Information and communications technology (ICT) is having a great impact on almost everything you can think of including education both positively and negatively. It is highly influencing education from teaching and learning to assessment and evaluation.
Positive impacts of ICT on education
It enhances teaching; ICT enhances teaching in the sense that, teachers now teach with pictures and videos with the help of ICT tools like computers, projectors and printers. Before these tools were introduced, a lot of teachers used to draw images on manila cards and boards which takes much of their energy and time. The amount of time and energy used in drawing those images could have been reduced hugely by just downloading images and videos on the internet or better still, by just showing or playing them online for students in order not to waste time at all. Images on the internet are always going to be better than the ones drawn by teachers. In schools where classrooms are very large, teachers use microphone in combination with amplifier and speakers for whatever he/she says to get to the very last seated student in the class. Teachers also do more research online for dynamic and accurate teaching.
It enhances learning; ICT has made learning much easier than it used to be. Thanks to the internet, a lot of students now attend school, do exercises and assignments from home. Students now enrol into schools online, pursue a course and earn a certificate at the end of the course. This means that they learn from anywhere and anytime without being in any physical classroom. Students also do research and do assignments by themselves with the help of phones, tablets and computers. The communication software(eg social media) help students to contact their teachers easily when they need help and also help them to share ideas with colleagues even from different schools.
Easy and accurate assessment and evaluation; Adding, dividing and finding percentages of students’ marks manually in order to assess their performances either at the end of the term or the year always comes with mistakes because it is very tedious. “Thank you Excel”. It has made it a lot easier to add, divide and find percentages of figures and even help the teacher to rank the students based on their performances during the term or for the entire academic year.
Computer literacy and career opportunities; In this 21st century, each and every firm out there uses computers in one way or the other. The injecting of computers into the education system has really given all students the opportunity to become computer literate and prepare them for job opportunities in the future.
