“My challenge to you is to think about how to place the evolution of learning technologies in comparison with the progress from Technology aided Theater to cinema and beyond. It’s almost inevitable that a new technology would be first used by grafting it onto existing practices. Thus, the computer gives rise to computer assisted teaching and the Internet to online teaching. In principle, these concepts are equivalent to technology-aided theater.”

-Seymour Papert

“Seymour Papert is a mathematician and one of the early pioneers of artificial intelligence. In addition, he is internationally recognized as the seminal thinker regarding computers and pedagogy for children. A mathematician by training, his collaboration with Jean Piaget at the University of Geneva led him to consider using mathematics in the service of understanding how children can learn and think”

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Primarily, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) serves various roles in basic education. The choice of media does not influence learning or motivation. Media only deliver instruction but do not influence learning. Studies that evaluate the impact of technology n the classroom need to be carefully designed. If these careful considerations are made, no contribution on the learning of the students comes solely from the medium chosen.
The main aim of ICT in education means implementing of ICT equipment and tools in teaching and learning process as a media and methodology. The purpose of ICT in education is generally to familiarize students with the use and workings of computers, and related social and ethical issues. ICT has also enabled learning through multiple intelligence as ICT has introduced learning through simulation games; this enables active learning through all senses. . Initially, the computers were used to teach students word processors, spreadsheets, and slides. This, of course, is quite challenging since the above are all tools. These do not provide content, what to write using a word processor, what to tabulate and compute in a spreadsheet, and what to present using slides. In Kindergarten, where a pupil is taught how to write and draw, we start with the letters, we start with colors, and we try to improve those fine-motor skills. What do we do with a personal computer? Do we learn to point and click? Do we learn to find and memorize where the numbers and letters are on the keyboard? The number of students enrolled in elementary schools presents an additional challenge. Where would we get enough computers to teach all the students? And similar to other places in the Philippines, we become inclined to deviate from “education for all”. The computer classes will then be provided only to the cream of the crop, thereby contributing further to the learning gaps in primary education.
The availability of computers in schools certainly provides an opportunity to teach pupils and teachers’ office software packages but it touches on using ICT to facilitate learning in the classroom. The computer is a gateway to learning resources all over the world. Each classroom can become a computer classroom with a laptop, wireless internet, and a multimedia projector. And all subjects, except mother tongue and social studies, can benefit from presentations made by other educators in other countries.
In a nut shell, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) can contribute to universal access to education, equity in education, the delivery of quality learning and teaching, teachers’ professional development and more efficient education management, governance and administration.

By: Carmencita P. Bautista | Teacher III | Mariveles National High School – Poblacion | Mariveles, Bataan

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