Mster profesorado Secundaria, Bachillerato y FPs

Alumno: Jos Emilio Prez Abad

Centro de Prcticas: EOI Fernando Lzaro Carreter

Jos Emilio Prez Abad

Investigation process afterthought

page 3

Found Difficulties Analysis

page 7

Learning afterthought

page 8

Jos Emilio Prez Abad

Investigation process afterthought

The speed of the evolution of information and communications technology (ICT)
has been phenomenal. Our great-grandfather grew up in a society with no
telephone; my grandfather in a society in which the radio was a source of
wonder and television a late and expensive purveyor of black and white
imagery. My father lives in a society that constantly expects to receive
broadband Internet connectivity and I live in a world where music is an MP3 file
downloaded from anywhere in the Internet, with all the resources and medias at
our availability, with all sort of technology facilities in our hands.
The changes the ICT evolution has wrought affect every sector of society. Deaf
people hearing aid is a miracle of miniaturisation and transistors. Without
microprocessors, hospitals would have to close, airlines would be grounded and
the bank is enabled to closely monitor the details of my current account through
on-line banking.
The evolution of ICT has occurred in five stages:
Computer.
PC.
Microprocessor.
Internet and wireless links.
I have considered appropriate to incorporate the introduction to my ICTs
investigation previously.
During World War II the large electromechanical calculator Harvard Mark I was
50 feet long, eight feet tall and weighed 5 tons. Some years later the ENIAC
was presented in Philadelphia. It used 18000 vacuum tubes and weighed 30
tons. Each task to be performed required the throwing of 6000 switches
covering three walls, a mammoth machine occupying a large space. In 1947 the
first transistor was invented and the use of transistors allowed for the
development of smaller, more versatile and more powerful computers.
Computers became a catchword and input-output technology graduated from
punch cards to magnetic tape; new computer languages were designed to allow
interaction with the new technology. Applications were expanded and the ICT
evolution was underway in earnest.
The second stage in the evolution of ICT began in the 1970s when it became
possible to place processors on a chip, and magnetic discs were constructed.
In 1977 Ken Olsen, the President of Digital asserted that There is no reason
why anyone would want a computer in their home. How wrong he was! At the
same time, Steve Jobs and Steve Wosniak began to sell their Apple II machine
and a young man called Bill Gates founded a firm called Microsoft. Within a few

Jos Emilio Prez Abad

years the PC had changed from being regarded as an esoteric toy to a valuable
work tool for word processing, accounting and later graphics. IBM first launched
its Personal Computer on the world in 1981. Now the PC has become as
popular as bicycles in my grandfathers time or the radio in my fathers time.
The third part of the ICT evolution is that microprocessors have now become
embedded in a myriad of products to the extent that the world as we know it
would grind to a halt without the humble microprocessor. The steering systems
of planes, the traffic lights on our streets, the control panels of power stations,
air conditions systems all depend on microprocessors. Microprocessors control
every facet of our lives; they are constantly expanding their capacity,
applications and users.
The fourth evolution of ICT has its origins in the 1960s when the US Dept of
Defence drew up guidelines for a communications network among computers
called ARPANET. Universities within the US and later from outside the US
began to link up to this system and to use it to send messages. France
developed a variant Minitel system at the start of the 1980s. The US
National Science Foundation set up its own network as also did a number of
universities on the east coast of the US. In Europe EARN became a network
among academic institutions and CERN in Geneva was crucial in the
development of the World Wide Web which only got its name in 1990. Within a
few years surfing on the net became a social phenomenon. The advent of
broadband will accelerate this phase in the evolution of ICT. What is important
about this evolutionary phase of ICT is that users have built social networks to
make them useful and effective. Indeed the social superstructure in this
instance is indeed super!
The fifth and current stage in the evolutionary process of ICT is the wireless
one. This phase began with the invention of the mobile phone. The initial mobile
phones were large and bulky. Reduction in size has been accompanied by a
greatly expanded range of functions. Now, depending on the age of the user,
mobile phones are used for talking, transmitting messages, pictures and music.
Linking without phone lines is now taking place not just inter-continentally but
via satellite. High frequency short-range radio transmitters that cover a specific
area and blue tooth and infra red communication within buildings make
wireless communication a world-wide phenomenon.
The speed and impact of the ICT evolution is a practical proof of Sayss Law:
Supply creates its own demand. Contrary to Ken Olsens prediction, PCs have
become a household appliance. When they became linked to a telephone line
they were transformed into networks and their usefulness increased
exponentially when access was available to libraries, information and email.
The PC was a household gadget that became a necessity. The PC itself has

Jos Emilio Prez Abad

become synonymous with globalisation. Components come from all continents,

chips from Asia, software from America, mobile phones from Europe. Brand
names are instantly recognisable all over the world.
The development of new products and services has been to the forefront of
burgeoning economies over the past ten years. The development of the World
Wide Web and the Internet has led to the development of an interactive network
of individuals. It is by and for interacting people. This epitomises what the ICT
evolution has been all about. It has been about spotting opportunities and
inviting everybody to participate and to make good use of them. The ICT
evolution has been an evolution in learning. The individual has realised the
potential of the new tools and has introduced them into his/her home. As an
evolution in learning, ICT has transformed the available technologies; the
means of studying, the modalities of school operations, investment and
expenditure on resources, and the way we think about what education should
be.
The development of the Web and the Internet and the increasing availability of
broadband will allow schools to post course material on the web, assignments
can be communicated and received via email, and teachers can be accessed at
any time. Indeed the new technologies will allow schools to reach out to many
students who up to now might have slipped through the educational net.
Distance education is now a reality.
The evolution in ICT should make us question the way we think about organised
education. ICT liberates the provision of education from time and place
constraints. Education and training can be customised by allowing materials to
be adapted to individual needs and paced according to individual progress.
Teachers have been trained in the use of ICT; computers have been put into
schools, but why has the educational system not been transformed? My
personal opinion is that it is far too soon to say the revolution has failed. After
the hype there must be a bedding-in. Many teachers are only now coming to
terms with ICT. Only when teachers as individuals begin to use ICT for email
and begin to make use of the Internet for personal research, will they fully
comprehend what an awesome tool they have for teaching and learning. Its an
evolutionary thing, but maybe is not well set and organised and it could need
some external help. So I decided to investigate and try to find the way to create
a platform, a software or a system that integrates the most used applications,
computer programs, most requested help and instructions in those programs
and at the same time facilitate the access to all the ICTs without the necessity
of being online, just with one software, it could even be a operative system only
for education with all the factors said before.

Jos Emilio Prez Abad

To get all the information needed (as difficulties teachers usually find in their
daily routine in the classroom during their lessons or what programs and
applications they use more often) I gave the students a questionnaire with a few
questions to fill to know their interest and opinion about ICTs in the classroom, I
had other questionnaire for teachers with similar questions but oriented to
teachers' interests and opinions and I did three interviews to three members of
the centre to know deeper concerns about the use of ICTs and its conformability
with its use.
After getting all the information I made a count of the information gotten and I
took the more important aspects for students and teachers as the main goals to
cover during the investigation. How to help them with their difficulties and make
ICTs easier or more accessible for those who are not able to use them properly .

Jos Emilio Prez Abad

Found Difficulties Analysis

The ICT use in the classroom carries problems with it, such as:
Incompatible software - update the system or consult the help
Mistyping the text - this is in two types: (Transcription - using the wrong letter,
e.g. typing gat instead of hat; or transposition, which is flipping two letters
around e.g. typing aht instead of hat).
Not understanding how to use it/inexperience - famliarise yourself with the
technology, consult the internet/windows help etc etc.
Software crash - use backups and a variety of storage devices i.e. memory
stick, CD ROM
Health problems (e.g. shoulder strain, RSI, eyes hurting) - sit away from the
screen and take regular breaks every few hours
When it comes to entering data into a table or a spreadsheet or something,
information often gets missed out or typed incorrectly, you can combat this
using a variety of validations e.g. lookups, type checks, input masks etc
As with most problems, if you check your work and consult the manual (or
call the ICT help hotline) you should overcome most ICT related problems.
During the analysis and the compilation of information I didn't find any
difficulties. I printed the questionnaires and I give them all to fill, the students did
it in a couple of minutes so I could analyze them quickly. Teachers did the
same, I gave them the questionnaire and they filled them all when they had a
couple of minutes to do it. Everyone was very polite and nice to help me in this
task. For the interviews, my tutor (Cristina San Juan) was very accessible and
she accepted to give me a quarter of hour of a break time to answer my
questions. The other teachers to interview were very accessible too and very
nice to be interviewed. I haven't had any problem compiling the needed
information to make my investigation. But in the questionnaire I asked about the
contact with the teacher and the students had never contacted her out of
school, so everyone answer negatively or didn't answered to that to the
"contact" related questions at all. In teachers questionnaire there was a
punctuation part where 1 was low and 5 was high, I had the mistake of forgot to
explain it in the paper so I had to explain them all one by one the hierarchy.

Jos Emilio Prez Abad

Learning afterthought
During this practicum period I've seen all the different ICTs teachers use in the
Escuela Oficial de Idiomas Fenando Lzaro Carreter. I could see, check and try
the different technologies of the centre and experiment with them. I could know
the opinion of different teachers and members of the direction of the centre and
get different points of view about ICTs and its use in the classroom. There were
different opinions, from teachers who denies any positive influence or
application of ICTs to the lessons in the classroom to teachers who totally
agrees in the use of ICTs day by day to develop faster and more optimum
lessons and also make them less boring.
ICTs makes every skill of language more easy to be developed, communication
skills are easily to be practised with internet and an infinite amount of audio
conversations recorded online, video conversations, songs, charts and more
media you can use.
I've learned the difficulties and facilities that ICTs' uses have in the classroom.
Society and culture is always changing, as teacher we must adapt our skills to
be able to develop our skills in function of the new tendencies, technologies and
applications of these in the classrooms to improve better lessons and facilitate
the knowledge acquisition of our students. If a teacher doesn't know how to use
an ICT it could make the lesson slower or even boring, the teacher must know
how to use his resources and use them in a way it doesn't make the lesson
slower or boring.