Saturday, June 26, 2010

Investigation Project of ICT Development at Al-Izzah Islamic Boarding School

By Nur Abidin

This paper reports an investigation project to develop ICT use in Al-Izzah Islamic School. The first part of the chapter critically reviews the major reasons for the limited impact of ICT development on education. Later, the paper discusses the major potential benefits of ICT in education followed by some recommendation of the most useful ICT benefits for the school being investigated. In the next section, it outlines a framework for generating a strategic planning of ICT development followed by discussion of major issues experienced by institutions attempting to use ICT for teaching practices including some suggestions of how to overcome these issues.

A. ICT development has had limited impact in Education. What are the major reasons for this?
The rapid development of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) particularly in educational field has required many educators to reconsider their pedagogical beliefs and teaching practices. The integration of ICTs in teaching and learning process is expected to enable educators especially teachers to construct a more learner-centric and meaningful classroom interaction which is crucial element for creating constructive learning environment (Hooper & Rieber, 1995; OECD, 2001; Newhouse, 2002; Infodev, 2005). However, as this belief is growing stronger, the current situation indicates that the ICTs’ contribution to the enhancement of instructional process remains questionable and limited. Becker et al. (as cited in Newhouse, 2002) and Elliott (2004) assert that “apart from in a few exceptional school, in the 20th century, ICT integration had only a limited impact on what happens in the classroom. There has been much debate over the reasons for the discrepancy between the potential and what is realised”. Dealing with this issue, a number of research on ICT in education has tried to address the viable contributing factors responsible for such a condition. In general, the limited impact of ICT expansion on education is closely associated with teachers’ inability to integrate ICTs in their teaching practices and lack of supports both from the schools and the constituency including local educational government policy (Copolla, 2004).

Incompetent teachers
Despite the fact that ICTs have arrived to offer solutions for educational problems (Newhouse, 2002), teachers still find it difficult to take a full advantage of the possible use of ICTs to support their teaching practices (Coppola, 2004). Whereas, as ICT is integrated both in traditional and contemporary learning settings, the teacher’s roles remain indispensable and important in determining the meaningfulness of ICT application in the classroom (OECD, 2001; Coppola, 2004; Infodev, 2005; Elearningeuropa, 2005). Dealing with this, the teachers should possess sufficient relevant technical ability as well as pedagogical knowledge that underpins the choice of instructional strategies they use in the classroom. A study carried out by OECD (2001) suggests that “teachers face a more demanding professional role as managers of the ICT-enhanced learning environment. They must have a range of technical and pedagogical skills, with continuous up-dating to match advances in the technology and modes of use”. Moreover, Hooper & Rieber (1995) indicate that as a result of incompetent teacher, today ICTs are mostly employed from the traditional perspective of educational technology which greatly emphasizes of the use or product of technology itself or teachers’ instruction and is restricted to the first three phases of ICT adoption; familiarization, utilization and integration. While the contemporary perspective focusing on ideas of technology or constructivist learning process (reorientation and evaluation phases) has not been put into practice (see figure-1). The absence of competent teachers will make the existence of ICTs meaningless and less useful for improving the quality of students’ learning.


(Figure-1. Can not be displayed)


Lack of support from the schools
In addition to teachers’ capacity to utilize ICTs for their teaching, the school administrators also play a decisive role for successful marriage of ICTs and quality teaching and learning practices (OECD, 2001; Coppola, 2004; Infodev, 2005). Lack of supports from the schools hinders both teachers and students to gain effective use of ICTs in the teaching and learning process. The school supports can be manifested by providing adequate technical infrastructure, strong and visionary leadership, continuous teachers’ training, appropriate incentives and being accommodative and responsive to viable problems and changes following the application of ICTs in the schools. Copolla (2004) revealed that school administrators which do not involve teachers in making any decision regarding to ICT integration will likely experience disadvantage situations leading to ineffective use of ICTs in instructional practices. In more specific, he categorizes these conditions into four; cosmetic use, the technological imperative, the romantic vision and competition drain.

The Cosmetic Use is a condition where technology is used only for a superficial purpose. Teachers’ interest to develop ICT in their teaching is very low since the idea of integrating ICT is fully originated from the school leaders as the major policy maker. The Technological Imperative happens as the schools consider technology itself to be more valuable and important than the teaching and learning. They are not aware that the use of ICT in schools must be based on the instructional demands in order to improve the quality of students’ learning not vice versa. The Romantic Vision emerges as ICT is exaggeratedly assumed to give benefits from the business viewpoint such as increasing class size or replacing teachers and not from the teaching and learning perspectives. The Competition Drain occurs when political interest and competition for gaining ICT access are more dominant than the intention to develop the students’ learning quality.

Lack of support from the local educational government
To implement ICTs in education successfully, the local educational office or district superintendent should also establish supporting policy or bill on ICT application and have willingness to reform and reoriented the curriculum as well as assessment system (OECD, 2001; Infodev, 2005). Papert (in OECD, 2001) informs that for some countries which are relatively new to digital technologies, the adoption of ICTs in education might be viewed as a threat since it requires radical changes among the educational regulations, curriculum standard and assessment procedures. As a result, they become unsupportive and even resistant to any schools or teachers who have a strong vision for ICT integration in their schools. The educational district as a policy maker should be open and ready to supportively reconsider and adjust the policy related to the use of ICT in education. In addition, radical curriculum and assessment changes need to be carried out to cope with the challenges and development of current society which require revolutionary movement from traditional curriculum and assessment procedures to a more open, skill-based and student-centred approaches (OECD, 2001; Infodev, 2005).

B. What are the major potential benefits of ICT in education?
The idea of using ICT in schools has been closely related to the need for improving students’ learning outcomes in both cognitive and non-cognitive domains such as enhancing learning and stronger student motivation and creating new learning contexts and environments and being a potential catalyst for change of teaching and learning roles, patterns, procedures and organisational work compared to those adopted in traditional classrooms (DEST, 2002). The notion of ICT integration in education has shown that ICTs have inevitably brought significant challenges for educators and gives profound implications for teachers’ individual practices, the whole school process and educational system. A growing consensus led by OECD (2001) has proposed three major rationales underpinning the application of ICT in education. These underlying factors cover the economic, social, and pedagogical reasons.

From the economic perspective, ICT is seen as a critical requirement that equips and prepares students for employment related challenges both today and in the future. The individual’s ability and knowledge about technology is viewed as an essential part of life skill to embrace the demands of workplaces and professional success. In their report, OECD (2001) indicates that “knowledge of and familiarity with ICT is an important aspect of employability as the 21st century unfolds”. In addition, there is a growing notion that that the economic development of a certain country is positively related to the growing of ICT in that nation. In other words, the successful embracement of ICTs provide a greater opportunity to gain benefits economically.

Secondly, the social rationale considers ICT as an essential prerequisite to engage in today and future social activities and workplaces. OECD (2001) notes that “competence with ICTs is seen as essential life skill in the same way as literacy and numeracy, so much so that the range of skills and processes supported by ICT is brought together in the notion of digital literacy, which becomes both a requirement and a right for all learners”. ICTs have been widely used in almost all aspects of social lives. As the utilization of ICTs is getting wider, the students’ inability of applying ICTs might lead to failure in their social interactions. In addition, an extensive use of ICTs is also expected to create a better link and communication among teachers, students, parents and other school stakeholders which enables schools to play a more active involvement in the social development.

Thirdly, the pedagogic rationale views the great contribution of ICTs to the teaching and learning process. The inclusion of ICTs enables teachers to create a learning setting that deepens the students’ learning process to a higher-order thinking level which is attributable to the students’ ability to apply their perceived knowledge into a real context or situation (Hooper & Rieber, 1995; Newhouse, 2002; DEST, 2002). A fact that many students are still unable to use much of the information or content they have learned in the schools has initiated educators to consider ICT as a promising instructional tool to produce a more meaningful learning. Mayer (as cited in Hooper & Rieber, 1995) points out that meaningfulness of learning highly depends on the three learning stages; selection, organisation, and integration. He asserts that “in school, students select information that they memorize and organize sufficiently to enable satisfactory performance on test, but they often fail to integrate the information by relating it to the previous experiences or knowledge stored in long term memory”. In this respect, ICTs enables teachers to design instruction based on students’ experiences and provide a more relevant learning environment for students (Hooper & Rieber, 1995).

In contemporary use of technology in education, ICTs offer possibilities for teachers to teach a more meaningful and deeper cognitive processing (Perkins as cited in Hooper & Rieber, 1995). In more specific, Newhouse (2002) indicates that ICTs in education have the potential to offer solutions for viable problems in educational domain. Some of them are:

  • ICTs can be used to support learning activities which are difficult to perform in other ways.
  • ICTs may serve a role to address the needs of special group of students such as students with disability or those requiring extension activities.
  • ICT is able to support problem solving activities in many forms that are valuable to enhance students’ higher order thinking skills.
  • ICTs should form an integral part of students’ activities as a productive tool.
  • ICTs can be used in many ways as stimulation and motivation for a range of other learning activities and situation (Newhouse, 2002, p. 13).

In addition, Elearningeuropa (2005) also asserts that “the use of ICTs holds great potential for supporting or being the transforming agent for shifts toward a new learning paradigm”. The new learning paradigm includes:

  • The learning focuses on learners as individuals and their opportunities for becoming more active and taking more responsibility for their own learning process.
  • The learning approach should be based on the uniqueness and differentiated learning styles possessed by the learners, so that they can learn according to their own learning styles and pace.
  • The learning focus should also emphasize on the students’ social involvement through peer communication and collaborative learning.
  • The teachers’ role is more like advisors, guides, supervisor, so that the process of knowledge will be more ‘group-based’ or ‘student-student’.
  • The students should be active participants to construct knowledge through their own learning process rather than learn the content and reproduce facts and knowledge from teachers.
  • To create a better learning situation requires reorganisation of the current beliefs and situations from traditional practices determined by narrow curriculum to multidisciplinary approaches, modified learning, time planning and teachers’ work (Elearningeuropa, 2005, p. 2).

C. What benefits do you see as being most useful for our institution?
As brand new institution with a boarding system, Al-Izzah Islamic School has developed a strong commitment to provide a constructive learning environment for the students to learn in the best way. In its vision, the school asserts that the learning process should be directed to assist the students being knowledgeable, critical, competitive, principled and skilful individuals who are able to cope with the challenges of life (LPMI Al-Izzah). In doing so, the school tries to maintain active learning principles in the whole instructional process in which problem solving activities become the common features and approaches utilized by the teachers for their teaching (LPMI Al-Izzah).

ICT as an instructional supporting aid is deemed crucial by the school to facilitate the teachers and students to achieve the intended learning outcomes. In more specific, the ICT integration in the school will give the following important benefits:

  • ICTs open door of knowledge and information. The fundamental advantage offered by technology is its possibility to give access to wide information around the world. As ICT is getting more easily available, the information and knowledge required by teachers and students is also more widely accessible. The lifelong learning will be a reality among the teachers and students.

  • ICT integration motivates the students to engage in their learning. The students are getting more interested in their learning when the teachers involve ICT in their learning or challenge the students to use ICT in their learning. The use of ICT in the school enables teachers to design a more engaging instruction in facilitating the learning process.

  • ICTs enhance the students’ creativity and critical thinking. When ICT is integrated in teaching and learning process, the students have opportunities to think in a more speculative way. ICTs will offer a number of possibilities that challenge the students to think critically and see and overcome any problems from multi different perspectives.

  • ICTs assist the students to become more self-regulated learners. Through ICT involvement, the students are encouraged to be more independent and active learners who construct their knowledge through their own learning. They are invited to be more responsible for their own learning by planning, monitoring and evaluating their personal learning. The students are given opportunities to learn from their own failures and take any initiative for the success of future tasks.

  • ICTs improve the students’ collaboration skills. In most teaching and learning settings that involve ICTs, collaborative and cooperative learning will be an indispensable form of learning interaction. In this way, the students learn how to appreciate personal contribution of the members as well as practice personal flexibility in receiving different ideas and perspectives to achieve the shared purposes.

  • ICT inclusion develops students’ responsibility. In addition to the increased students’ responsibility for their own learning, the integration of ICT in the school also gives opportunities for the students to be more responsible for their personal interest and behaviours both as a member of learning group or individual.

D. How should the development of ICT be undertaken in our institution?
To develop applicable strategic plan, a comprehensive approach should be undertaken by considering various aspects possibly involved. In this investigation, the framework used is adopted from a frame group provider (accessed from http://www.framegroup.com.au/) which proposes a three comprehensive phases of investigation; 1) discover; 2) analyse; and 3) define. To achieve the designed purpose, each of the phases will be respectively followed by the required actions, time line, resources, success indicators or evidence, target participants and person in charge. The generated framework of this ICT investigation is presented in table-1 (cannot be displayed).

E. What are the major difficulties that are experienced by institutions attempting to use ICT to transform teaching and learning and how will these be addressed? Understanding and alleviating the constraints to ICT adoption is another dimension that should be considered for effective ICT integration. Various research on ICT has suggested the potential problems following the implementation strategic planning might include lack of teachers’ ICT proficiency and ICT benefit awareness, time, cost of technology, system integration, software availability and technological infrastructure (OECD, 2001; Coppola, 2004; Infodev, 2005). A well strategic planning should incorporate thoughts, actions as well as potential problems that possibly hinder and deviate success of project implementation (Schmoker, 2004). The following issues need to be considered to successful ICT development in this school:

Resistant or unmotivated teachers
The role of the teacher in supporting ICT inclusion in any schools is seen as an irreplaceable component (Moyle, 2006). But, it is very often teachers become the front barrier in developing ICT in schools. In this case, there is an indication that some teachers in the school often feel unmotivated and even resistant to the integration of ICT in their school. From this teachers’ perspective, integrating ICT in teaching and learning practices require them to give greater efforts in accomplishing their duties as teachers. They have to reconsider their teaching practices and even pedagogical philosophy to cope with the ICTs. In addition, as the result of lack of ICT skills, few of teachers also feel not confident in applying ICT in their teaching practices. Altogether, they might assume that integrating ICT in teaching is viewed as wasting of time or even having insignificant contribution to the enhancement of their students’ learning.

In dealing with this, the first thing that the school has to do is raising the teachers’ awareness of the potential benefits of ICT in improving the teaching and learning quality. The teachers should be informed that the inclusion of ICT in their teaching is a challenge that teachers should deal with in order to improve their quality teaching as well as prepare their students to encounter the future challenges. In doing so, the school should provide sufficient and on going trainings and professional development for their teacher as well as open discussion and communication with external parties which can enhance and broaden teachers’ technical skill and positive perspectives to the inclusion of ICT the school 9Infodev, 2005). In addition, as the ICT integration inevitably demands greater efforts and expectation from the teachers, the school should also provide adequate incentive and appraisal to maintain and improve the teachers’ motivation.

ICT infrastructure and financial problem
The sufficient infrastructure is identified as a prerequisite element for effective integration of ICT in schools (Moyle, 2006). The ICT infrastructure may include hardware, laptop, scans, printers, wireless technology, laboratory, software program, and internet connection which directly influence the applicability of ICT inclusion in teaching and learning. Establishing a reliable and adequate ICT infrastructure is deemed crucial and becoming the backbone of ICT implementation. Lack of technical infrastructure and unreliable ICT access may lead to serious issues in the employment of ICT in teaching and learning as well as devastating the teachers and students commitment to work with ICT in their teaching and learning process (Copolla, 2004).

To eliminate this issue, the school should have a strong commitment to establish secure and robust ICT infrastructure required by teachers and learners. This can be done through generating clear strategic planning and giving a suitable priority that supports the school to provide sufficient infrastructure instalment throughout the school area. In addition, allocating realistic budget in relation to infrastructure development is also important to avoid financial problems and difficulty during the application. In most cases, financial issues may have a direct link with the failure of ICT development. Accordingly, the school should also have a clear procurement plan and serious control over this issue.

School system and culture
As a part of the whole school process in ICT integration, school system and culture has a significant contribution to support teachers and students infusing ICT in the teaching and learning process (Moyle, 2006). As a brand new school, LPMI Al-Izzah is challenged to incorporate ICT in the whole school system which is relatively new to technology. The current school policy which tends to limit the students to ICT access is becoming a real barrier that requires serious discussion and a common understanding among the school policy makers and teachers. From this issue, it appears that respect and trust as the fundamental factors to create a supporting school culture are not being fully implemented in the school system. The school policy seems to overly view ICTs from the negative perspectives which initiate them to execute policy which is not supportive to the development of ICT itself.

To tackle the issues, there should be a shared understanding that the infusion of ICT into the school is a complex process that gives significant implication to decision making in the school (Moyle, 2006). The whole school system should acknowledge that the integration of ICT in the school is an important part of improving quality learning and therefore it should be supported to gain maximum benefits for better students’ learning. A culture of collaboration and risk taking should be appreciated and when it is necessary the existing paradigm and structure should be reconsidered.

C. References
Copolla, M. E. (2004). Powering up: Learning to teach well with technology. Teacher College Press, New York.

DEST. (2002). Raising the standard: A proposal for development of an ICT competency framework for teachers. viewed 15 June 2010, <>.

DuFour, R. (2004). Schools as learning communities. Educational Leadership, May, vol. 61, no. 8, pp. 6-11.

Elliot, A. (2004). When the learners know more than the teachers, viewed 25 March 2010, .

Framegroup. ICT strategic planning. viewed 16 June 2001, < www.framegroup.com.au/Frame%20ICT%20Strategic%20Planning.pdf>.

Elearningeuropa.info. (2005). The new learning paradigm in school education, viewed 4 April 2010.

Hooper, S. & Rieber, L.P. (1995). Teaching with technology, Teaching: Theory into Practice, Allyn and Bacon, Nedham Heights, pp. 154-170.

Infodev. (2005). Knowledge map: Teacher, teaching and ICT, viewed 29 March 2010, .

LMPI Al-Izzah. Visi dan Misi LPMI Al-Izzah, view 17 June 2010, < option="com_content&view=" id="69&Itemid=">.

Moyle, Kathryn. (2006). Leadeership and learning with ICT. University of Canbera

Newhouse, P.C. (2002). The impact of ICT on Learning and teaching. Western Australia.

OECD. (2001), Learning to change: ICT in schools, Paris.

Schmoker, M. (2004) Tipping point: From feckless reform to substantive instructional improvement. Phi Delta Kappan, vol. 85, no. 6, pp. 424.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Action Research as a Sustained Professional Development Process (Self-reflection)

As I begin to reflect on this topic, I remember when my lecturer, Kerry, asked me a reflective question: what is the most difficult thing to do or learn during my attendance to her lectures?. To answer this question, I have to reconsider very deeply my previous journey and question my self again and again. After a while, I have to admit that formulating a topic for research would be the hardest thing to do.

Undergoing this experience has led me to think over why it is so difficult for me formulate even a single research question which is the very common and simple one. I try to find answers through listening to myself and scrutinizing what lies behind this difficulty, and finally I come to the following underlying reason.

It is a fact that certain communities particularly those in my country including me still consider research as a very formal activity which fully relies of the traditional belief about research. There is a common sense that research is only appropriate for those who are able to strictly control over it and possess special ability and knowledge of research and sophisticated statistical computations. Research is assumed to be so methodological and procedural activities that demand extremely systematic phases, strong efforts and commitments. As a result, many people including me are feel reluctant and pessimistic to conduct such scientific research even the very simple one.

To change such paradigm, in fact, is not easy. It requires both personal and public awareness that research should be considered as an alternative way of doing reflection rather than something merely scientific and methodological. Research in particular an action research should be viewed as a process of reflection which aims to develop and improve any activities, performances, and conditions. As such, research actually can be carried out by any individuals from various backgrounds of profession and disciplines and either for individual or communal purposes.

As a teacher working with students which are unique, changeable, and unpredictable, an action research should be an indispensable part of my teaching practice development. It helps me to be more critical to my own capability and also to the learning environment where I am teaching including my teaching strategies, teaching constraints, students feeling and understanding and other related issues. Furthermore, the findings of an action research may open various possibilities for further teaching actions and illuminate viable problems which may emerge in future and have never been considered.

As a learner, research especially an action research enables me to be more personally critical not only to the information and knowledge being learned but also to viable factors contribute to either my learning success or failure. It trains me to have more systematic and coherent thinking which is important for my current learning. An action research also builds and fosters my understanding of certain issues and calls me to more appreciate depth thinking and thoughtfulness in facing and responding any problems.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Implementation Proposal of Google Docs: A Supporting Aid for More Collaborative Learning

By Nur Abidin
A.
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and Education
The rapid growth of society and technology has been a great challenge for education. Education is expected to enable learners to be capable of solving problems, being personally productive and taking part in social development. These expectations unavoidably require teachers to be more ready in providing pedagogical practices which support learners to maximize their potencies. ICT advancement, which is viewed as a challenge, in fact, also allows educators to design more meaningful and engaging learning that is likely unable to do in other ways. It serves more problem solving activities which are more learner-centric and call on students to be more productive individuals (Newhouse 2002, p. 13). Altogether, ICT creates possibilities of educational practices that have never been considered before (Copolla 2004).

B. Institutional Background
Al-Izzah is an Islamic based-school committed to provide an alternative education at a secondary level. It tries to integrate the Islamic values with the national curriculum renowned as IHES (integrated and holistic education system). As a brand new school which was established in 2003, Al-Izzah has developed very rapidly both in terms of learning infrastructure and pedagogical practices. The students of Al-Izzah are spread over different territories both in Java and other neighbouring provinces. As an Islamic boarding school whereby students live in the school dormitory, Al-Izzah is challenged to offer learning atmosphere which is not only constructive and meaningful but also interactive and engaging for the students.

C. Pedagogical Strategies
As the students are engaged in a learning setting almost the whole day, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., students’ boredom is very likely to happen. To eliminate this issue, the school adopts active learning principles as the basis of learning activities (Imron 2007). In this approach, teacher’s creativity is deemed critical for creating an interactive class which calls on high student participation and at the same time attractive for the students. Moreover, the school executes moving class system in which classrooms are split into different learning centres including science, math, language, social and Islamic studies. In addition, in the afternoon session, from 12.30 to 2.20 p.m., students are required to attend a tutorial class consisting of less than 10 students for each learning discussion.

D. Current IT Application
To achieve the designated purposes, the employment of ICT to support teaching and learning practices is viewed essential by the school. Accordingly, ICT instalment among the units becomes a priority after the basic infrastructure is fulfilled. Presently, the school subscribes unlimited internet service and both teachers and students are equipped with a personal notebook. To support the teaching, LCD projectors are available on reserve and teacher willingness to use ICT is encouraged and highly appreciated. However, as an initial stage of ICT embracement, in this school the ICT application is restrictedly associated with powerpoint slides and videos (Copolla 2004). The lack of ICT trainings may become the viable reason for the teachers’ limited ability when using the available sources and technology. In addition, it appears that the school still does not have a specific policy on the exploitation of ICT in school (Infodev 2005).

E. Snapshot on Google Docs
Google Dos (GD’s) is an online word processor, spreadsheet and presentation editor that enables its users to create, save, edit, collaborate and share their documents and ideas quickly and securely (Google 2008). It is a free service software officially released by Google on October 2006. At glance, it works in the same way as an offline office program, however since it is stored online users will gain a lot of benefits for they can instantly retrieve and communicate their documents to others. It helps users to work more efficiently and effectively.

To use the program users who do not have a ‘gmail’ email are required to freely sign-up to create a Google account. Using their already signed up email and password, created when signing up, users can log in and operate this useful program at no cost except the internet connection. There are four basic programs that users can easily deal with including document to process word-based tasks, spreadsheet to work with number and tables, forms to create online quizzes, evaluation or questioners, and presentation to manage a collaborative presentation (Google 2008).

The sharing features of GD’s make this simple program ingeniously impressive. A team member who works separately can directly join together in an online forum. They can edit in a real time and gain feedback at the same time. In addition users can decide and determine with whom they would like to share and whether the document is published online on web-page or not.

F. Google Docs in School: Benefits and Challenges
The existence of GD’s program has benefited to a variety of parties including professionals, students, writers, businessmen and in particular educators. In a pedagogic domain, GD’s has been widely utilized both for administrative purposes such as creating lesson plan, recording students’ attendance or grades, and monitoring teachers preparation by school administrators and for instructional assistant tool (Google 2008).

As a teaching aid, GD’s helps teachers to create a more collaborative teaching situation (Cassinelli 2009). The students are encouraged to vigorously involve in their learning process through online participation either with peers or teachers. Using ‘forms’ program, teachers are also able to conduct online quizzes or assessment which can be carried out either on or off class (Google 2008). Through GD’s, teachers have more opportunities to be involved in the process of learning and not only focus on the final products of their students (Davis and Anderson 2010). Another critical value is that the execution of GD’s in teaching practices presents long-life teaching and learning situation among teachers and students. The following indicates how GD’s contributes to collaborative learning in a variety of lesson.

Science
Group project, individual assignment, collaborative presentation, on-going feedback, online quizzes, homework submission, class note, digital portfolio, online simulation, online search, data processing, creating poster

Math
Group project, individual assignment, collaborative presentation, peer editing, on-going feedback, online quizzes, homework submission, class note, digital portfolio, online tutorial, online drillings

Social/History
Group project, individual assignment, collaborative presentation, peer editing, on-going feedback, class note, online quizzes, homework submission, jigsaw, digital portfolio, online search, online survey, global village, problem solving.

Language
Group project, individual assignment, collaborative presentation, peer editing, on-going feedback, online quizzes, homework submission, digital portfolio, class note, grammatical analysis, writing journal, essay writing, personal dictionary, personal invitation, speed reading, chained story.

Nevertheless, since firstly introduced GD’s has experienced a number of revisions to better its performances and convenience. As GD’s continues to evolve, its users including educators are also getting more critical and responsive to the viable defects accompanying the execution of GD’s in practices. Several users find out that GD’s is too risky in terms of security matter (Barkah 2010, p. 42). They argue even though security issue has been put on serious consideration by Google, several incidents have indicated that GD’s as ‘a cloudy storage system’ has a greater possibilities for security breaches. Other weaknesses is dealing with free-storage capacity and formatting matter (Webster 2010, p. 42). In the latest revision, GD’s is only able to freely store at around 1 GB per user which is seemingly not sufficient for expert users. However, it should be noted that GD’s storage capacity actually can be upgraded to 20 GB or more with specific cost determined by Google Corp. Regarding to fidelity issue, some users discover that GD’s has problems when users open up word document in GD’s. In addition, users also find problems dealing with graphics and file-merging especially when they are working with spreadsheet.

G. Conclusion
As an instructional assistant aid, Google Docs has contributed significantly to the enhancement of teaching and learning process. In spite of its viable minor deficiencies, GD’s offers a number of benefits which enable educators to make their teaching more collaborative and engaging. The GD’s contribution will be much greater as the teachers have better knowledge on how to exploit GD’s from the pedagogical perspectives. Willingness to employ ICT in teaching practices and ICT trainings are among other efforts that can support the success of ICT embracement in education particularly in Al-Izzah Islamic boarding school.

H.
Source of Readings

  1. Copolla, ME 2004, Powering up: Learning to teach well with technology, Teacher College Press, New York.
  2. Dede, C 2008, A seismic shift in epistemelogy, Educase Review, May/June, pp 80-81.
  3. DuFour, R 2004, Schools as learning communities, Educational Leadership, May, vol. 61, no. 8, pp. 6-11.
  4. Elliot, A 2004, When the learners know more than the teachers, viewed 25 March 2010, .
  5. Elearningeuropa.info 2005, The new learning paradigm in school education, viewed 4 April 2010, .
  6. Hooper, S & Rieber, LP 1995, Teaching with technology, Teaching: Theory into Practice, Allyn and Bacon, Nedham Heights, pp. 154-170.
  7. Infodev 2005, Knowledge map: Teacher, teaching and ICT viewed 29 March 2010, .
  8. Newhouse, PC 2002, The impact of ICT on Learning and teaching, Western Australia.
  9. Organisation for Economic and Co-operation Development (OECD) 2001, Learning to change: ICT in schools, Paris.
    10. Schmoker, M 2004, Tipping point: From feckless reform to substantive instructional improvement, Phi Delta Kappan, vol. 85, no. 6, pp. 424.
    11. http://chris.pirillo.com/google-docs/, viewed 2 April 2010.
    12. http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/office_live_workspace_vs_google_docs_feature_by_feature.php, viewed 30 March 2010.
    13. http://www.google.com/educators/weeklyreader.html, viewed 1 April 2010
    14. http://www.processor.com/editorial/article.asp?article=articles, viewed 3 April 2010.
    15. http://www.lpmi-alizzah.com, viewed 25 March 2010.