Benefits/Advantages of ICT in Education

Here are some of the benefits which ICT brings to education according to recent research findings.

General benefits
· Greater efficiency throughout the school.
· Communication channels are increased through email, discussion groups and chat rooms
· Regular use of ICT across different curriculum subjects can have a beneficial motivational influence on students’ learning.

Benefits for teachers
· ICT facilitates sharing of resources, expertise and advice
· Greater flexibility in when and where tasks are carried out
· Gains in ICT literacy skills, confidence and enthusiasm.
· Easier planning and preparation of lessons and designing materials
· Access to up-to-date pupil and school data, any time and anywhere.
· Enhancement of professional image projected to colleagues.
· Students are generally more ‘on task’ and express more positive feelings when they use computers than when they are given other tasks to do.
· Computer use during lessons motivated students to continue using learning outside school hours.

Benefits for students
· Higher quality lessons through greater collaboration between teachers in planning and preparing resources .
· More focused teaching, tailored to students’ strengths and weaknesses, through better analysis of attainment data
· Improved pastoral care and behaviour management through better tracking of students
· Gains in understanding and analytical skills, including improvements in reading
· Comprehension.
· Development of writing skills (including spelling, grammar, punctuation, editing and re-drafting), also fluency, originality and elaboration.
· Encouragement of independent and active learning, and self-responsibility for learning.
· Flexibility of ‘anytime, anywhere’ access (Jacobsen and Kremer, 2000)
· Development of higher level learning styles.
· Students who used educational technology in school felt more successful in school, were more motivated to learn and have increased self-confidence and self-esteem
· Students found learning in a technology-enhanced setting more stimulating and student-centred than in a traditional classroom
· Broadband technology supports the reliable and uninterrupted downloading of web-hosted educational multimedia resources
· Opportunities to address their work to an external audience
· Opportunities to collaborate on assignments with people outside or inside school

Benefits for parents
· Easier communication with teachers
· Higher quality student reports – more legible, more detailed, better presented
· Greater access to more accurate attendance and attainment information
· Increased involvement in education for parents and, in some cases, improved self-esteem
· Increased knowledge of children’s learning and capabilities, owing to increase in learning activity being situated in the home
· Parents are more likely to be engaged in the school community
· You will see that ICT can have a positive impact across a very wide range of aspects of school life.