Information and communication technologies in schools: a ...

148
ICT IN SCHOOLS
A HANDBOOK FOR TEACHERS
As soon as students start writing in this way, it ceases to be something nonsituational
and isolated, taught compulsorily and out of context (the plague of so
many elementary grammar classes). It becomes storytelling, re-enacting of the
plot of a play, a thought made visible, and a communication of created meaning
to others – activities already familiar and pleasant for all children. The itch to
read aloud what has been written amid this enthusiastic exchange occurs immediately,
providing powerful motivation to continue this joyful and collaborative
learning-by-doing.
Virtual reality of words and meanings
Let us reminisce for a moment about how the ABC is typically taught in an ordinary
school or kindergarten. The teacher typically demonstrates a set of different
large-sized characters, usually paired with pictures
of objects designated by the words that start
with the same letters. Then, the teacher writes
them on the blackboard, or parades three-dimensional
plastic or wooden items taken from a bag
and places them upon a desktop. The student
composes them into a scrabble-like series of twoand
three-letter words (on, at, or, dad, mum, boy,
sun, sky), and reads each word aloud. After the
demonstration, each student is given assorted
cardboard printed or wooden block characters
with an assignment to build and, hopefully, write
the same words on the paper. As any teacher knows, this is by no means a simple
enterprise, if only because of the physical obstacles involved.
The teacher’s immediate objective is to keep 25 or 30 students’ attention. In
practice, only the children sitting close to the teacher’s desk perceive the intended
message in its entirety. Those in the back rows inevitably miss relevant points,
shades, and nuances. They also are more susceptible to distractions and deviations,
ambient sights and sounds, the temptation to whisper with one another, or
just falling into a daydream. Now and then, a boy or a girl may start to scream
desperately and appeals for help because something went wrong. In coping with
these encumbrances, teachers strain their voices and exaggerate their gestures,
and periodically call by name the students who need to be woken up. And teachers
barely have time to look over their shoulders at what students are scribbling
in their workbooks, and they have even less chance to consult with or instruct the
more confused and perplexed ones.