ICT and Its Implication in Learning and Teaching

By

Ezra Shiloba Gbaje

School of Library and Information Management
Emporia State University , Kansas
USA

Fall 2004

Introduction

In 1949, John Von Neumann, a computer scientist, said, “It would appear that we have reached the limits of what it is possible to achieve with computer technology, although one should be careful with such statements, as they tend to sound pretty silly in five years.” As we all know, John was very wrong. Technology has gone beyond anything he could have possibly imagined in the year 1949. It affects every aspect of our personal, educational and professional lives. We use technology to educate our children and ourselves, to run our libraries, and in some cases have become so dependent on it, we can't even add to numbers together without consulting a calculator first. Some individuals feel that the technology is just too much and actually fear dealing with in their day-to-day lives. Regardless of personal feelings, technology is rapidly evolving and making great changes in the world we live in.

Developments in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have brought about the merger of the computing, information, communications, entertainment, and mass media industries thereby providing a means of exchanging information anytime, anywhere in the digital format. In an educational context, ICT refers to the integrated use of computers and communications facilities such as the internet, e-mail, CD-ROMs and video conferencing within the curriculum to support teaching and learning. ICT on its own does not add quality to teaching and learning, but its application as an educational tool can accelerate and improve learning and teaching. ICT supports diverse learning styles because it allows information to be represented in rich and diverse ways allowing the user to either accelerate or decelerate processes for the purpose of understanding. Apart from providing powerful tools to help learners access vast knowledge resources and collaborate with others, ICTs also provide learners with powerful new tools to represent their knowledge with text, images, graphics, and video.

With ICT, teachers can tailor learning resources to meet the particular needs of a child at every stage of his or her education. ICT gives teachers access to great understanding that assist them in planning and programming cognitive development, while the interactive capacity of ICTs provides more opportunities for students to engage as creators and manipulators in the learning process. A great deal of the value of ICTs in education lies in their capacity to stimulate innovation and creativity in all areas of teaching, learning and management.

ICTs can be used to support the learning environment by providing tools for discourse, discussions, collaborative writing, and problem-solving, and by providing online support systems to students' understanding and cognitive growth. ICTs have changed the role of the teacher to that of a facilitator of collaboration and networking with local and global communities. It provides new tools to support communication between learning groups and beyond classrooms. Both local and global understandings can be enhanced using ICTs because expansion of the learning community beyond the classroom results in respect for diversity, including inter-cultural education, and equitable access to electronic learning resources.

ICT has made the shift from print to digital information possible which has created an impact on libraries and information centers. This has enabled online access and file transfer possible, with networking and sharing of information. The Big 6 integrates information search and uses skills along with ICT in a systematic process to find, use, apply, and evaluate information to specific needs and tasks.

ICT alone does not add quality to teaching and learning, but by providing an efficient and effective information delivery it can accelerate and improve learning and teaching. The roles of librarians and information professionals in an information based society have changed from relatively passive bookkeeper to proactive facilitator of knowledge and information by ICT. The profession is continuously evolving into something that is not only concerned with the traditional practices of processing information but also actively involved in the application of ICT in libraries and the development of new services using recent and emerging technologies.