ICT and Education

• Education

According to Ask.com we need an education in order to be well rounded individuals. We may not always like the classes we take in school but they will help mold us. Education is key to becoming successful.  Most of us will learn through the education system that is put into place by the Welsh Government.  The National curriculum is regulated by Welsh Government and Estyn, Welsh Government provide guidelines and frameworks for education providers and Estyn ensure that standards are met strict inspections of schools.

We require knowledge to learn and to process the information we have been given, we need to absorb what we have learnt so that we can process and use it to our benefit.  Huw Lewis Education Minister for Wales stated in his first address on the state of education in Wales "I  bring a deep concern about the attainment gap between those at the bottom of the social-economic ladder...and those that are better off".  This has lead me to believe that people from socially deprived areas and from poorer households do not reach their potential in education compared to people who are economically better off.  Young people in particular face challenges in life to become successful individuals and are required to keep up to date with technology that is required today in society and the workplace.

• Technology in Education

An interesting article in the Guardian on line newspaper stated, "The future of education technology is all about the cloud and anywhere access. In the future, teaching and learning is going to be social," says Matt Britland.  Storing data and information that we use all day and everyday is a problem, everything we use at school seems to be electronic, from registers to websites, handbooks to homework resources are all available on line. We are lucky at our school as we have the Neath Port Talbot Learning Gateway site that allows my school along with all of the other schools in the borough to store and share information, pictures and videos in one accessible place.  Matt Britland says that the future is about access, anywhere learning and collaboration, which I agree with up to a point.  When technology works it is amazing, but without it we seem to appear lost!

I find the media box app very useful for storing pictures and videos that the pupils have made, we can also share these between Neath Port Talbot Schools.









Technology allows learners to access information from around the world easily with the Internet.  Social media allows learners to share and and learn at the touch of a finger. I believe that technology allows us the freedom learn independently without others knowing, but you cannot always trust the site or equipment that you visit or use.  Learning about ICT has shown me that I have lots to learn and that I use ICT everyday in me job and at home, without being able to access our school management system SPaMs for short I would find my job extremely difficult finding out current information about my students or tracking of the efforts and achievements.

There is no doubt that technology is taking us forward globally in education and the world of work.  It seems vitally important that learners are encouraged to use technology at school, at home, in business, for leisure and pleasure.  I find technology amazing, exciting and sometimes frustrating but I firmly believe that it is taking learning to another level!