HOW WILL ICT CHANGE THE FUTURE OF EDUCATION?

      Educators from Malaysia, Australia and India foresee a future in which digital books, hybrid mobile computers and touch-screen writing tablets will replace the text book, chalk and blackboard, according to a series of FutureGov interviews on how technology will change the future of education. 

            Emeritus Professor Jonathan Anderson, Flinders University of South Australia, predicts that knowledge in the form of books and printed matter will rapidly become digitised. Today, full text of over seven million books can be accessed through Google Books. This number is growing quickly as Google expands its digitisation effort with international associations, publishers and authors. Companies such as Amazon.com and Sony are also contributing to this development.

            Many libraries in Asia Pacific are aggressively digitising content. The National Library in Kolkata – the largest library in India – is going through a massive digitisation effort. “We have digitised 9140 books and converted close to 180,000 records into machine-readable formats last year,” said Asesh Ghatak, Library and Information Officer, National Library, Belvedere, Kolkata in India. 

            New mobile devices will emerge and take on a great role in the way students learn. “We are likely to see a convergence of mobile and PC technologies as rival chip manufacturers enter each other’s territory,” explained Anderson. He predicted that smart phones will become more like computers and vice versa.

            Dr Norrizan Razali, Senior Manager, Smart School Department, Multimedia Development Corporation in Malaysia agreed. “One of the key emerging technologies that will transform schools is mobile devices. Hybrid devices which are a mix of mobile phones and personal notebooks,” she added. Razali believed that such a mobile device will make a great impact to students, especially in rural Malaysia. However, it must first be durable and affordable – below RM 1000 (US$292) each.

            The increasing pervasiveness of cloud computing will support such a device. Cloud enables operating systems to be trimmed down and applications to rely less on end-clients for processing power and memory space. Also, touch-screen technology will become the key method students interact with ICT devices.

            “Such a device will be held in the hand like a mobile phone but it will have a larger surface, something like a writing tablet. It will be used for all kinds of communicating – browsing the internet, emailing, reading books and other materials online, phoning and texting, and social networking with friends and colleagues,” Anderson elaborated.

             Social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter will continue to rule students’ time. According to a recent Australian study, Facebook was the fourth most visited site. On average, users spend an average of 26.5 hours each week online, and a quarter of that time – 6.5 hours – is dedicated to Facebook. Visits to Twitter increased 1000 per cent compared to the year before.

             While it is not easy to spell out the implications for education, Anderson advised that educators need to keep abreast of the latest ICT developments and echoed the need for teachers to be brought up to speed on new technology.








by: Mark Joseph Bumagat

Ng, K.(2010, Jan. 5)."How will ICT Change the Future of  Education?".Asia Pacific Future Gov. 
                 Retrieved 23 Jan. 2014 from http://www.futuregov.asia/articles/2010/jan/05/how-will-ict-change-
                  future-education/

Timeline of ICT and Technology
(1939 - Present Day) 

1939- Hewlett Packard founded 

 

Hewlett-Packard is founded. David Packard and Bill Hewlett found Hewlett-Packard in a Palo Alto, California garage.

Their first product was the HP 200A Audio Oscillator, which rapidly becomes a popular piece of test equipment for engineers.

Walt Disney ordered eight of the 200B model to use as sound effects generators for the 1940 movie "Fantasia".

1943- Project Whirlwind 

Project Whirlwind begins. During World War II, the U.S. Navy approached the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) about building a flight simulator to train bomber crews.

The team first built a large analog computer, but found it inaccurate and inflexible. After designers saw a demonstration of the ENIAC computer, they decided on building a digital computer.

1944- Harvard Mark-1 completed

Conceived by Harvard professor Howard Aiken, and designed and built by IBM, the Harvard Mark-1 was a room-sized, relay-based calculator.

The machine had a fifty-foot long camshaft that synchronized the machine’s thousands of component parts.

The Mark-1 was used to produce mathematical tables but was soon superseded by stored program computers.

1945- EDVAC programming 

 
John von Neumann wrote "First Draft of a report on the EDVAC" in which he outlined the architecture of a stored-program computer.

 Electronic storage of programming information and data eliminated the need for the more clumsy methods of programming, such as punched paper tape — a concept that has characterized mainstream computer development since 1945.

1948- IBM SSEC

 IBM´s Selective Sequence Electronic Calculator computed scientific data in public display near the company´s Manhattan headquarters.

Before its decommissioning in 1952, the SSEC produced the moon-position tables used for plotting the course of the 1969 Apollo flight to the moon. 

1950- First commerical computer

 Engineering Research Associates of built the ERA 1101, the first commercially produced computer; the company´s first customer was the U.S. Navy. It held 1 million bits on its magnetic drum, the earliest magnetic storage devices.

Drums registered information as magnetic pulses in tracks around a metal cylinder. Read/write heads both recorded and recovered the data.

Drums eventually stored as many as 4,000 words and retrieved any one of them in as little as five-thousandths of a second.

1953- Core memory first used 

At MIT, Jay Forrester installed magnetic core memory on the Whirlwind computer.

Core memory made computers more reliable, faster, and easier to make.

Such a system of storage remained popular until the development of semiconductors in the 1970s.

1954- First mass - produced computer

 The IBM 650 magnetic drum calculator established itself as the first mass-produced computer, with the company selling 450 in one year.

Spinning at 12,500 rpm, the 650´s magnetic data-storage drum allowed much faster access to stored material than drum memory machines.

1957- FORTRAN coding 

A new language, FORTRAN (short for FORmula TRANslator), enabled a computer to perform a repetitive task from a single set of instructions by using loops.

The first commercial FORTRAN program ran at Westinghouse, producing a missing comma diagnostic. A successful attempt followed.

1962- First interactive computer game

 MIT students Slug Russell, Shag Graetz, and Alan Kotok wrote SpaceWar!, considered the first interactive computer game.

First played at MIT on DEC´s PDP-1, the large-scope display featured interactive, shoot´em-up graphics that inspired future video games.

Dueling players fired at each other´s spaceships and used early versions of joysticks to manipulate away from the central gravitational force of a sun as well as from the enemy ship.

1964- First networked computers

  IBM announced the System/360, a family of six mutually compatible computers and 40 peripherals that could work together.

The initial investment of $5 billion was quickly returned as orders for the system climbed to 1,000 per month within two years.

1964- BASIC programming language

  Thomas Kurtz and John Kemeny created BASIC, an easy-to-learn programming language, for their students at Dartmouth College.

BASIC was the forerunner for the advanced programming languages in use today.

1967- LOGO invented 

 Seymour Papert designed LOGO as a computer language for children. Initially a drawing program, LOGO controlled the actions of a mechanical "turtle", which traced its path with pen on paper.

Electronic turtles made their designs on a video display monitor.

1969- First UNIX operating system

 UNIX combined many of the timesharing and file management features offered by Multics, from which it took its name.

Multics, a project of the mid1960s, represented the first effort at creating a multi-user, multi-tasking operating system.

1969- First computer controlled robot 

 Victor Scheinman´s Stanford Arm made a breakthrough as the first electrically powered, computer-controlled robot arm.

By 1974, the Stanford Arm could assemble a Ford Model T water pump, guiding itself with optical and contact sensors.

Scheinman went on to design the PUMA series of industrial robots for Unimation, robots used for automobile assembly and other industrial tasks.

1971- First email sent 

 The first e-mail is sent. Ray Tomlinson of the research firm Bolt, Beranek and Newman sent the first e-mail when he was supposed to be working on a different project.

Tomlinson, who is credited with being the one to decide on the "@" sign for use in e-mail, sent his message over a military network called ARPANET.

When asked to describe the contents of the first email, Tomlinson said it was “something like "QWERTYUIOP"”

1972- First modern video game

 Pong is released.

Nolan Bushnell hired young engineer Al Alcorn to design a car driving game, but when it became apparent that this was too ambitious for the time, he had Alcorn to design a version of ping-pong instead.

The game was tested in bars in Grass Valley and Sunnyvale, California where it proved very popular. Pong would revolutionize the arcade industry and launch the modern video game era.

1975- Microsoft are born 

In 1975, Bill Gates and Paul Allen form a partnership called Microsoft.

Like most start-ups, Microsoft begins small, but has a massive vision - a computer on every desktop and in every home.

During the coming years, Microsoft begins to change the ways we work.

Microsoft is now one of the biggest companies in the world.

1975- Betamax video standard introduced

A Betamax cassette

Betamax was a analogue videocassette which allowed the recording and playback of video. Betamax was developed by Sony and released in Japan on May 10th 1975.

The name 'Beta' comes from the fact that when the tape ran through the transport, it looked like the Greek letter beta (β). 'Max' was to suggest that the videocassette performed at maximum capability.

Later versions of Betamax could record and play video   at two different speeds - normal and half-speed (termed 'long play'). Normal speed recording allowed for 1 hour of content and half-speed allowed for over two hours.

The Betamax initially retailed for just over $1,000. 

1976- VHS video standard introduced 

A VHS cassette

 Video Home System (VHS) was developed in 1976 by the JVC company as a rival to Sony's Betamax. VHS cassettes could record and play video in two speeds (normal and long play) which provided two or four hours of recording time respectively.

In the late 1970's to the early 1980's, Betamax and VHS competed in what is now remembered as the 'videotape format war' where both products fought for dominance in the market.

Even though Betamax offered better video quality, VHS won the format war and Betamax became largely obsolete. Cheaper prices and longer recording times are considered the reasons as to why VHS outlived Betamax. 

1976- Apple are born 

Steve Wozniak designed the Apple I, a single-board computer. With specifications in hand and an order for 100 machines at $500 each from the Byte Shop, he and Steve Jobs got their start in business.

About 200 of the machines sold before the company announced the Apple II as a complete computer.

1977- Home gaming is born 

 Atari released the Atari Video Computer System (VCS) - later renamed the Atari 2600.

The VCS was the first widely successful video game system, selling more than twenty million units throughout the 1980s.

The VCS used the 8-bit MOS 6507 microprocessor and was designed to be connected to a home television set. When the last of Atari’s game consoles were made in 1990, more than 900 game titles had been released.

1980- First hard disk drive (HDD) 

Seagate Technology created the first hard disk drive for microcomputers, the ST506. The disk held 5 megabytes of data, five times as much as a standard floppy disk, and fit in the space of a floppy disk drive.

The hard disk drive itself is a rigid metallic platter coated on both sides with a thin layer of magnetic material that stores digital data.

Seagate quickly drew such big-name customers as Apple Computer and IBM. Within a few years, it had sold 4 million units.

1981- MS-DOS released 

  The MS-DOS (Microsoft Disk Operating System) basic software for the newly released IBM PC, established a long partnership between IBM and Microsoft, which Bill Gates and Paul Allen had founded only six years earlier.

1982- Commodore 64 released

Commodore introduces the Commodore 64.

The C64, as it was better known, sold for $595, came with 64KB of RAM and featured impressive graphics. Thousands of software titles were released over the lifespan of the C64.

By the time the C64 was discontinued in 1993, it had sold more than 22 million units and is recognized by the 2006 Guinness Book of World Records as the greatest selling single computer model of all time.

1984- Apple Macintosh launched

Apple Computer launched the Macintosh, the first successful mouse-driven computer with a graphical user interface, with a single $1.5 million commercial during the 1984 Super Bowl.

Based on the Motorola 68000 microprocessor, the Macintosh included many features at an affordable price of $2,500.

Applications that came as part of the package included MacPaint, which made use of the mouse, and MacWrite.

1986- Pixar is founded 

 Pixar is founded. Pixar was originally called the Special Effects Computer Group at Lucasfilm (launched in 1979).

The group created the computer animated segments of films such as “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.”

In 1986, Apple Computer co-founder Steve Jobs paid 10 million dollars to Lucasfilm to purchase the Group and renamed it Pixar. Over the next decade, Pixar made highly successful (and Oscar-winning) animated films. It was bought by Disney in 2006.

1988- First computer virus 

 Robert Morris´ worm flooded the ARPANET.

23-year-old Morris, the son of a computer security expert for the National Security Agency, sent a nondestructive worm through the Internet, causing problems for about 6,000 of the 60,000 hosts linked to the network.

Morris was sentenced to three years of probation, 400 hours of community
service, and a fine of $10,050.

1989- First simulator game

Maxis released SimCity, a video game that helped launch of series of simulators.

Maxis cofounder Will Wright built on his childhood interest in plastic models of ships and airplanes, eventually starting up a company with Jeff Braun and designing a computer program that allowed the user to create his own city.

A number of other Sims followed in the series, including SimEarth, SimAnt, and SimLife.

1990- World Wide Web is born 

The World Wide Web (www) was born when Tim Berners-Lee, a researcher at CERN, developed HyperText Markup Language.

HTML, as it is commonly known, allowed the Internet to expand into the World Wide Web, using specifications he developed such as URL (Uniform Resource Locator) and HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol).

A browser, such as Netscape or Microsoft Internet Explorer, follows links and sends a query to a server, allowing a user to view a site.

1990- Windows 3.0 is launched

 Microsoft shipped Windows 3.0 on May 22. Compatible with DOS programs, the first successful version of Windows finally offered good enough performance to satisfy PC users.

For the new version, Microsoft revamped the interface and created a design that allowed PCs to support large graphical applications for the first time.

Microsoft released Windows amid a $10 million publicity blitz.

1993- First Person Shooter games introduced (FPS)

“Doom” is released. id Software released Doom in late 1993.

An immersive first-person shooter-style game, Doom became popular on many different platforms before losing popularity to games like Halo and Counter-Strike.

Doom players were also among the first to customize the game’s levels and appearance. Doom would spawn several sequels and a 2005 film.

1993- First Graphical Internet Browser

 The Mosaic web browser is released. Mosaic was the first commercial software that allowed graphical access to content on the internet.

Mosaic was designed by Eric Bina and Marc Andreessen at the University of Illinois’s National Center for Supercomputer Application. Mosaic was originally designed for a Unix system running x—windows.

By 1994, Mosaic was available for several other operating systems such as the Mac OS, Windows and AmigaOS.

1994- Yahoo is founded 

 Yahoo is founded. Founded by Stanford graduate students Jerry Yang and David Filo, Yahoo started out as "Jerry's Guide to the World Wide Web" before being renamed.

Yahoo originally resided on two machines, Akebono and Konishiki, both named after
famous Sumo wrestlers.

Yahoo would quickly expand to become one of the Internet’s most popular search engines.

1996- The launch of Hotmail 

 Hotmail, founded by Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith, is commercially launched on Independence Day in the United States, symbolically representing freedom from Internet service providers.

Hotmail is now owned and operated by Microsoft.

1998- Windows 98 released 

Microsoft released Windows 98. Some U.S. attorneys tried to block its release since the new O/S interlaces with other programs such as Microsoft Internet Explorer and so effectively closes the market of such software to other companies.

The main selling points of Windows '98 were its support for USB and its support for disk partitions greater than 2 GB.

1998- Google launched 

 Google began in January 1996 as a research project by Larry Page and Sergey Brin when they were both PhD students at Stanford University in California.

The domain name for Google was registered on September 15, 1997, and the company was incorporated on September 4, 1998.

In May 2011, unique visitors of Google surpassed 1 billion for the first time.

Operating revenue in 2010 exceeded $29 billion. 

2000- Playstation 2 launched 

Sony releases the Playstation 2.

The PS2 is the best-selling console of all time, having reached over 150 million units sold as of January 31, 2011. This milestone was reached 10 years and 11 months after the system was released in Japan on March 4, 2000.

Further, Sony said it had 10,828 titles available for the system and that 1.52 billion PS2 titles had been sold since launch.

 

2003- Apple opens their first iTunes store 

 The iTunes Store is a software-based online digital media store operated by Apple.

Opening as the iTunes Music Store on April 28, 2003, with over 200,000 items to purchase, it is, as of April 2008, the number-one music vendor in the United States.

On February 24, 2010, the store served its 10 billionth song download; this milestone was reached in just under seven years of being online.

2004- Facebook 

 Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook Inc.

Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg with his college roommates and fellow computer science students Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes.

As of July 2011 Facebook has more than 800 million active users and a value of around 41 billion US dollars.

 

2005- YouTube is founded 

 YouTube was founded by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim, who were all early employees of PayPal.

The first YouTube video was entitled “Me at the zoo” , and shows founder Karim at the San Diego Zoo. The video was uploaded on April 23, 2005, and can still be viewed on the site.

In July 2006 the company announced that was receiving 100 million video views per day.

By May 2010 more than 14 billion videos had been viewed.

2007- First iPhone announced

Apple created the device at an estimated development cost of US $150 million over thirty months.

The iPhone went on sale in the United States on June 29, 2007, at 6:00 pm local time, while hundreds of customers lined up outside the stores nationwide.

On March 2, 2011, at the iPad 2 event, Apple announced that they have sold 100 million iPhones worldwide.

2009- Microsoft launch Windows 7 

 Windows 7 was released on October 22, 2009, less than three years after the release of its predecessor, Windows Vista.

It became the highest-grossing pre-order in Amazon's history, surpassing sales of the previous record holder, the seventh Harry Potter book.

As of June 23, 2010, Windows 7 had sold 150 million copies which made it the fastest selling operating system in history with seven copies sold every second.

by: Mark Joseph Bumagat






Nicholle, M.(n.d.)."Timeline of ICT and Technology (1939-Present Day)".The ICT Lounge.
             Retrieved 20 Jan. 2014 from http://www.ictlounge.com/html/timeline_of_ict.htm

https://www.google.com.ph/search?q=information+and+communication+technology+in+education&biw=1366&bih=664&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=_ifaUp6AHIKkiQerqYDwAw&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAQ#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=0S-10pgYzAIx5M%253A%3B8-t0aYsfNak4NM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252F4.bp.blogspot.com%252F_QGkbPQUeblQ%252FTKtvXepagyI%252FAAAAAAAAAAw%252FAUIWO_ir2vc%252Fs1600%252FConcept%25252BMap%25252Bof%25252BICT.gif%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Famirrulez92.blogspot.com%252F%3B1256%3B752

 

MAKING TECHNOLOGY WORK FOR EDUCATION

 

      

                                                                        UNESCO

Laptops, tablets and mobile phones are quickly changing the way we live and they are changing the way we learn.

            Devices that were banned in schools just a few years ago are becoming commonplace in classrooms and increasingly integrated into day-to-day pedagogical practices.  Yet concrete and evidence-based knowledge about how mobile technology is best leveraged to improve education is only beginning to emerge. 

 UNESCO Mobile Learning Week 2014 will bring together experts and government officials from around the world to discuss how new technologies can improve education outcomes and make learning more accessible and more equitable.  The theme of the event, now in its third year, is teachers.  How can mobile technology make teachers more effective and help them impart meaningful skills and understanding to students?  Questions about how technology, teachers and learners intersect have never been more relevant and Mobile Learning Week will engage these questions directly from 17 to 21 February 2014.  

by: Assumpta Ballesteros

References:  Education Section.  2013.  Making Technology Work for Education.  UNESCO.  Retrieved January 18, 2014 from

 http://www.unesco.org/new/en/unesco/themes/icts/single-view/news/making_technology_work_for_education/#.Utoofc6wrIU 

ICT: Versatile, Flexible, and Dynamic

 

 

FSU’s Information, Communication, and Technology program helps open the doors to a rewarding profession that emphasizes multiple skill sets, and allows the student to pursue various options in traditional IT, traditional communications, or in new combined careers.

• ICT professionals support the emerging goals and cultures of the people and organizations they serve
• The demand for ICT skills is growing
• Combining technology skills that are in demand with communication skills in PR, Advertising, and Media Communications provides an impact to employers
• As an emerging field, ICT jobs generally pay well and provide leadership challenges and opportunities that contribute to a satisfying career.

  Prepare for a Productive Career

  The FSU major in Information, Communication, and Technology is designed for students who want to build a career as an ICT professional. You can increase your knowledge and skills through hands-on experiences and courses that build on one another. The program is designed to meet employer needs for IT and communication skills.

  • Under Information Technology, the focus is on project management, organizational change, and instructional technique skills to help plan, develop and implement IT stra­tegically. IT skills also include communication, writing and leadership skills for project management and social media.
  • Under Communication, the focus is on social and digital media, web 2.0 and an overall understanding of traditional technology and communication theories.  Communication skills also include managing the expanding role of the Internet in public relations, news delivery, promotion, advertising, and marketing.

  The basic principles focus on:

• Technology and communication theories
• Technology techniques
• Information principles
• Organizational communication and culture
• Writing, presentation and promotion

Students will learn to:

• Determine information and communication needs of organizations and users
• Design information/communication solutions to meet those needs
• Create and manage information systems/communication syetems to get the right information to the right people at the right time

ICT Careers Include:

• Computer Programmers
• Web Designers
• Database Analysts
• Project Managers
• Social Media Managers
• Social Community Managers
• Security/Networking Analysts
• Technology Support
• Mobile Application Developers
• Technical Trainers/Managers
• e-Marketing Specialists
• Digital Specialists
• Public Relations/Content Marketing
• Web Development Specialists
• Social Media & Marketing Coordinators
• Integrated Marketing Strategists
• Corporate Communications Coordinators
• Online Engagement Specialists

Why Study ICT?. The Florida State University.  Retrieved January 17, 2014 from
http://slis.fsu.edu/careers/ict/

ICT (Information and Communications Technology)

Overview

ICT has become an integral and accepted part of everyday life for many people. ICT is increasing in importance in people’s lives and it is expected that this trend will continue, to the extent that ICT literacy will become a functional requirement for people’s work, social, and personal lives.

ICT includes the range of hardware and software devices and programmes such as personal computers, assistive technology, scanners, digital cameras, multimedia programmes, image editing software, database and spreadsheet programmes. It also includes the communications equipment through which people seek and access information including the Internet, email and video conferencing.

The use of ICT in appropriate contexts in education can add value in teaching and learning, by enhancing the effectiveness of learning, or by adding a dimension to learning that was not previously available. ICT may also be a significant motivational factor in students’ learning, and can support students’ engagement with collaborative learning.

NCCA vision for ICT in Curriculum and Assessment

Our young people are capable independent learners, able to use ICT confidently, creatively and productively, able to communicate effectively, able to work collaboratively, and to critically evaluate, manage and use information.

Curriculum, Assessment and ICT in the Irish Context: A Discussion Paper sets forth the NCCA vision for Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in curriculum and assessment in Irish primary and post-primary schools. This document was developed to stimulate discussion and deliberation regarding the potential of ICT to support and extend the curriculum development and assessment work of the NCCA. It also sets out the direction and scope of the future work of the NCCA in ICT in Curriculum and Assessment.

Framework for ICT in Curriculum and Assessment

The NCCA has developed a Framework for ICT in Curriculum and Assessment which outlines the kinds of learning experiences with ICT (knowledge, skills, and attitudes) a student should be afforded through their primary and post-primary education. The Framework will be realised through the integration of ICT across the curriculum and is illustrated through a range of exemplars appropriate to different class levels and year groups on the ACTION section of our website.

ICT in Curriculum and Assessment: Primary

To further support teachers in using ICT in the curriculum, the NCCA developed the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in the Primary School Curriculum: Guidelines for Teachers as a supporting document to the Primary School Curriculum 1999. The guidelines were launched by the Department of Education and Science (DES) in 2004. These guidelines provide teachers with supports on planning for ICT in the school and in the classroom, and include a range of exemplars based on classroom practice showing how to use ICT to add value to teaching and learning in the Primary School Curriculum.

These include project work in history using multimedia authoring and the digital camera collaborative email projects with children in other schools control technology to design and make in science exploring and researching on the Internet and many more.

The findings of the Primary Curriculum Review Phases I and 2 provided useful data on teachers’ use of ICT in the curriculum in English, Mathematics,Visual Arts, Science, Gaeilge and SPHE.

ICT in Curriculum and Assessment: Post Primary

At post-primary level, the role of ICT in curriculum and assessment is a key focus of the ongoing review and implementation of junior and senior cycle education. In revising subjects at both junior and senior cycle, syllabuses and associated guidance continue to be ‘ICT proofed’ establishing the role of ICT as a teaching and learning tool (e.g. dynamic geometry packages in Mathematics); as an integral part of the curriculum (GIS in Geography), or as an integral part of curriculum and assessment (e.g. CAD in Design and Communications Graphics, Music Technology in Music).

In the review of senior cycle education, there is a particular focus on the role of ICT in the review of subjects and the development of short courses and transition units. It is proposed that some of the short courses developed will have a significant ICT focus, for example Media Communications Technology. As transition units will be developed around current good practice in schools, it is envisaged that there will be many models of excellent ICT based transition units. The review of subjects will continue to be conducted within an ICT proofing framework to ensure that opportunities for integrating ICT into subjects are developed, where appropriate. The role of ICT in the recording of key skills encountered through subjects, short courses and transition units and in the assessment of subjects and short courses will be investigated in 2005.

The role of ICT in the preparation and presentation of coursework for assessment purposes (second assessment components) is being investigated.

The question of how student achievement in ICT would be recognised and rewarded is currently under discussion. One possibility is that of students developing a cross-curricular portfolio of work, prepared and presented using ICT in a range of subject areas for both day-to-day curricular activities and for work being presented for state examinations purposes (that is, second assessment components). The possibility of students re-using these items of work in the context of assessment of ICT is currently under discussion. The development of the Framework for ICT in Curriculum and Assessment provides opportunities for the assessment of ICT at post-primary level.

Publications

Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in the Primary School Curriculum: Guidelines for Teachers (2004)

Curriculum, Assessment and ICT in the Irish Context: A Discussion Paper draft (2004)

Primary Curriculum Review Phase 1: Final Report(2005)

Primary Curriculum Review: Phase 2. Final Report with recommendations(2008)

Reference:
ICT( Information and Communication  Technology).  NCCA.  Retrieved January 18, 2014from 
 http://www.ncca.ie/en/Curriculum_and_Assessment/ICT/