4. ICT skills needed by teachers today
Many school leaders still perceive the lack of ICT-related knowledge of teachers as a major
obstacle to the realisation of their ICT-related goals (Pelgrum, 2002). The literature describes the
kind of skills teachers may need when integrating ICT in new student-centred learning approaches.
However, identifying which competencies each teacher needs to acquire is far from simple, as this
depends very much on the circumstances of their particular school. Personal teaching styles also
play a major role. Again, „one size fits all‟ does not usually work (Davis, Preston, & Sahin, 2009).
We also need to recognise that substantial learning can take place while teaching, and even
learning, from students.
The UNESCO (2008) ICT competency standards for teachers go further, describing three
approaches: technological literacy, knowledge deepening, and knowledge creation. These
approaches are seen as part of a development continuum, and each approach has different
implications for education reform and improvement, plus different implications for changes in the
components of the education system: Pedagogy, teacher practice and professional development,
curriculum and assessment, and school organisation and administration. ICT plays a unique, but
complementary role in each of these approaches, with new technologies requiring new teacher
roles, new pedagogies, and new strands to teacher education. The successful integration of ICT into
the classroom depends on the ability of teachers to structure their learning environments in nontraditional
ways, merging technology with new pedagogies. This requires a very different set of
classroom management skills to be developed, together with innovative ways of using technology
to enhance learning and encourage technology literacy, knowledge deepening and knowledge
creation. At the knowledge creation end of the continuum, the curriculum goes beyond a focus on
subject knowledge to explicitly include 21st century skills that are needed to construct new
knowledge and engage in lifelong learning – the ability to collaborate, communicate, create,
innovate and think critically. Teacher development is seen as a crucial component here. It ideally
coordinates teachers‟ sophisticated professional skills with the pervasive use of technology. This in
turn supports students who are creating knowledge products, and who are engaged in planning and
managing their own learning goals in a school that is a continuously improving, learning
organisation. Teachers model the learning process for students, and serve as model learners through
their own ongoing professional development, both individually and collaboratively.