L12 Information Technology in Support of Student-Centered Learning Classroom

 

            Inside the four walls in our school, traditionally teacher stands in front her students or sits behind his desks, while the students usually sit on an arranged, neat columns and rows of student chairs. This has been followed to maintain classroom discipline as well as the teachers controls classroom activities through lecture presentation and interactive class discussion.

            However, after spending so many minutes in lesson presentation and class management, students can get restless their attention span is at its limit already. Often enough, teacher has to also manage misbehaviour in class. To prevent this situation, teachers often make students take time to work individually activity to manage the situation. On the other hand, another option is now presented and this is adopting the idea of developing students to be independent learners with the end of making them critical and creative thinkers.

The SCL classroom

          John Dewey described the traditional learning process in which the teacher pours information to students learners, much like pouring water from a jug into cups. This learning approach is also known as direct instruction, and it has worked well for obtaining many kind of learning outcomes. The problem of this is however, the fact that the world’s societies have began to change.

           In industrialized societies, we find knowledge based economies, workers depends on information that can be accessed through information and communication technologies (ICTs). Desiring to gain effectiveness, efficiency and economy in administration and instructions, schools in a developed economy have also adopted the support of ICTs. Their students have become active not passive learners, who can interact with other learners, demonstrating independence and self-awareness in the learning process.

Student characterizes the new school classroom environment individually or in group:

Ø      Performing computer word processing for text or graph presentation

Ø      Preparing power-point presentation

Ø      Searching for information on the internet

Ø      Brainstorming on ideas, problems and project plans

Ø      As needed, the teacher facilitating instruction, also giving individual instruction to serve individual needs.

            Nowadays, there is departure from traditional worksheet to a new one, read-and-answer, and drill-and-practice activities. Students also no longer need to mark the test of peers since the computer has programs for test evaluation and computerized scoring of results.

            In this trend in teaching-and-learning, we must now and understand that traditional classroom activities-especially in less developed countries continue to have a strong place in the classroom. In spite of this setback experienced in some countries, the option has now been opened for the modern teacher to shift gears to student’s centred learning.