ICT IN EDUCATION
A CURRICULUM AND PROGRAMME OF TEACHER DEVELOPMENT
Applying ICT to teachers’ subject areas
In the applying approach, teachers use ICT for professional purposes, focusing on improving their subject teaching in order to enrich how they teach with a range of ICT applications. This approach often involves teachers in integrating ICT to teach specific subject skills and knowledge; beginning to change their methodology in the classroom; and using ICT to support their training and professional development.
Teachers gain confidence in a number of generic and specialized ICT tools that can be applied to the teaching of their subject area. The opportunity to apply ICT in all their teaching is often limited only by a lack of ready access to ICT facilities and resources, which is why it is not fully integrated into all lessons for all students.
Infusing ICT to improve learning and management of learning
In the infusing approach to ICT development, ICT infuses all aspects of teachers' professional lives in such ways as to improve student learning and the management of learning processes. The approach supports active and creative teachers who are able to stimulate and manage the learning of students, integrating a range of preferred learning styles and uses of ICT in achieving their goals. The infusing approach often involves teachers easily integrating different knowledge and skills from other subjects into project-based curricula.
In this approach, teachers fully integrate ICT in all aspects of their professional lives to improve their own learning and the learning of their students. They use ICT to manage not only the learning of their students but also their own learning. They use ICT to assist all students to assess their own learning in achieving specific personal projects. In this approach, it becomes quite natural to collaborate with other teachers in solving common problems and to share their teaching experiences with others.
Transforming teaching through ICT
In the transforming approach to ICT development, teachers and other school staff regard ICT as so natural and part of the everyday life of schools that they begin to look at the process of teaching and learning in new ways. The emphasis changes from teacher-centred to learning-centred. Teachers, together with their students, expect a continuously changing teaching methodology designed to meet individual learning objectives.