1517-creating-holistic-technology-enhanced-learning-experiences

TAY, LIM, & LIM
support personnel to employ, hardware to be purchased and number of internet
access points have to be carefully considered vis-à-vis other programs and
expenditures of the school. Serviceability and accessibility of ICT would be
affected if there was a change to the number of technical support personnel,
number of hardware available and the number of internet access points.
Teachers’ beliefs and practice Since teachers who are familiar with technology
tend to incorporate the use of ICT into their lessons, special care was taken in the
selection of teachers who would be teaching these Primary 4 classes. All the
teachers were ICT savvy and have been using ICT for their administrative work,
leisure, as well as teaching in the classrooms. Most of the teachers selected had
good track records of ICT use in their classroom teachings so as to ensure the
success of this first implementation of the program.
The pedagogical concept of learning from and with technology (Ringstaff &
Kelly, 2002) guided the teachers in their planning of lessons. Broadly speaking,
learning from and learning with technology could provide a very useful conceptual
technological pedagogical knowledge framework when integrating ICT into
teaching and learning. The act of learning from the computer leans itself more
towards the behaviouristic theories of learning whereas learning with technology
has its roots from the constructivist and social constructivism paradigms. More
passive behaviours such as reading and listening are associated with learning from
technology, while more active behaviours such as creating, writing, and updating
are associated with learning with technology (Harris & Rea, 2009).
The main contradictions were between subject – tool, rules – object and division
of labour – object, as shown in Figure 3 lightning-shaped arrows. Teachers needed
to have relevant technological, pedagogical and content knowledge in order to
integrate the use of ICT into the teaching and learning processes. The teachers’
practice was also governed by national and school curriculum and assessment. The
teachers also needed to work, negotiate and be influenced by the various players
(e.g., school administrators, technicians and admin support staff) in the activity
system. For instance, how the teachers could effectively utilise ICT in their
teaching and students’ learning would depend on the how well the technicians had
maintained the computing devices and school network. The teachers also needed to
abide by the curriculum that was set up.
Curriculum The use of ICT was explicitly spelled out in the curriculum plans
and schemes of work on how ICT would be used in the classroom. Detailed lesson
plans were also planned and shared by all teachers. For instance, the use of the
digital storytelling approach in the teaching of languages was planned, shared and
adopted by all teachers of the school. Digital storytelling is a simple and effective
approach in allowing students to create their digital ‘compositions’ with digital
images and also personal digital voices. Images and student’s digital narration were
added to enhance the stories. Students also created pictorial graphs with the
spreadsheet software application to analyse trends and patterns in their
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