Exploiting the I and the C of ICT
Why do we call it Information and communication technologies (ICT)?
ICT provides us access to a lot of information and gives us opportunities for unlimited communication. These are what we need to tap into when we use ICT tools or digital tools in the classroom – their potential for providing information and facilitating communication.
Why do we call it Information and communication technologies (ICT)?
ICT provides us access to a lot of information and gives us opportunities for unlimited communication. These are what we need to tap into when we use ICT tools or digital tools in the classroom – their potential for providing information and facilitating communication.
The web has a lot of
information. Think about the innumerable websites. Information overload, actually.
The web also gives us countless ways to communicate with others. Think about email, chat, twitter, Facebook, discussion boards, YouTube, etc.
Sadly, the only thing lacking on the web are learning tasks that make use of the potential of both. This is what we'll discuss in this post. How do we create tasks that make use of the information and communication potential of technology tools?
The web also gives us countless ways to communicate with others. Think about email, chat, twitter, Facebook, discussion boards, YouTube, etc.
Sadly, the only thing lacking on the web are learning tasks that make use of the potential of both. This is what we'll discuss in this post. How do we create tasks that make use of the information and communication potential of technology tools?
To make it easier, we're going to break this up and narrow it down - we'll first look at creating tasks that make use of the information potential of websites. (Needless to say, we'll look at tasks that utilise the communication potential of technology tools in a later post.)
Bring information and communication into classrooms through tech tools
Image credits
Think about the textbooks we use in our classrooms. They aren't written exclusively for our class, are they? Websites are like textbooks, they're written for a general audience.
What do we do when we teach a lesson from the textbook in our classrooms? We match the textbook content with our students' levels and interests. Sometimes we simplify a lesson, bring in a picture, share an experience, introduce a related concept, mention examples, brainstorm to connect a concept with students' prior knowledge, give additional activities as homework, etc. - all to make the lesson 'right' for our class of students.
Same is the case with using websites. Instead of using websites as they are, we should scaffold students to learn better from websites. There are many ways to do this. One such is creating navigating support documents discussed in an earlier post.
I've said this before and would like to say it again, using websites is the best way to build foundational level digital literacy skills in our students. Don't be misled into thinking "my students can do wonderful things with the computer, so what is there for me to teach them?"
Digital natives do not mean digital literacy savvy (a WhatsApp forward)
Our students, to the digital born and called digital natives, still need to be taught digital literacy (DL) skills. The best way to start facilitating DL skills is through tasks that make use of websites.
Ten years ago I stumbled on Tom March who tells us about five types of tasks that can be created using resources on the internet. In 2020, he is still relevant.
March's task types source
March discusses five tasks to build digital literacy skills: topic hotlist, multimedia scrapbook, treasure hunt, subject sampler and webquests. They are graded easy to difficult from left to right – topic hotlist being the easiest and webquests being the most difficult. The number of web pages to read for each task reduces from left to right while the complexity of tasks increases. (Do visit his page for samples for each task type.)
For those of you who are so engrossed here and refuse to visit Tom March, here’s an explanation: (I've linked each task type to March's examples.)
What do we do when we teach a lesson from the textbook in our classrooms? We match the textbook content with our students' levels and interests. Sometimes we simplify a lesson, bring in a picture, share an experience, introduce a related concept, mention examples, brainstorm to connect a concept with students' prior knowledge, give additional activities as homework, etc. - all to make the lesson 'right' for our class of students.
Same is the case with using websites. Instead of using websites as they are, we should scaffold students to learn better from websites. There are many ways to do this. One such is creating navigating support documents discussed in an earlier post.
I've said this before and would like to say it again, using websites is the best way to build foundational level digital literacy skills in our students. Don't be misled into thinking "my students can do wonderful things with the computer, so what is there for me to teach them?"
Our students, to the digital born and called digital natives, still need to be taught digital literacy (DL) skills. The best way to start facilitating DL skills is through tasks that make use of websites.
Ten years ago I stumbled on Tom March who tells us about five types of tasks that can be created using resources on the internet. In 2020, he is still relevant.
March's task types source
March discusses five tasks to build digital literacy skills: topic hotlist, multimedia scrapbook, treasure hunt, subject sampler and webquests. They are graded easy to difficult from left to right – topic hotlist being the easiest and webquests being the most difficult. The number of web pages to read for each task reduces from left to right while the complexity of tasks increases. (Do visit his page for samples for each task type.)
For those of you who are so engrossed here and refuse to visit Tom March, here’s an explanation: (I've linked each task type to March's examples.)
Let's start with the topic hotlist. It’s just a list of web page or website links (visit for a brief explanation of websites vs web pages) you have collected to save
students’ search time. A hotlist is like
a library - unless you give your students a topic to study, list the books
they should refer to, or give them a writing task, what will they do in a
library? Nothing. They'll browse aimlessly and waste their time.
Same is the case with hotlists. Not much learning can happen using a collection of web pages unless you create a task using them. The navigation support document (NSD) can help you create a learning task for use along with a hotlist.
Same is the case with hotlists. Not much learning can happen using a collection of web pages unless you create a task using them. The navigation support document (NSD) can help you create a learning task for use along with a hotlist.
A multimedia scrapbook is almost like a hotlist, except that it has not
just reading (verbal) resources, but also multimedia resources. If you create a list
of web page links that is a collection of reading, audio and video materials, your students get to see and learn a lot more about the topic. After visiting the links, you
can ask your students to create a multimedia scrapbook.
Let me give you an example. For the lesson "Nelson Mandela", (English, Class 10, NCERT) you can share links to an
encyclopedia entry, an interview , a museum, related newspaper clips, a video of a TED talk, a
song on Mandela, websites on South Africa, an interactive map, a
timeline of Mandela's life, photographs, speeches, letters, charity foundations...the resources are endless. Also, remember to share dissident voices – people who spoke against or
do not approve of Mandela.
Imagine the wealth of information the students get from such a rich collection of resources.
I'm not saying you must do this for every lesson. Do this for just one lesson this year.
Alternately, if you think your students have good search skills, you can ask them to locate web resources themselves and share them on the class Facebook page or WhatsApp group so that everybody can access them. Your multimedia scrapbook is ready!
The third task discussed by Tom March is a treasure hunt. It works just like a treasure hunt. You choose around 10 web pages that you’d like your students to read. Create one question from each resource that they have to answer after reading each link. Once they complete reading all the resources and answering individual questions, students have to answer one BIG culminating question that requires them to combine information from all the web pages they read.
After reading these links, give your students a topic (or topics) and ask them to create a scrapbook of related images using Microsoft Word.
To make the multimedia scrapbook task cognitively challenging, the "Nelson Mandela" task can be linked with the lesson on "power sharing and types of governments" (Civics, Class 10, NCERT). Or it can be linked with the lessons on "climates", "water resources", "agriculture", "energy resources", "manufacturing industry" (Geography, Class 10, NCERT). Or history...
Your imagination is the limit.
To make the multimedia scrapbook task cognitively challenging, the "Nelson Mandela" task can be linked with the lesson on "power sharing and types of governments" (Civics, Class 10, NCERT). Or it can be linked with the lessons on "climates", "water resources", "agriculture", "energy resources", "manufacturing industry" (Geography, Class 10, NCERT). Or history...
Your imagination is the limit.
I'm not saying you must do this for every lesson. Do this for just one lesson this year.
Alternately, if you think your students have good search skills, you can ask them to locate web resources themselves and share them on the class Facebook page or WhatsApp group so that everybody can access them. Your multimedia scrapbook is ready!
The third task discussed by Tom March is a treasure hunt. It works just like a treasure hunt. You choose around 10 web pages that you’d like your students to read. Create one question from each resource that they have to answer after reading each link. Once they complete reading all the resources and answering individual questions, students have to answer one BIG culminating question that requires them to combine information from all the web pages they read.
A subject sampler, the fourth task, offers fewer web links to read when compared to the other three. However, the questions are cognitively challenging because they ask
for students' personal opinion. After reading each
set of sites/ pages, the student is asked to respond to questions like 'what do you believe?' / 'what do you think?' / 'what is your opinion?' / 'comment on the writer's view', etc.
You see why it is challenging? The questions are not factual. Students have to read, understand, think, analyse, connect the new information with what already know or with their experience, and then form an opinion. Such questions help avoid rote learning, copying of answers and plagiarism. These questions usually appear in open book exams.
March's fifth task is the webquest. Ah! Now that is a task and a half!
There’s nothing to beat a webquest when it comes to optimal use of websites in the classroom. Webquests are collaborative and integrated skills development tasks that develop higher order thinking skills in students. Now, that’s for another day!
Here are two webquests I have always liked to share with teachers:
http://questgarden.com/126/41/7/110512074451/index.htm
http://questgarden.com/52/41/5/070613164641/index.htm
Do take a look. I’d like to do a video class on webquests. Let's see.
You see why it is challenging? The questions are not factual. Students have to read, understand, think, analyse, connect the new information with what already know or with their experience, and then form an opinion. Such questions help avoid rote learning, copying of answers and plagiarism. These questions usually appear in open book exams.
March's fifth task is the webquest. Ah! Now that is a task and a half!
There’s nothing to beat a webquest when it comes to optimal use of websites in the classroom. Webquests are collaborative and integrated skills development tasks that develop higher order thinking skills in students. Now, that’s for another day!
Here are two webquests I have always liked to share with teachers:
http://questgarden.com/126/41/7/110512074451/index.htm
http://questgarden.com/52/41/5/070613164641/index.htm
Do take a look. I’d like to do a video class on webquests. Let's see.
Meanwhile, start slaying with the other four.
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