ICT: Its UNREALISTIC side

The era of the teacher just aided by a coursebook and blackboard to deliver a lesson is coming to an end. All of us, trainee teachers, are little by little becoming more aware of that because of the importance that some teachers attach to technology as a means of enhancing learning and the booming availability of new resources on the Net. Hand in hand with my increasing awareness of the importance of technology, I started being chased by the acronym ICT almost without interruption. I’m sure you've experienced something similar. Haven't you?

The problem is that this term has been recurring over and over again without me knowing well what it refers to. And although later on I learnt that it means Information and communication technology, I’m not still sure what this umbrella term includes. That’s why here I make a personal synthesis of some of the things I’ve been reading about coupled with my own reflection.

Information and communication technologies refer to any product that deals with electronic information- that is to say, with storing, receiving, manipulating, retrieving and transferring information in an electronic way. This is a simple definition, isn’t it? But rather general, almost vague I would say.
Let’s go a bit deeper. I found an awful lot of tools mentioned as being part of this umbrella term ranging from any application on the Net to the newest hi-tech gadgets such as:

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Let’s concentrate on this aspect of ICT: High-tech gadgets. You know, although the importance of including technology in our lessons is being highlighted all the time, I find it’s by no means easy and within everyone’s reach. Of course I do not mean that we should not include it in our lessons since as we all know, we can no longer avoid the importance of technology in daily life and how appealing it is for the new generation of students. What I find it difficult is the viability of including a variety of these tools because of their cost. They are so much expensive! (Nobody can pretend all of us can afford them with the salary of a teacher!)
Besides, I think we have to be very careful with the inclusion of these technologies in classrooms. I feel we need to be very careful not to take this new trend to extremes. First, it goes without saying that an analysis of the context of the school and the possibilities of the learners need to be taken into account before introducing anything in our lessons. Then, we need to plan specific moments during the class in which to include these technologies. I feel that although students seem to enjoy and have a natural ability to handle technology, they can be overwhelmed by too many activities which depend on the internet for example. Technology abounds in flaws that sometimes make the use of it extremely difficult which the student himself cannot manage. Perhaps until technological gadgets and applications are more widespread and affordable, we need to restrict ourselves to the most basic ICT applications like the computer for example. But mind you, there are still so many schools in our country that do not even have a computer (something which is being commoner to most people) that makes the use of ICT just a dream or an utopia.

It looks perfect, doesn't it? But how many institutes and schools can afford this? A minority, of course. It seems to me that these classrooms are still far from our reality.