ICT IN TEACHER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

ICT IN TEACHER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Researchers have identified many uses of ICT in relation to TPD that can be grouped in three categories:

• A focus of study that develops teachers’ abilities to use specific ICT tools, such as online platforms
• A delivery system providing teachers with information to improve pedagogy and content mastery,
• A catalyst for new forms of teaching and learning, such as inquiry-based learning, collaborative learning, and other forms of learner-centered pedagogy (infoDev, 2005). 

In other words, professional development in the context of ICT can be placed under three broad headings, namely

• Learning How to use ICT
• Learning through ICT
• Integration of ICT in teaching and teacher learning
• .Learning How to Use ICT
  ICT with its versatile nature has found its application in every activity related to educational practice. Some typical questions you may have to address while learning how to use ICT are as follows:
  • How do I use ICTs? (Technical)
  • What can ICTs help me do? (Functional)
  • How can I use ICT tools with so many students? (Logistical)
  • Will these ICT tools and technologies replace me as a teacher? Will my students lose respect if they think the ICT platforms have repositories of knowledge that I don't have? (Affective)
  • How do I organize my classroom to support the use of ICTs? How can they be used as part of what I already do in the classroom? (Organizational)
  • How can I learn from and with ICTs? (Conceptual)
  • How can ICTs help my students learn in different ways? How can they support the curriculum? How can they support my teaching? How should I teach using ICTs? (Instructional)
  • How do I assess student learning in ICT-based projects? (Evaluation related) 
  Another way to look at learning about ICT use in educational purposes is to see the various applications of ICT in educational setting. Following is a non-exhaustive list giving an indication on various areas of ICT application.
  • Learning ICT use for instructional planning
  • Learning ICT use for facilitating learning
  • Learning ICT use for assessment
  • Learning ICT use for school management
  • Learning ICT use for inclusive classrooms
  • Learning ICT use for strengthening school community relationship
  In all these areas of educational practice, ICT can be meaningfully integrated. But, one must know the ICT in the first place. For example, to develop digital lesson plans, one must learn word processing. In order to develop student record database, one need to learn some database management tools. A teacher needs to learn a spreadsheet application so that data can be organized, processed and analyzed. These are only few examples for what you have already discussed in various earlier units.
  Following figure gives a glimpse of illustrative Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) tools that are available for educational purposes:
  
  Figure1: An illustrative concept map of FOSS tools useful for educational purposes (Pic Courtesy: Prof. M. U. Paily, CC BY SA)