Advantages and Disadvantages of ICT

Actually, ICT gives us some advantages in teaching learning process, such as we can do our assingments through e-mail, we can search materials of our study on the internet and many more. But, in the other hand, ICT brings some bad effects or disadvantages for us. Here the list of Advantages and Disadvantages of ICT.

Advantages of Students Using ICT for Learning

As was pointed out previously, the Internet provides students with the tools they need to discover and own knowledge. And give students the hooks and templates they need to fasten information to the long-term memory. There are some advantages of student using ICT for learning :

1. Motivating Factor.

The Internet can act as a motivating tool for many students. Young people are very captivated with technology. Educators must capitalize on this interest, excitement, and enthusiasm about the Internet for the purpose of enhancing learning. For already enthusiastic learners, the Internet allows you to provide them with additional learning activities not readily available in the classroom.

2. Fast Communication.

The Internet promotes fast communication across geographical barriers. Your students can join collaborative projects that involve students from different states, countries or continents. This type of learning experience was not possible before the Internet. This is a unique learning experience very essential for each of our students, as the world is becoming one big community.

3. Cooperative Learning.

The Internet facilitates cooperative learning, encourages dialogue, and creates a more engaging classroom. For example, a LISTSER V for our class will allow your students to get involved in class discussions through e-mails in a way not possible within the four walls of the classroom.

4. Locating Research Materials.

Apart from communication, research is what takes many people to the Internet. There are many more resources on the Internet than the school library can provide. We can encourage students to take advantage of this wealth of resources on the Internet for their research.

5. Acquiring Varied Writing Skills

If students are required to publish their work on the Internet, they have to develop hypertext skills. These skills help students gain experience in non-sequential writings. Moreover, and since

the Internet is open to all with access, students publishing their work on the Internet are forced to be mindful of their language and to write to non-expert audience.

Disadvantages of Using ICT for Education

The use of the Internet for education is not without problems. Therefore, one should expect the problems to be encountered in using the Internet in teaching to be evolving as well. There are some disadvantage of using ICT for teaching and learning :

1. Plagiarism.

Apart from Web sites that claim to help students write term papers, there are numerous cases of students downloading information from the Net and turning them in for grades. We can minimize this problem by requiring students to cite research sources. There is an online service, Plagiarism.org at http://www.plagiarism.org/, which can assist us in minimizing cases of plagiarism in the class. This service claims to prevent plagiarism by determining if a term paper has been copied from the Internet or not.

2. Student Privacy.

Criminals, marketers, and other persons can easily get information from students when they are online. These could post danger to students’ lives or may even lead to litigation against the school. To avoid this problem, students should be educated on the dangers of giving information to people online. Parents and teachers need to supervise students’ online activities.

3. Low Income Groups.

According to the US Department of Education, over 50% of public schools with a high minority enrollment had a lower rate of Internet access than public schools with a low minority enrollment in 1997. The same was true of instructional rooms in those schools. In addition, students from low-income families may not have computers at home or may have computers at home with no access to the Internet. Consequently, students in low-income communities may be disadvantaged. To reduce the effect that social or economic status may have, we should give Internet assignments that students can easily complete while in school. If necessary, schools may need to keep computer labs open for longer and/or odd hours. The use of computers at public libraries should also be encouraged.

4. Preparation Time.

It takes a lot of preparation time to effectively use the Net for education. In addition to designing Internet based lesson plans, we may have to surf the Internet to download lesson plans and adapt them to support the curriculum objectives or visit sites to select those appropriate for classes. We have no choice but prepare in order to help your students become responsible user of the Internet.

New Administrative Responsibilities.

Teaching using the Internet brings to bear a new set of administrative demands on the teacher and the school administration. These include development and implementation of acceptable use policy, training, developing new evaluation criteria as needed, and addressing parents’ concerns.

source :
http://edtechreview.in/trends-insights/insights/959-advantages-of-using-ict-in-learning-teaching-processes