Benefits of Using ICT in teaching
The benefits of technology in education have been lauded for many years. From Thomas Edison’s 1910 proclamation that film would transform education making books obsolete, to the most recent phenomenon of using the Internet for instructional purposes. Large sums of money have been spent over the years on the researching and investment of new technologies for education, such as the 170 million dollars spent in the 1950’s on testing the use of television for educational purposes by the Ford Foundation in the US, to the more recent investments in computer and networking infrastructure in schools which saw 40 billion dollars spent in the decade leading up to 2003 alone. With so much promised and invested, the question begs as to what the benefits of using technology in education are. Some of the identified benefits of using technology from educational research include the following:
Technology Improves Student Achievement on Tests. There is mounting evidence that technology improves student achievement on tests in both core subject areas as well as overall Grade Point Averages (GPAs). One of the major areas in which greater achievement has been seen is in math. Significantly higher test scores and grades have been registered for writing, English-language arts, mathematics, and overall Grade Point Averages (GPAs) among students who used technology in their study. Gains in test achievement are not only seen as a result of using technology to study, but also in the use of technology for assessment, particularly for students with special needs. Students that have physical and learning disabilities may underperform on tests not because they have not mastered the content, but possibly because of the format through which the test is administered.
Technology has also been identified as being able to improve the quality of student work. Research supports that technology has the potential to improve quantitative assessment performance in all curriculum subjects. However, there is also mounting evidence that technology not only has a quantitative advantage over traditional methods, but also leads to qualitative improvements; resulting in higher-quality student work. Students who use computers when learning to write are not only more engaged and motivated in their writing, but also produce work that is of greater length and higher quality, especially at the secondary level. Improvement in writing when utilizing technology is especially evident with regard to students with special needs and low-achievers. Such students appear to improve even more than both average students and high-achievers when doing so via word processors rather than with conventional Instructional methods.
Technology has great benefits to students with Special Needs. According to a study by Koedinger, (2008), improved writing is not the only area in which students with special needs benefit from technology. One study found that students with Dyslexia improved significantly in reading ability when a computer remediation program, Fast ForWord Language, was used and that in some cases dyslexic student scores were raised into the normal range (Temple, 2003). It was found that such remediation led to “improved language, reading performance and increased activation in multiple brain regions during phonological processing”.
Technology Improves Attitudes towards Learning. Many research studies have found that most students prefer learning with technology, which in turn leads to a better attitude towards learning as well as giving them more confidence. In a Cognitive Tutor study by Morgan (2002), students exposed to ICTs in their study were found to believe that technology “made it easier to do school work, made them more interested in learning, and would help them get better jobs in the future.” Students with special needs similarly felt that they did better on computer based tests and nearly all recommended the program for other students. Although many studies find that student attitude towards learning improves using technology, some studies have not found significant difference in student attitude or motivation. However, most research tends to support the correlation of improved attitude with technology use.
