In the PYP, it is advocated that purposeful inquiry is the best way to learn. The starting point should always be students’ prior experiences and current understanding. When teachers plan learning experiences that enable students to develop, students are able to make connections, apply their learning, and transfer their conceptual understanding to new situations.

This progressive conceptual development, together with an enjoyment of the process, provides the foundation for lifelong learning. In the PYP, there will be opportunities to use ICT in the relevant, authentic context of the units of inquiry, as well as through teaching and learning experiences in other areas of the curriculum. Teachers have a responsibility to help students to make explicit connections between different aspects of their learning. Students need opportunities to identify and reflect on significant ideas within the different skills of ICT, the transdisciplinary themes, and other subject areas.

The role of ICT to support inquiry is important as students engage in building understandings that contribute to their success as lifelong learners in a digital age. It helps the learner to connect globally and explore different areas of learning. The students should be made to realize the significance and competency in ICT is a vital life skill. The following six ICT skills are relevant to all learners:

• Investigating: Useful for testing the present knowledge, discover new information and apply knowledge to real world situations.
• Creating: useful for critical – thinking and applying original ideas to real life contexts. It also deals with self-expression, problem and its solution.
• Communicating: It is exchange of information using wide range of media and formats. It also helps in providing feedback to others.
• Collaborating: It is for validation, negotiation and reaching a deeper understanding. It is for active participation in creating and sharing knowledge.
• Organizing: In this approach order and method is followed to inform, adapt, manage and solve problems. It is very useful in investigating, creating, communicating and collaborating.
• Becoming responsible digital citizens: In this learners are responsible for their actions, valuing others’ rights along with safe and legal behaviours.

Now ICT has become an effective means for learning skills , concepts and their applications within meaningful contexts. The school and teacher is responsible for creating vital learning engagements through the use of ICT. The main purpose of ICT is students research and communication through global electronic networks in order to access vast range of multimedia resources. It is with the use of ICT, the students learns to participate in a global community, become responsibly digitally and to make refined decision which are reflective of the actions taken.

To ensure a cohesive educational experience for students, school is responsible for ensuring that there are regular opportunities for collaboration among teachers in the school including homeroom/classroom, single-subject and support teachers (for example, teacher-librarian, ICT teacher, learning and/or special needs teacher). This collaboration includes the development and overall review of the school’s programme of inquiry, as well as planning, teaching and reflecting on individual units of inquiry. However, it should be recognized that the responsibility for learning about and through ICT is shared among all teachers. It is acknowledged that in many schools, a single-subject teacher takes responsibility for ICT. It is vital that these teachers see themselves primarily as PYP teachers who teach and integrate ICT throughout the curriculum, and in so doing contribute to both the broad and specific learning outcomes of a transdisciplinary programme.

It is worthwhile to note that there will be opportunities for student-initiated, spontaneous inquiries into the use of ICT that are not directly related to any planned units of inquiry or single-subject areas. For example, a student contributing to a class blog may want to start his or her own blog as a personal reflection journal. These are valuable teaching and learning opportunities in themselves, and provide teachers and students with the opportunity to apply the pedagogy of the PYP to authentic, of-the-moment situations.

The effective integration of ICT enhances the learner’s opportunity to connect globally and to explore different perspectives in order to understand evolving cultural and social norms. The following list of

ICT skills provides the whole school community with a structure for using ICT as a tool for learning. It has been designed in recognition of the fact that learning is a series of feedback loops involving the individual, the group and the local or global environment. All teachers working with PYP students will find that the ICT skills will be relevant to the transdisciplinary programme of inquiry as well as to subject-specific inquiries. ICT includes a variety of approaches to help connect learners within both the local and global community in order to empower learning. Learners’ awareness, use and appreciation of different ICT knowledge, skills and platforms should be developed. Furthermore, students should be encouraged to recognize that competency in ICT is a valuable life skill.

The following six ICT skills are relevant to all learners: investigating, creating, communicating, collaborating, organizing and becoming responsible digital citizens. Each skill is transdisciplinary and will support learning both within the transdisciplinary programme of inquiry and within the subject areas. These skills interact with each other to support the development of learners. Therefore, teachers should consider these skills when planning for teaching and should look for evidence of them in student learning.

Investigating is to carry out a purposeful inquiry or research, to test existing understanding, discover new information and create new understanding. Through investigation, learners critically evaluate a variety of sources, making connections and synthesizing findings to apply knowledge to real-life contexts.

Creating is a process through which learners are provided with an opportunity to innovate and test boundaries. Learners construct meaning, apply critical thinking and original ideas to real-world situations, and share knowledge through self-expression, problem-posing and problem-solving, and reflection.

Communicating is the exchange of information with various audiences using a range of media and formats. Effective communicators contribute to cross-cultural understanding, make informed choices when deciding on tools to articulate meaning, and provide relevant, significant feedback to others.

Collaborating is the process through which learners validate and negotiate ideas and reach a deeper understanding and a global perspective. Learners are empowered through digital media and environments and through active participation in creating and sharing knowledge.

Organizing is the ability to structure or arrange connected items. Learners understand that ICT systems can be used to inform, adapt, manage and problem-solve during their creative, communicative, collaborative and investigative processes. Learners make connections, transfer existing knowledge and independently explore new technologies.

Becoming a responsible digital citizen involves using ICT to make informed and ethical choices while acting with integrity and honesty. In a globally connected digital world, learners are empowered to be responsible for their actions, to value others’ rights and to practise safe and legal behaviours.

ICT is one of the connecting components throughout the curriculum. As students engage with ICT across and between the transdisciplinary themes and subject areas, they come to a deeper understanding of its relevance and applicability to their everyday lives. Appropriate attitudes and behaviours concerning the use of ICT are also modelled within the school community. The focus of ICT is not only on the use of technology for its own sake, but to enhance learning throughout the transdisciplinary programme of inquiry, across the subject areas, the IB learner profile, and the essential elements of the PYP. It is clearly a transdisciplinary strategy. The understanding and effective use of ICT has moved beyond simply mastering a specialized set of skills and tools: ICT has become a vehicle for learning skills and concepts and their applications within meaningful contexts. The role of the school and teacher is to create authentic learning engagements through the provision and use of ICT. This learning can happen in a physical or a virtual environment, and is likely to occur when needed or “just in time”.

International Baccalaureate Organisation. “The role of ICT in the PYP” Accessed 11 November 2016. https://ibpublishing.ibo.org/live-exist/rest/app/tsm.xql?doc=p_0_pypxx_mon_1106_1_e&part=1&chapter=1.