VELS

ICT supports knowledge-building among teams and enables team members to collaborate, inquire, interact and integrate prior knowledge with new understanding.

(Victorian Essential Learning Standards) 

Information and communications technology (ICT) in the classroom is a controversial yet revolutionary part of today’s education system. There are many arguments for and against its use which has resulted in a divide between different generations of teachers. I personally believe however, many teachers who dislike the use of ICT, simply fail to understand it and therefore do not know how to successfully implement its use in their classroom. Whilst there are still elements of ICT I am yet to learn, I believe that it can be used in many ways to enhance learning for students, particularly in my Learning Area’s – Biology and Chemistry.

Part of being in a Science class is learning how to conduct practical experiments to further expand a student’s content knowledge. Something that isn’t done very well however, is inquiry based learning – where students are expected to extend their knowledge through self created exploration. Experiments require collaboration and interaction between students in groups – an experience which can be enhanced and made more inquiry based through the use of ICT. Generally, when students carry out an investigative task, they present their results in a lab report which can easily be assessed. This however does not particularly extend their learning and does not share ideas within the classroom. This is where the use of ICT can play a role!

I’m sure many of you have heard of ‘myth busters’ (http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/mythbusters/) - a television show that takes science to its limits and uses inquiry based activities to create incredible science experiments (not to be done at home!). This show, while a little extreme for classroom practice, is a fantastic example of the use of ICT while doing inquiry and group based experimental activities. Instead of performing a regular experiment that requires a practical report write up, students could create their own experiments, which they can film or document. After this, students could present their findings to the entire class through various ICT platforms resulting in collaboration of ideas between the whole class (instead of an individual reports). This idea of creating a visual presentation to express experimental results and ideas links perfectly to VELS Level 6 – ‘students use a range of ICT tools and data types to visualise their thinking strategies when solving problems and developing new understanding’.

The use of ICT is an excellent way of expanding experimental activities, however some teachers may discredit it as a time consuming task and avoid its use. While I understand this line of thinking, I think it is a shame that so much of science has become theory based and not experimentally based. More credit needs to be put to collaborative inquiry based learning – even if it requires a little more time and effort. ICT offers teachers and students multiple platforms for this to occur and, dare I say it, may be more fun for students than writing up a lab report!! It also provides a way for students to share their learning and findings thereby extending other class members knowledge. Overall, ICT is a fantastic way to explore and expand group work in Science classrooms.