It is clear that the world—and in particular instructional delivery within academia—has been progressively revolutionized by increased technological innovation. It just took a pandemic to push this methodology past the point of no return. These technological advances within the classroom will no doubt further evolve with the proliferation of AI, and there simply is no going back to the drawing (or chalk, if you will) board of traditional teaching methodology.
ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) has become the acronym du jour with respect to the label placed on this revolutionary mindset, having evolved from ‘’I.T.‘’ in the late 1980s, which itself emanated from the very simple designation of ‘’computers’’ about four decades prior to that. The label refers to tools which are used to communicate, share, and manage information.
How do students feel about this proliferation of technology in the classrooms, though ?
As a student at the Rabat-based International University of Health Sciences, I recently conducted a study on this very topic in which fellow students were provided a questionnaire enabling them to voice their opinions. The premise of the study was to hypothesize that ICT greatly facilitates the learning process while serving as a motivator, as well.
One caveat in measuring the efficacy of ICT, however, deals with the cultural context in which the teacher-student relationship has evolved. In societies where adults (and teachers, in particular) are perceived as the sole providers of knowledge, a certain amount of dissonance is more likely to occur with this rapid ‘’takeover’’ of ICT, as opposed to cultures which tend to value individualism, objective thinking, open-ended discussions, and self-directed learning.
On the flip side, though, more traditionally teacher-centric cultures tend to have lower spending per capita on education, and tend to be less affluent and digitalized. Students in these societies—when first presented with smartboards, and their own educational laptops, tablets and smartphones—likely have the tendency to be so ‘’wowed’’ by the shock value of something that they have never seen before that they become motivated intrinsically to rise to the academic occasion.
At any rate, as long as ICT is viewed as a mechanism to support effective teaching—and not as an actual substitute for the teacher itself—the prognosis for raising the educational bar looks promising. Effective ICT promises to increase the efficiency with which students learn, if indeed it is used as intended.
Certainly it cannot be disputed that ICT adds the entertainment value necessary to capture and maintain students’ attention and interest in a world where traditional types of communication—and stimulation, for that matter—have become obsolete. One can witness this in classrooms where teachers attempt to provide instruction through traditional methods involving lecturing, pen/paper, and thick paper texts. Often this abomination is met with incredulity and even ridicule by the audience, however young the composition of that class may be.
Indeed, in the aforementioned study, over 68% of respondents indicated that ICT adds entertainment to the lesson (compared with a modest 10% who indicated improved knowledge or skills, and 5% who attributed time savings to ICT’s implementation). In support of ICT, though, 82% of students felt increased motivation when the teacher used ICT. (Hopefully this was attributed to the actual substance of the curriculum, as opposed to the pleasantries of the ‘’bells and whistles).’’
Furthermore, ICT has been shown to increase both self-confidence and self-direction in the learning process, along with improving academic skills in and of themselves. For example, when students write blogs, journals, diaries, and emails and review their peers’ work via feedback, they develop writing skills. In addition, using a technologically-enhanced environment can facilitate both phonetic proficiency and reading comprehension.
Above all, the common denominator by which institutional administrators seem to gauge the effectiveness of professional educators these days seems to revolve around the concept of the student’s level of curricular engagement. As previously mentioned, when paired with both explicit instruction and guidance by the professional educator, this partnership with ICT has the potential to raise test scores, which really–at the risk of sounding jaded–appears to be the bottom line for educational funding.
In our return to the study, a modest 37% of students surveyed felt confident and independent while using ICT for academics. Yet 92% surveyed felt ICT is indeed important in the learning process. This would seem to indicate a desire to improve their technological skills for what they realize to be impending ubiquity of ICT in the classroom.
Finally though, on an even more encouraging note, participants were confronted with the question, ‘’Do you prefer traditional classes to ICT classes ?’’ In an overwhelming support of the technological revolution, an astounding 91% indicated an actual preference for classes in which ICT is embedded.
ICT—for so many reasons—is here to stay. One can look back fondly at the days when kilograms of textbooks, folders, notebooks, and dictionaries weighted down their backpacks on the way to the bus stop, but those days will never return. And quite honestly, do we really want them to?