Information & Communication Technology

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.