ICT in Learning Task Design and Implementation

ICT in Learning Task Design and Implementation

De Souza, D. E., & Towndrow, P. A. (2011). The generative use of ICT in the language arts: Strategies in learning task design and implementation. In C. M. L. Ho, K. T. Anderson & A. P. Leong (Eds.), Transforming literacies and language: Multimodality and literacy in the new media age (pp. 23-48). London: Continuum.

Background

Information and Communications Technology (ICT) has the generative potential to support meaning-making and facilitate thinking and knowledge construction. At present, the authors see advice for teachers in using ICT as focusing only on ideas or exemplars, satisfying short-term needs. To systematize ICT use, they propose a theory-based approach to learning task design and implementation.

Aims

The authors aimed to answer the following questions:

What alternative pedagogical approaches are available when incorporating the use of ICT in a literature lesson?

At what points of the lesson can ICT be used?

What language skills can be focused on or assessed at the identified points of the lesson?

Sample

Two Singaporean secondary school teachers—one specializing in English language, the other in English language and literature—were involved in the study.

Method

A baseline view of how teachers incorporated ICT in their language lessons was established from interviews with five Singaporean secondary school teachers. Two of them then collaborated with the authors to discuss the incorporation of ICT into their lesson plans, using the Task Designer’s Mixing Desk (TDMD), which consists of five scales:

  1. Choice of task;

  2. Media and tool use;

  3. Outcomes;

  4. Strategies; and

  5. Learning support.

One literature teacher’s TDMD decisions in designing a post-reading group task are represented in the chapter.

Findings

The authors see TDMD as an alternate pedagogical approach in the design of tasks. They suggest three main points in a lesson where ICT can be used: (1) meaning making; (2) creativity; and (3) resource building for future lessons. The use of ICT-mediated strategies in four areas of students’ usage and the corresponding language skills are as follows:

Areas of ICT-mediated use Language skills
Critical consumption Receptive language skills that encompass literal, inferential and evaluative comprehension
Reflexive synthesis Productive language skills such as formulating, anticipating and critiquing perspectives
Collaborative construction Receptive and productive language skills such as clarifying, paraphrasing and expressing opinions
Audience awareness Productive language skills such as speech delivery and content appropriateness

Implications

The authors recommend TDMD as a theory-based, systematic approach to learning task design and implementation that can be adapted to students’ needs and interests. They also show how the various literacies and skills related to the use of ICT-mediated strategies in a language activity can be connected to the exigencies of preparing for examinations and to students’ daily lives.

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