learning with ICT: ICT as a constructive tool

My understanding on ICT as a constructive tool

Knowledge is not given and it is not transmitted from anywhere; it is built up by interaction among members of a group or culture and prior knowledge impacts the learning process. To build that knowledge, it requires effortful and purposeful activity and ICT is one of the that application which acts as a constructive tool in students learning. ICT helps learners to manipulate information, construct their own knowledge and visualize their understanding, the definition of the constructive tool. The session on constructive tool was convincing and I came to know that it was a constructive approach that helps learners to construct their own meaning of learning, drawing connection between their prior knowledge to the acquired knowledge and gives out the sense about their new discoveries.
while learning on ICT as a constructive tool, we were made to design a 3 minute simulation advertisement to attract visitors to our locality. so, i made on our festival where i was known to it since my birth and for further information, i had run through internet sources. With the combination of my prior and the new information that i have got from internet, helped me to come with 3 minutes simulation successfully. Not only that, i have learnt a lot on how to use animations to create a video in one slide which was new for me, even though the animations and designs were known to me.

The link given below will take you through my 3 minute simulation designed on the topic festival which helps me to construct knowledge in making video using power point and our local festival.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yjon308-fhJMetv-37Y8_ngCd-5N9lj1/view?usp=sharing

Integrating constructive tool is also one of the teaching pedagogy in 21^st century and it would be very beneficial to both the leaner and instructors to integrate the constructive tool in daily teaching and learning. Being a teacher doesn’t mean that we have to teach every little thing that is in the textbook, more than giving instruction and details of curriculum talks, its better to give the opportunity for learners to construct their own meaning of the learning and letting students to discover what they are learning.

As a 21^st century teacher, we should

1. Focus on exposing our students to a variety of sources to discover new knowledge and to make their learning more students center incorporating technologies.

2. Scaffold and encourage students thinking and learning rather than focusing on the completion of syllabus.

3. Understand students’ level of learning and help them, since learners are the makers of meaning and knowledge.

4. Focus on helping learners to participate actively in learning using wide range of resources on the net.

Examples of constructive learning that can be used in our daily life as a teacher to construct knowledge are:
1. desktop publishing - it is a creation of documents using page layout software on a personal ("desktop") computer which generates and produce typographic-quality text and images. It allows every learners to publish wide variety of content. While publishing, students may not be aware of their thought but they constantly keep asking questions to themselves and generating answer to make design decisions.

fig: showing how to carry out desktop publishing

2. Word, spread sheet and power point - computer features which help the learners to organised, record, manipulate and present their ideas in an attractive manner.

3. concept map - helps learners to visualize their learning and understanding resulting in the creation of concepts they learned. for example, if a teachers teaches on ICT information system, students can visualize it in the form of map to see their understanding of relationships among the concept collected.