WhyCT?

Why use and teach how to use Information & Communications Technology in our classrooms? After all ...

• I've been teaching for years without the need for it
• All the students need to do is pass the exam and get into the right University course
• They need to write exam papers not type them
• Social media is "social", it's not educational
• .....

Yeah but ... hang on ... What if we don't integrate technology into our subject area? Are we not doing our students a disservice?

• Will our students be engaged in the classroom (they are certainly engaged outside of it)?
• They may pass the exam but will they survive University?
• They may pass the exam but can they think critically?
• Don't we learn through engaging in conversations (face to face or otherwise)?

Social media is everywhere. For me, it has opened up my world on an educational level and made me think critically and analytically far more than any professional development day could ever hope to have achieved - BT (before technology). Now, the professional development day (with social media included) is a winning formula. It enhances PD by allowing us to learn, connect, interact and engage in thought provoking conversations.

If our classroom is the student's "professional development day", why not include those ICTs that enhance the thinking, sharing and collaborative process that will help our students to think critically and analytically. Students use social media already, but we need to show them how to use it to help them learn and grow. There are many applications, sites and tools that can be seamlessly woven into lessons to enhance learning, not simply to satisfy ICT outcomes. Our plan is to show you as many of these as we can and hopefully also the results of these.

But first...

Consider this ...

 

Posted via web from I.C.Teaching