ICT

The Uses of ICTs Help Improve The Quality of Education

ICTs can enhance the quality of education in several ways: by increasing learner motivation and engagement by facilitating the acquisition of basic skills, and by enhancing teacher training. ICTs are also transformational tools which, when used appropriately, can promote the shift to a learner-centered environment.

Motivate to learn. ICTs such as videos, television and multimedia computer software that combine text, sound, and colorful, moving images can be used to provide challenging and authentic content that will engage the student in the learning process. Interactive radio likewise makes use of sound effects, songs, dramatizations, comic skits, and other performance conventions to compel the students to listen and become involved in the lessons being delivered. More so than any other type of ICT, networked computers with Internet connectivity can increase learner motivation as it combines the media richness and interactivity of other ICTs with the opportunity to connect with real people and to participate in real world events.

Facilitate the acquisition of basic skills. The transmission of basic skills and concepts that are the foundation of higher order thinking skills and creativity can be facilitated by ICTs through drill and practice. Educational television programs such as Sesame Street use repetition and reinforcement to teach the alphabet, numbers, colors, shapes and other basic concepts. Most of the early uses of computers were for computer-based learning (also called computer-assisted instruction) that focused on mastery of skills and content through repetition and reinforcement.

Enhance teacher training. ICTs have also been used to improve access to and the quality of teacher training. For example, At Indira Gandhi National Open University, satellite-based one-way video- and two-way audio-conferencing was held in 1996, supplemented by print-materials and recorded video, to train 910 primary school teachers and facilitators from 20 district training institutes in Karnataka State. The teachers interacted with remote lecturers by telephone and fax.

General benefits

• Greater efficiency throughout the school.
• Communication channels are increased through email, discussion groups and chat rooms
• Regular use of ICT across different curriculum subjects can have a beneficial motivational influence on students’ learning.

Benefits for teachers

•  ICT facilitates sharing of resources, expertise and advice.
• Greater flexibility in when and where tasks are carried out.
• Gains in ICT literacy skills, confidence and enthusiasm.
• Easier planning and preparation of lessons and designing materials.
• Access to up-to-date pupil and school data, any time and anywhere.
• Enhancement of professional image projected to colleagues.
• Students are generally more ‘on task’ and express more positive feelings when they use computers than when they are given other tasks to do.
• Computer use during lessons motivated students to continue using learning outside school hours.

Benefits for students

• Higher quality lessons through greater collaboration between teachers in planning and preparing resources .
• More focused teaching, tailored to students’ strengths and weaknesses, through better analysis of attainment data
• Improved pastoral care and behaviour management through better tracking of students
• Gains in understanding and analytical skills, including improvements in reading
• Comprehension.
• Development of writing skills (including spelling, grammar, punctuation, editing and re-drafting), also fluency, originality and elaboration.
• Encouragement of independent and active learning, and self-responsibility for learning.
• Flexibility of ‘anytime, anywhere’ access (Jacobsen and Kremer, 2000)
• Development of higher level learning styles.
• Students who used educational technology in school felt more successful in school, were more motivated to learn and have increased self-confidence and self-esteem
• Students found learning in a technology-enhanced setting more stimulating and student-centred than in a traditional classroom
• Broadband technology supports the reliable and uninterrupted downloading of web-hosted educational multimedia resources
• Opportunities to address their work to an external audience
• Opportunities to collaborate on assignments with people outside or inside school

Benefits for parents

• Easier communication with teachers
• Higher quality student reports – more legible, more detailed, better presented
• Greater access to more accurate attendance and attainment information
• Increased involvement in education for parents and, in some cases, improved self-esteem
• Increased knowledge of children’s learning and capabilities, owing to increase in learning activity being situated in the home
• Parents are more likely to be engaged in the school community
• You will see that ICT can have a positive impact across a very wide range of aspects of school life.

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Using Blog For English Teaching Process

         Based on (Peter Scott, Internet Librarian 2001) “Blog/WebLog is a web page containing brief, chronologically arranged items of information. A blog can take the form of a diary, journal, what's new page, or links to other web sites.” Its mean Blogging is a great way to share information on Internet. Blog to get knowledge, Blogging brings lots of knowledge. From Word Press to blogger, server to host, blogging to make money online, resources to online tutorials, bloggers get aware of all the small to big things present on the internet. Also blogging teach people to use internet resources effectively. Help others and get helped by other. Blogging not only means writing, it also means networking. People generally make close network through social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter and ask for help if any help is required. This is a general trend that blogger helps other blogger. This help may come out in a form of troubleshooting any issues on blog, or providing free consultation regarding improving the performance of blog. New opportunities, Blogging opens new opportunities in life. You can open your own services to offer various type of customization, freelancing services to make money online. Also there are probabilities to get good offer from other media company to acquire your blog.

       In addition, there are many advantages of using blogs for English teaching learning process. According to Godwin-Jones(2006):

• encourages feedback and represents both writing and reading activity;
• stimulates debate, critical analysis, and encourages articulation of ideas and opinions;
• offers opportunities for collaborative learning: projects, debates or interactive travel    logs;
• provides an environment in which students can develop skills of persuasion and argumentation;
• creates a more student-centred learning environment (students control the content);
• offers informal language reading.