Introduction

ICT allow for a higher quality lessons through collaboration with teachers in planning
and preparing resources (Ofsted, 2002). Students learn new skills: analytical, including
improvements in reading comprehension (Lewin et al, 2000). ICT also develop some writing
skills: spelling, grammar, punctuation, editing and re-drafting (Lewin et al, 2000). Still new
technologies encourage independent and active learning, and students responsibility for their
own learning (Passey, 1999) ICT proves that students who used educational technology felt more
successful in school they are more motivated to learn more and have increased self- confidence
and self-esteem. It is also confirmed that many students found learning in a technology-enhanced
setting more stimulating and much better than in a traditional classroom environment (Pedretti
and Mayer-Smith 1998).

Role of Teacher in ICT

Teachers remain central to the learning process. A shift in the role of a teacher utilizing
ICTs to that of a facilitator does not obviate the need for teachers to serve as leaders in the
classroom; traditional teacher leadership skills and practices are still important (especially those
related to lesson planning, preparation and follow-up).
Introducing technology alone will not change the teaching and learning process. The
existence of ICTs does not transform teacher practices in and of itself. However, ICTs can enable
teachers to transform their teacher practices, given a set of enabling conditions. Teachers
pedagogical practices and reasoning influence their uses of ICT, and the nature of teacher ICT
use impacts student achievement.
ICTs can be used to support change and to support/extend existing teaching practices.
Pedagogical practices of teachers using ICT can range from only small enhancements of teaching
practices using what are essentially traditional methods, to more fundamental changes in their
approach to teaching. ICTs can be used to reinforce existing pedagogical practices as well as to
change the way teachers and students interact.

Using ICTs as tools for information presentation is of mixed effectiveness. The use of
ICTs as presentation tools (through overhead and LCD projectors, television, electronic
whiteboards, guided "web-tours", where students simultaneously view the same resources on
computer screens) is seen to be of mixed effectiveness. While it may promote class
understanding of and discussion about difficult concepts (especially through the display of
simulations), such uses of ICTs can re-enforce traditional pedagogical practices and divert focus
from the content of what is being discussed or displayed to the tool being utilized.
Incentives must be developed to promote effective teacher participation in continuing
professional development. Teachers require additional motivation and incentives to participate
actively in professional development activities. A variety of incentives can be used, including
certification, professional advancement, pay increases, paid time off to participate in professional
development, formal and informal recognition at the school and community levels and among
peers, reduced isolation, and enhanced productivity.
Successful teacher professional development models can be divided into three phases.
Successful on-going professional development models can be divided into three phases: preservice, focusing on initial preparation on pedagogy, subject mastery, management skills and use
of various teaching tools (including ICTs); in-service, including structured face-to-face and
distance learning opportunities building upon pre-service training and directly relevant to teacher
needs; and on-going formal and informal pedagogical and technical support, enabled by ICTs, for
teachers, targeting daily needs and challenges.
Effective teacher professional development should model effective teaching practices.
Effective teacher professional development should approximate the classroom environment as
much as possible. "Hands-on" instruction on ICT use is necessary where ICT is deemed to be a
vital component of the teaching and learning process. In addition, professional development
activities should model effective practices and behaviors and encourage and support
collaboration between teachers. On-going professional development at the school level, using
available ICT facilities, is seen as a key driver for success, especially when focused on the
resources and skills directly relevant to teachers everyday needs and practices.

Importance of ICT
ICT enhancing the quality and accessibility of education. ICT increases the flexibility of
delivery of education so that learners can access knowledge anytime and from anywhere. It can
influence the way students are taught and how they learn as now the processes are learner driven
and not by teachers. This in turn would better prepare the learners for lifelong learning as well as
to improve the quality of learning. In concert with geographical flexibility, technology-facilitated
educational programs also remove many of the temporal constraints that face learners with
special needs (Moore & Kearsley, 1996). Students are starting to appreciate the capability to
undertake education anywhere, anytime and anyplace.

ICT enhancing learning motivation. ICTs can enhance the quality of education in several
ways, by increasing learner motivation and engagement, by facilitating the acquisition of basic
skills, and by enhancing teacher training. ICTs are also transformational tools which, when used
appropriately, can promote the shift to a learner centered environment. ICTs, especially
computers and Internet technologies, enable new ways of teaching and learning rather than
simply allow teachers and students to do what they have done before in a better way. ICT has an
impact not only on what students should learn, but it also plays a major role on how the students
should learn. Along with a shift of curricula from content-centered to competence-based, the
mode of curricula delivery has now shifted from teacher centered forms of delivery to
student-centered forms of delivery. ICT provides Motivation to Learn. ICTs such as videos,
television and multimedia computer software that 7 combine text, sound, and colourful moving
images can be used to provide challenging and authentic content that will engage the student in
the learning process. Interactive radio likewise makes use of sound effects, songs,
dramatizations, comic skits, and other performance conventions to compel the students to listen
and become more involved in the lessons being delivered. Some of the parents of the respondents
opined that their children were feeling more motivated than before in such type of teaching in the
classroom rather than the stereotype 45 minutes lecture. They were of the view that this type of
learning process is much more effective than the monotonous monologue classroom situation
where the teacher just lectures from a raised platform and the students just listen to the teacher.
ICT changes the characteristics of problems and learning tasks, and hence play an important task

as mediator of cognitive development, enhancing the acquisition of generic cognitive

competencies as essential for life in our knowledge society. Students using ICTs for learning
purposes become immersed in the process of learning and as more and more students use
computers as information sources and cognitive tools (Reeves and Jonassen, 1996), the influence
of the technology on supporting how students learn will continue to increase.
ICT is powerful in presenting or representing information in different ways. This can be
through different forms like text and pictures or tables and graphs or by enabling changes to be
shown dynamically such as in mathematical modeling or by helping visualization of complex
process in science.
Information can be manipulated easily on a computer so that a pupil can make changes
and evaluates the effect of those changes. This can be where the information is of the same type
such as text in word-processing or numbers in spreadsheets; or where it is in different forms such
as between tables and text.
Computer tools can help students or teachers manipulate complex data-sets. This then
provides a context for effective discussion which in turn can help to develop mathematical
understanding. Visualization tools can help learners to picture scientific ideas or to develop
conceptual understanding.
It may be important, however not to teach skills in isolation. Multimedia presentation in
the form of talking books has been shown to improve beginning readers phonological awareness
but without improving their word recognition. An interpretation of this might be that children get
better at playing the computer game, but that the improved skills are not readily used away from
the computer. Benefits may only come when specific improvement is supported with other
learning on computers or linked to learning away from the computer and even then any
improvement may only be short lived.

Conclusion
The adoption and use of ICTs in education have a positive impact on teaching, learning, and
research. ICT can affect the delivery of education and enable wider access to the same. In
addition, it will increase flexibility so that learners can access the education regardless of time
and geographical barriers. It can influence the way students are taught and how they learn. It
would provide the rich environment and motivation for teaching learning process which seems to
have a profound impact on the process of learning in education by offering new possibilities for
learners and teachers. These possibilities can have an impact on student performance and
achievement. Similarly wider availability of best practices and best course material in education,
which can be shared by means of ICT, can foster better teaching and improved academic
achievement of students. The overall literature suggests that successful ICT integration in
education.

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