ICT IN EDUCATION
A CURRICULUM AND PROGRAMME OF TEACHER DEVELOPMENT
The infusing approach
At the next stage, the infusing approach involves integrating or embedding ICT across the curriculum, and is seen in those schools that now employ a range of computer-based technologies in laboratories, classrooms, and administrative offices. Teachers explore new ways in which ICT changes their personal productivity and professional practice. The curriculum begins to merge subject areas to reflect real-world applications.
The transforming approach
Schools that use ICT to rethink and renew school organization in creative ways are at the transforming approach. ICT becomes an integral though invisible part of daily personal productivity and professional practice. The focus of the curriculum is now learner-centred and integrates subject areas in real-world applications. ICT is taught as a separate subject at the professional level and is incorporated into all vocational areas. Schools have become centres of learning for their communities.
STAGES OF TEACHING AND LEARNING
Teaching and learning are best thought of, not as separate and independent activities, but rather as two sides of the same coin, interconnected and interrelated. Studies of teaching and learning in schools around the world identify four broad stages in the way that teachers and students learn about and gain confidence in the use of ICT. These four stages give rise to the model depicted in Figure 2.2 that shows the stages in terms of discovering, learning how, understanding how and when, and specializing in the use of ICT tools.
Discovering ICT tools
The first stage (Stage A in Figure 2.2) that teachers and learners go through in ICT development is of discovering ICT tools and their general functions and uses. In this discovery stage, there is usually an emphasis on ICT literacy and basic skills. This stage of discovering ICT tools is linked with the emerging approach in ICT development