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Using ICT to promote Independent Learning


Neal Watkin

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Above all, it's about using the technology to make learners think, to problematise the issue or topic in question, not just to 'tell them stuff' and deliver the answer.

Thanks for your comments Terry.

I firmly believe that ICT has moved on and education is well behind. In an age when some students have the internet and video facilities on their mobile phones, schools are still building ICT suites and computer rooms. The doors are locked and the keys guarded by a technician as if the Holy Grail is across the threshold.

If we want to create independent learners, we need to disband ICT rooms and distribute the PCs around the teaching rooms. We need to give students the choice about when and how they use ICT and see it as normal as reaching for a dictionary or ruler. If we had classrooms equipped with PCs and set problems to solve, students would be able to debate with each other what should be done with the technology.

Communication, as a wise PGCE tutor once told me, is the forgotten skill in the National Curriculum, and yet it is the only one that appears in concepts and processes of all subject areas. Liberating technology and putting it in the hands of a small group of students would foster debate and force students to prioritise, as well as establish roles. It would make them think about appropriate use of ICT and make them focus on its strengths and weaknesses.

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