuorikari, Riina, and Jokela, Tero. “Facilitating Barriers to the Implementation of ICT into Teacher Education: An Intercultural Investigation.” Enhancing the Quality of Learning: Discerning Challenges and Opportunities, edited by Wook-Sung Yam, Springer, 2007, pp. 441–452.


Death by Powerpoint

ABCD Considerations in an ICT lesson plan


Planning a lesson in which new technologies are integrated needs more careful and skillful preparation than ordinary lessons. The teacher should take additional measures concerning his technological skills , those of his students , the hardware , the software , and the applications and the tools to be used in the lesson . Using the ABCD formula , an ICT lesson plan should consider the following points:

A = Audience :The teacher should be aware of the differences in mastering technological skills among students . Though they are all digital natives , some of them are more advanced than others in using the computer and the internet . In some countries such as Morocco , it's likely to come across digitally illiterate students in the classroom . A fact which must be considered in assigning tasks and making students work in teams and groups .

B- Behavior : In planning an ICT based lesson , the teacher should give clear instructions to students and be specific about the tasks the are asked to do .

C- Codition :The conditions of an ICT classroom should consider the following constituents :
  • The hardware : The teacher should check the availability of the tools to be used in the lesson such as the computers , the beamer , the interactive whiteboard , the network passwords and the compatibility of the running systems with the intended software to be used .
  • The software : The teacher should have an acceptable mastery of the software or the application to be used in the classroom . He should consider the copyright issue at the use of a digital resource . When the resource to be used is a website , website evaluation should precede introducing it to students . In the case of forums , students should be warned of the netiquette before they start posting publically .
  • The content of the digital resource should be pedagogically appropriate and graded to meet the objectives of the lesson .
D- Degree : The teacher should include in his lesson plan the way he intends to evaluate his students performance such as a well defined grid specifying the different levels of performance the suitable grades each will get .
A lesson plan which respects the ABCD forfula is likely to be successful as it takes into consideration the technological skills of the students , the preparation of the hardware and software , the digital content and the way of evaluation .


Delicious or not Delicious ?


The news which spread last December that Delicious was to be closed made Delicious fans panic and stampede for alternatives for their favorite social bookmarking service.Though Yahoo declared later that Delicious was to be sold not shut down , lots of Delicious users remained suspicious and continued to look for the best alternative to Delicious and the way to safeguard their bookmarks to it . The outstanding alternative to Delicious , at least in my view , is diigo
I was using Delicious as my default bookmarking service . But when I started using Diigo , I discovered how more advanced and more interactive it is . Here are some features Diigo has in addition to the basic features of social bookmarking it shares with Delicious :
Highlighting and annotation : In Diigo , you can highlight parts of the webpage you bookmark and send the provided annotation link to share it with others .
Sticky notes : What makes Diigo interactive is the feature to add sticky notes to your bookmarks and share them with others who may add their comment to the sticky notes .
Saving to groups : In addition to the possibility to save your bookmarks to your library , you can share them with the Diigo groups you belong to .
Bookmark images and notes : With Diigo, you can bookmark images and notes and save them to your image and notes rubrics in your library .
Sending to blogs : In addition to the possibility to send your bookmarks to your social networks such as Facebook , Twitter , linkedin , Diigo allows you to send them to your blogs and a different social bookmarking service such as Delicious .
For these dynamic features , I think Diigo is the most outstanding alternative to Delicious .





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Mashpedia as a search engine !


To take part in the discussion on search engines going on on nicenet , I 'd like to present this search tool I found interesting . Mashpedia allows you to explore topics in real time , aggregating results from different social media content services such as twitter , facebook , blogs , videos , books , slides and others .
The results are presented in website interface which allows you to surf from one result to another . If you are interested in video only , you go to the video page and if you are looking for pictures only , the right page to see that of images .

I hope my classmates in webskills course would find it interesting

Google or not google ?


What makes google my favorite search engine is its ability to bring me a big amount of results in a lapse of time . However these results though rich and various , remain not well classified and I sometimes stumble upon undesirable things in them .When I use google to look for a document for instance , google is likely to bring me results which contain many things other than what I am looking for and I will need to filter these results so as to select the ones I need .This fact makes using specialized search engines very advisable . For this reason I made a compilation of the best 10 document search engines I was able to find online and shared it on my blog allsharing
The list contains the following document search engines :
http://www.pdfsearchengine.org/
http://www.osun.org/
http://brupt.com/
http://www.09h15.com/
http://www.docjax.com/
http://searchdocs.net/
http://www.findapdf.com/
http://www.pdfind.com/
http://www.typepdf.com/
I hope you would find them interesting