Should ICT be the primary instructional material in education?

By Ranny T. Campaña Jr.

Technology has slowly taken its toll in the field of disseminating information and as a means
for communication. Evidently, it paved its way in the context of education. Due to humans
willingness to make education better and effective, technology was integrated to education which
leads to the emergence of ICT which stands for Information and Communication Technology. It was
considered as an effective tool for teaching and learning. However, researchers found out the other
side of the coin. Blatchford and Whitebread (2003), suggests that the use of ICT in the foundation
stage is “unhealthy and hinders learning”. With this arguments, the question arise, should ICT be the
primary instructional material in education?

A lot of researchers have stated that education must not depend on the use of ICT as a
primary tool for instruction and learning. On the study conducted by Sandhoitz, teachers who
depends on ICT is not performing well as a teachers for information in the internet are not reliable all
the time. Moreover, students who resort to internet tend to just Copy and Paste without even
understanding and recognizing the credibility of the source. Thus, traditional learning materials are
better to be used than conventional in terms of reliability.

On the other hand, researcher who are pro-conventional materials presented their arguments
that integrating ICT in education affects both side in the learning process positively. Through ICT,
teachers will be well equip with knowledge especially on how to cope with the development topics
including students reading and writing skills, technology skills, cognitive skills working with
inclusion students, working with diverse population and active learning strategies (Ornstei et. al.,
2010). Kennewell (2000) added, teachers and educators must be highly skilful to use ICT tools and
multimedia in preparation for teaching. The use of ICT teaching aids increase the students chance to
utilize their capabilities for challenging tasks, take challenging task comfortably and work as
independent learners. Meanwhile, in the student’s part, students learning experience in education
with the integration of ICT are more effective than not since ICT offers more efficiency in accessing
information (Chandra, 2004). Furthermore, in this changing world, where advancements are on the
front-line, students should be equip with knowledge on how to operate technologies to cope up with
the high demands in the society. It is imperative to know that using ICT in teaching and learning
process is emerging as important source to initiate new methods and approaches with the active
participation of teachers and students.

In conclusion with this, ICT can be the primary tool for instruction and learning in education
while the traditional ones as a support. Its convenience and accessibility is an advantage for students
and teachers in learning. Everything comes with both negative and positive impacts, but, the solution
is just in our hands. If we are responsible enough in using ICT quality education is not impossible to
achieve.