Md. Ahasanul Arefin Chowdhury :
(From previous issue)
The Government of Bangladesh has implemented a project called Teaching Quality Improvement in Secondary Education Project (TQI-SEP) to improve teachers’ professional capacities and training facilities. This project provided support for upgrading the physical facilities and equipment of the secondary teacher training institutes. The support included renovation of classrooms provided with an audio-visual laboratory and computer laboratory with internet connection in each institution. Fourteen vehicles specially designed with audio-visual equipment have been supplied to fourteen government teacher training colleges as mobile training resource units so that the colleges can expand training facilities to the remote areas of the country. Recently, the Honourable Prime Ministers’ office started running another project called Access To Information (A21) Programme (phase-II) that aims to enhance the use of ICT in all public sectors including the education sector with a view to increasing transparency and accountability and to reduce time, cost and difficulties in obtaining government services for all citizens. This project has arranged training programmes for school teachers in creating digital contents for teaching and learning activities in schools, and after successfully completion of the training, the teachers are given a laptop, internet modem and audio-visual systems so that they can use these devices for teaching in classrooms.
The following section reports findings from my interviews with teacher educators. Educators’ personal beliefs in ICT guide their knowledge of teaching about and with ICT. Their knowledge and experience’ appears to influence their self-efficacy and confidence in using ICT in education. Along with beliefs, knowledge and self-efficacy, educators’ professional environment, available physical facilities and infrastructure influence their adoption of ICT.
The educators interviewed perceive that ICT provides many benefits over traditional teaching-learning activities, such as multi-modal facilities, multiple communication mediums, a wider source of knowledge on the web comparing to traditional textbooks, and new opportunities to develop knowledge and skills. On the other hand, a few educators regard ICT as overwhelming and disempowering to some extent. For example,
some educators do not feel comfortable in using ICT in classrooms because of any technical problem with ICT that might overwhelm the lesson. They also claim that often students arc more interested in ICT devices than the learning content, and this interrupts teaching-learning activities. In contrast, young educators were found interested and confident in teaching with ICT.
They argue that ICT makes the lesson interesting and the students motivated in learning. It was noticed that the senior educators were less likely to use ICT in classrooms than the young educators. Since the ICT policies In Bangladesh advise using ICT in schools, the senior teachers, who arc confident in traditional teaching methods and not confident in using ICT, suddenly) feel themselves less efficient than the young teachers who know ICT, and this causes a feeling of disempowerment among the senior teachers (Chowdhury, 2012). However, all the educators believe that teachers play a vital role for integrating ICT in education so teachers should be prepared for using ICT. Accordingly, the purposes of ICT in teacher education have been considered as learning ICT as skills, as tools for teaching and learning, and as a medium of transforming education with the support of ICT.
Educators’ positive beliefs in ICT lead them to acquire knowledge of learning about and with ICT. They claim that ICT supports techniques to extend the traditional ways of presenting information to students, and to offer new opportunities, such as colourful slides instead of traditional poster papers. The visual and interactive features of ICT motivate students for learning by gaining their attention (Peck & Sprenger, 2008)) . Multimedia and interactive software are used to make abstract and unfamiliar concepts understandable to the students. It is argued that students who use technologies, such ;IS multimedia and hypermedia to present their own work show higher engagement in learning (Royblyer & Doering, 2010).
Application software, such as word processors and desktop publishing, facilitates spelling and grammatical corrections can scaffold students’ writing. Moreover, innovative use of ICT increases the educational opportunities of children with special needs, and different intelligent programmes are being developed that support the learning of people with sensory impairments and physical disabilities (Jane & Peg, 2003). Social networks, like Facebook, are also in the educators’ consideration to be included in teacher training programmes because these offer useful spaces to construct knowledge.
(To be continued)
(From previous issue)
The Government of Bangladesh has implemented a project called Teaching Quality Improvement in Secondary Education Project (TQI-SEP) to improve teachers’ professional capacities and training facilities. This project provided support for upgrading the physical facilities and equipment of the secondary teacher training institutes. The support included renovation of classrooms provided with an audio-visual laboratory and computer laboratory with internet connection in each institution. Fourteen vehicles specially designed with audio-visual equipment have been supplied to fourteen government teacher training colleges as mobile training resource units so that the colleges can expand training facilities to the remote areas of the country. Recently, the Honourable Prime Ministers’ office started running another project called Access To Information (A21) Programme (phase-II) that aims to enhance the use of ICT in all public sectors including the education sector with a view to increasing transparency and accountability and to reduce time, cost and difficulties in obtaining government services for all citizens. This project has arranged training programmes for school teachers in creating digital contents for teaching and learning activities in schools, and after successfully completion of the training, the teachers are given a laptop, internet modem and audio-visual systems so that they can use these devices for teaching in classrooms.
The following section reports findings from my interviews with teacher educators. Educators’ personal beliefs in ICT guide their knowledge of teaching about and with ICT. Their knowledge and experience’ appears to influence their self-efficacy and confidence in using ICT in education. Along with beliefs, knowledge and self-efficacy, educators’ professional environment, available physical facilities and infrastructure influence their adoption of ICT.
The educators interviewed perceive that ICT provides many benefits over traditional teaching-learning activities, such as multi-modal facilities, multiple communication mediums, a wider source of knowledge on the web comparing to traditional textbooks, and new opportunities to develop knowledge and skills. On the other hand, a few educators regard ICT as overwhelming and disempowering to some extent. For example,
some educators do not feel comfortable in using ICT in classrooms because of any technical problem with ICT that might overwhelm the lesson. They also claim that often students arc more interested in ICT devices than the learning content, and this interrupts teaching-learning activities. In contrast, young educators were found interested and confident in teaching with ICT.
They argue that ICT makes the lesson interesting and the students motivated in learning. It was noticed that the senior educators were less likely to use ICT in classrooms than the young educators. Since the ICT policies In Bangladesh advise using ICT in schools, the senior teachers, who arc confident in traditional teaching methods and not confident in using ICT, suddenly) feel themselves less efficient than the young teachers who know ICT, and this causes a feeling of disempowerment among the senior teachers (Chowdhury, 2012). However, all the educators believe that teachers play a vital role for integrating ICT in education so teachers should be prepared for using ICT. Accordingly, the purposes of ICT in teacher education have been considered as learning ICT as skills, as tools for teaching and learning, and as a medium of transforming education with the support of ICT.
Educators’ positive beliefs in ICT lead them to acquire knowledge of learning about and with ICT. They claim that ICT supports techniques to extend the traditional ways of presenting information to students, and to offer new opportunities, such as colourful slides instead of traditional poster papers. The visual and interactive features of ICT motivate students for learning by gaining their attention (Peck & Sprenger, 2008)) . Multimedia and interactive software are used to make abstract and unfamiliar concepts understandable to the students. It is argued that students who use technologies, such ;IS multimedia and hypermedia to present their own work show higher engagement in learning (Royblyer & Doering, 2010).
Application software, such as word processors and desktop publishing, facilitates spelling and grammatical corrections can scaffold students’ writing. Moreover, innovative use of ICT increases the educational opportunities of children with special needs, and different intelligent programmes are being developed that support the learning of people with sensory impairments and physical disabilities (Jane & Peg, 2003). Social networks, like Facebook, are also in the educators’ consideration to be included in teacher training programmes because these offer useful spaces to construct knowledge.
(To be continued)
