Benefits of ICT in Education - General benefits, Benefits for teachers, students and parents

Benefits which ICT brings to education according to recent research findings

General benefits

·         Greater efficiency throughout the school.

·         Communication channels are increased through email, discussion groups and chat rooms

·         Regular use of ICT across different curriculum subjects can have a beneficial motivational influence on students’ learning.

Benefits for teachers

·         ICT facilitates sharing of resources, expertise and advice

·         Greater flexibility in when and where tasks are carried out

·         Gains in ICT literacy skills, confidence and enthusiasm.

·         Easier planning and preparation of lessons and designing materials

·         Access to up-to-date pupil and school data, any time and anywhere.

·         Enhancement of professional image projected to colleagues.

·         Students are generally more ‘on task’ and express more positive feelings when they use computers than when they are given other tasks to do.

·         Computer use during lessons motivated students to continue using learning outside school hours.

Benefits for students

·         Higher quality lessons through greater collaboration between teachers in planning and preparing resources .

·         More focused teaching, tailored to students’ strengths and weaknesses, through better analysis of attainment data

·         Improved pastoral care and behaviour management through better tracking of students

·         Gains in understanding and analytical skills, including improvements in reading

·         Comprehension.

·         Development of writing skills (including spelling, grammar, punctuation, editing and re-drafting), also fluency, originality and elaboration.

·         Encouragement of independent and active learning, and self-responsibility for learning.

·         Flexibility of ‘anytime, anywhere’ access (Jacobsen and Kremer, 2000)

·         Development of higher level learning styles.

·         Students who used educational technology in school felt more successful in school, were more motivated to learn and have increased self-confidence and self-esteem

·         Students found learning in a technology-enhanced setting more stimulating and student-centred than in a traditional classroom

·         Broadband technology supports the reliable and uninterrupted downloading of web-hosted educational multimedia resources

·         Opportunities to address their work to an external audience

·         Opportunities to collaborate on assignments with people outside or inside school

Benefits for parents

·         Easier communication with teachers

·         Higher quality student reports – more legible, more detailed, better presented

·         Greater access to more accurate attendance and attainment information

·         Increased involvement in education for parents and, in some cases, improved self-esteem

·         Increased knowledge of children’s learning and capabilities, owing to increase in learning activity being situated in the home

·         Parents are more likely to be engaged in the school community

·         You will see that ICT can have a positive impact across a very wide range of aspects of school life.