Topic 6b - ICT in Education

CAL - Using a computer interactively for the learning process

CBT - Using a computer interactively for training usually on a person's occupation

Features:

Highly interactive - users supply answers to questions and situations

Used for tutorials - Allows the user to learn something new

Games - Makes learning fun

Testing/assessments - The user can take a test to see how well they understood the topic. The results are given immediately

Advantages of CAL/CBT

• Students can learn where and when they want
• Materials are provided in different forms (text, voice, videos, animations)
• Can access material on different devices
• Can learn in many different environments

Disadvantages of CAL/CBT

• Software is complex and uses lots of media making it expensive
• Students often need interaction of classmates in order to learn
• Students make take breaks instead of learning
• Hard for teachers to track progress

On-line learning - Using ICT to help in the learning process

Advantages of On-line Learning

• Students can work at their own pace
• Can fit learning in around other commitments
• Do not have to worry about getting things wrong - won't be judged

Disadvantages of On-line Learning

• No social side
• Expensive
• Need self control to do the work in your own time

Optical Mark Reader

• Students attendance filled in by shading box on sheet with pencil
• Passed onto office, collected, batched and processed using OM reader
• Data about attendance is processed and reports can be generated

Removes problems of making mistakes when the marks are typed in using keyboard

Teachers may not return registers to office

Registers can be easily altered

If forms are folded or not filled in correctly, they are rejected by the reader

Students are given swipe cards which are used for registration by swiping the card using a card reader

They consist of a plastic card with a magnetic ***** containing data

Advantages

• Cost of cards and readers is low compared to other methods
• Readers can be made which are almost vandal proof

Disadvantages

• Cards are often lost
• Students can be swiped in by someone else

Fingerprint Recognition

• Place finger into the scanner
• Scanner stores some of the features as a maths code
• Software compares code with all fingerprint codes
• Person is identified from database
• Attendance recorded

Retinal Scanning

• Retinal Scanner sends low level light beam into a person's eye and analyses the relfected pattern
• Pattern is coded
• Compared with database like fingerprint scanning

Advantages

• Students can't abuse system - Cannot mark other people in
• Details are recorded in real time - Can identify who is not present
• If a student arrives late, the system will record how late

Disadvantages

• Biometric readers are expensive
• Readers must be kept clean or false reads can be produced
• The system may develop faults, need backup method

Advantages

• Teachers have administration burden removed - repsonsibility is taken away
• Encourages students to be responsible - Given responsibility for recording attendance
• Can be accessed from any terminal - Attendance terminals can be found on any computer on network and more than one person can use data at once