Teaching of ICT/ Embedding ICT in subject areas

I have been outside Mauritius for the past 8 years except for the odd holidays to the island. I teach ICT in the UK in a boarding school(Secondary). I was quite pleased to hear about ICT being taught in Primary and Secondary School. As an ICT coordinator, I have helped in the implementation of ICT in various subject. A well structured ICT Audit has to be carried out in order to spot any use of ICT in departments. A suitable action plan will then help in deciding time frames and objectives. Ideas of how subjects could use ICT in their subject: General subject: Using a website or local intranet. Pupils will be able to view lesson plans, scheme of work, classwork and homework. Physical Education: Use of Camcorder where pupil's performance are captured and showed to whole class. It boosts confidence and motivates performances. Arts: Using packages such as photoshop or ImageReady or Macromedia Flash and Fireworks. Photography. Mauritius does not lack fantastic landscapes and views! Mathematics: Use of simulation software. Programming software for children. Use of LOGO software. English: Organise Plays which could be captured of digital camcorder. The list could go on... I must also insist that resources is the key in order to implement all of the above. Hope these will help!

I wonder why there has not been any response to the very interesting suggestions made by Krishna. I guess we have not yet got into the cyber culture and are still in the phase of using the internet for surfing without any objective or attempt to use it constructively and share with others. I would expect teachers in the field to contribute, initiate some personal actions in their classroom and use this forum to report good practices. Let's see where we go from here.

Definitely the potential of using ICT at school is immerse and no doubts are beneficial to both learners and teachers. Gradually all primary schools are being equipped with computers. An initial of five computers were given to all primary schools, then another five computers were given which makes a total of ten computers in all primary schools. Eventually during this year another five computers will be added to the existing ten computers. With the computers at schools teachers will use these teaching tools to help learners for better understanding

I personally believe that all this talking about ICT wont bring the expected results as long as those who have the capacity to take proper actions dont do it effectively. In a country where everything is revolving about information and communication technology, where in every sector of the economy people are being trained to be IT procient (in our own department HT's and DHT's are being called upon to learn IT), our Honorable Minister has found nothing better than to phase out ICT as a subject at primary level. We teachers will be called upon to use ICT as a support to teach our core subjects. I ask myself what's the use if the child has not got a basic knowledge about computer handling. And our friends the ICT teachers will be recycled as support officers and will be in charge od a cluster of school. How are they going to deal with it when they will be asked to help in two or three schools at the same moment? And how will they move about from one school to another if their services are required in another school during the course of the day? For me it's all just a big bluff. The big question is: WILL THIS TASK ALSO BE THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE CLASS TEACHER?

i'm a primary school teacher and though i'm conversant with a computer it does not mean that i'm proficient enough to guide children in the use of a computer. Many a times I've been at a loss when I encounter troubles using this device. So just imagine the predicament of practising teachers who can not properly handle a computer let alone type a text, be faced with a problem that too in the midst of pupils. This will affect our images as pupils will feel that we are incompetent. Just being given a crash course is not enough for us teachers. As suggested by Krishna ICT is indeed a great tool to enhance learning but as it is rightly said it is not right to give a tool to someone who can cause more harm than good. Like suggested by Ally let our ICT teachers remain in our midst in a permanent capacity so that children can learn to interact with the different programs from professionals and at the same time be there to help us implement certain components of the schoiol curriculum th'ru ICT.