Teaching science through Projector

Topic: Characteristics of Plants, class V.                                

Using ICT while teaching in a typical Bhutanese classroom has been a joy as well as a challenge. It was during one of my science class for class V when I was teaching the “Characteristics of plants” earlier this year, when I decided to use various means of ICT and tried integrating the use of ICT in my daily teaching. There has been various advantages as well as disadvantages. My main purpose of using ICT in classroom while teaching to curb the problem of limited learning resources and to fully utilize the advantages of using the ICT in classroom. The first and foremost thing that I’ve been benefited from using ICT is the ability to present my teaching aids and learning materials very clearly. This was mainly because of the use of projector to project my teaching aids on a big and wide screen through PowerPoint. By making my teaching aids on PowerPoint and presenting it on a big screen, I’ve noticed that students are more attentive and able to comprehend the teaching easily.

Another benefit of using ICT is the benefit to myself. By availing different medium of ICT, I was able to go beyond the curriculum and the books and get access to latest data and information which are up to date. Furthermore I could also browse for extra information which are deemed important but excluded in the teacher handbook. There are so many information and material that are available from the internet which made learning more easy and fun. When the content that I teach are fun and entertaining, the students have found it easy for them in retention of knowledge. Therefore with the use of such various means of ICT, the work for both myself and the student keeps getting easier. But the bottom line isn’t about how easy it is, rather how the students are able to retain the knowledge’s and thus, such kind of method have helped my students in being able to understand the lesson easily and quick. Not only that, at times when the students have doubts that even I find it tough, I can always avail the ICT facilities to clear their doubts and have a confident teaching to the young minds.

However, with every pro, there’s a con and even for ICT in classroom, I’ve faced several issues that needs to be addressed. The first and foremost issue is the unavailability of high speed internet in my school has always been issue for me and my colleagues. When it comes to integrating ICT in classrooms, access to internet has and will always be a crucial backbone. However, in my school due to lack of WiFi and high speed broadband, downloading huge files for teaching aids has been quite challenging. Browsing basic information and downloading small files have been made possible from mobile phone, however downloading video lessons and educational movies for students have been impossible. Students have been demanding me to screen them educational movies like in other urban schools but most of the times, my plan to screen educational movies and video lessons have failed due to the lack of internet. Not only that, but due to absence of WiFi access and, unlike other schools, my students were unable to browse and search information for themselves, which made individual and collaborative learning impossible.

Another challenge of using ICT in classroom is the fact that primary students don’t have any prior knowledge and skills in operating ICT equipment. My school being in a rural center, majority of the students are from uneducated background, they don’t own any laptops or computers at home. They don’t have fancy modern technologies. Because of this, my students are too hesitant to access computer and projectors in classroom. Even when I create group discussion via online means like WeChat, they find it challenging to utilize it to their advantage and at time relying on such means of communication increases the gap between me and the students, when my main purpose is to close the gap. Given the fact that modern technologies are very costly, not easily available in the market and it’s complicated nature, the integration of ICT in my classes have been challenging and hard. The school have just one projector that had to be shared between classes. The internet accessibility is very poor and the students lack of knowledge in operating such things have been challenging. For now projecting the teaching aids on the projector and screen video lesson once in a while has been successful but in the long run, to fulfill the vision of integrating ICT in my classroom will always be more of a challenge and less of benefits if the facilities are not put in place sooner.