Appropriate use of ICT

Ginco T&T

Introduction

The main aim of European In Service Training (IST) Courses for adult educators is to inspire adult educators to find new ways of engaging, motivating and teaching adult learners in the member states.To achieve this goal we have to keep pace with the evolutionary educational processes in order to use effective methodologies and tools.

The ICT based tools and methodologies should be a component of teaching and learning process in European IST Courses as many adults need newest skills and competences in order to.be competitive.in their work sector..

From the trainer point of view ICT should be integrated in European IST Courses for adult educators as they enable new didactic methodologies, different activities, more effective learning paths and a student centred learning environment.This methodological concept foster motivation, creativity, collaborative learning, autonomy, communication skills and team work.

This is the GINCO set of competences enabling European IST course organisers to deal appropriate with ICT.

In the table below we have summarized all the compiled materials for you. You can directly go there or read our comments on what it is and how to use it.

Using ICT as a component of teaching and learning requires a basic understanding of the impact of key emerging technologies on education and when they are likely to enter mainstream use. The NMC Horizon Report is an unbiased source of information that helps you easily to get a picture of it.

Analysing a range of technologies and their potential usefulness and benefits for course organisation and training purposes lays the foundation for a well considered decision on the ICT tools most appropriate for a specific European training course. The Presentation of ICT in education is meant to give you an overview of the technology-enhanced learning approach and trends of ICT in education. For your easier orientation the Glossary of ICT terms might be useful as well. In order to answer the question, what kind of ICT is suitable to your courses, we recommend you to carry out a Technology SWOT analysis .

When you have gained an overview of tools and shared experiences with some of them you should match your actual working and training needs to the existing technology: Matching working needs and technologies.

In order to strengthen your basic ICT competences and gain the ability to apply them to your existing teaching methods the ICTeacher training programme has been developed. It supports teachers with sources and tools to work with state of the art pedagogical approaches creating teaching and learning scenarios and materials including Web2.0. Even though ICTeacher is addressing school teachers it offers a range of learning possibilities for adult educators as well: In the ICTeacher training manual page 13f. you can find a competency grid in order to assess your current competences. The ICTeacher online training area is divided into 5 thematic modules, which are scenarios for teaching and learning with ICT:

Communication and Networking
Game based / Play based Learning
Digital Content
Mobile Learning
Reflection and Criticism

For each scenario three types of learning materials are available: themes (introduction, background materials, links to further online-resources), tools (information about function and benefits) and tasks (initial task, sub-tasks and overall task).

If you want to know more about how social networks can and should be used in Adult Education have a look on the Project blog ISTUS – Institutional Strategies Targeting the Uptake of Social Networking in Adult Education.

As a further outlook on ICT based learning mobile learning possibilities can be seen. A compilation of mobile learning resources can be found ind the ADL Mobile Learning Handbook ,which describes the meaning of mobile learning, its capabilities and offers, amongst others, considerations, examples, tips and tricks regarding the planning of use, design and development.