New technologies require new teacher roles, new pedagogies, and new approaches to teacher training
As reported in ICT COMPETENCY STANDARDS FOR TEACHERS from UNESCO, the ICT-CST an be used as a guide by those concerned with education decision-making and teacher professional development in preparing their training curriculum and course offering proposals. The UNESCO ICT Competency Standards for Teachers project encompasses all three of these approaches to educational change.
In my last internship, My job was to train primary school teachers how to integrate e-books and mobile applications into their curriculum. Most schools in Beijing are in the second approach-- Knowledge deepening, The curriculum are focused on knowledge application. In many subjects, students use keynote, interactive e-book, iMovie, etc to learn and do their assignment. By using iPad, teachers could introduce some real life problems to the class and students can collaborate to solve the problems with the support of multiple mobile applications. The teachers' roles are managing learning resources and guide students' learning.In most of the schools in Beijing, my job emphasise on help teachers design learning materials and guided learning process.
However, the two schools in Ning Xia province are still in the first approach--Technology literacy. Compared to Beijing, Ning Xia's economy is far less developed than Beijing. Education is thus influenced and left behind. Teachers are struggled with using basic technology like IE explorer and Microsoft Office. Some students feel difficult to concentrate during the whole class and most of them never used iPad before. When iPads were introduced into the class, most of students are excited and interested in everything in iPad. As a result, teachers have more difficulties to control the students. In this situation, my job focus on develop teachers' digital literacy to enable them integrate technology into class.
Overall, the Standards serve to guide teachers professional development providers in constructing or revising learning materials in support of these goals. We can classify schools in the 3 approaches, and know the features of different approaches in the 6 aspects:
However, the two schools in Ning Xia province are still in the first approach--Technology literacy. Compared to Beijing, Ning Xia's economy is far less developed than Beijing. Education is thus influenced and left behind. Teachers are struggled with using basic technology like IE explorer and Microsoft Office. Some students feel difficult to concentrate during the whole class and most of them never used iPad before. When iPads were introduced into the class, most of students are excited and interested in everything in iPad. As a result, teachers have more difficulties to control the students. In this situation, my job focus on develop teachers' digital literacy to enable them integrate technology into class.
Overall, the Standards serve to guide teachers professional development providers in constructing or revising learning materials in support of these goals. We can classify schools in the 3 approaches, and know the features of different approaches in the 6 aspects:
References:
- UNESCO. (2011). Transforming Education : The Power of ICT Policies (p. 237), chapters 2 and 8. Paris: UNESCO. Retrieved from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0021/002118/211842e.pdf