Professional Communication: The Role of ICT in Teacher Development

This essay explores the role of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in enhancing professional communication and development within the field of education. It highlights the Australian Council for Computers in Education (ACCE) as a key professional network supporting ICT integration in education. The essay discusses how ICT supports teachers' professional development through various means, including providing tools for knowledge delivery, improving pedagogy, and facilitating new forms of learning. It also examines the practical applications of ICT in teaching, such as using presentation tools and fostering collaboration among educational institutions. Furthermore, the essay emphasizes ICT's value in supporting curriculum development by improving students' understanding, expression, and decision-making abilities, and suggests ICT-based activities like role-playing and problem-solving to engage children in curriculum concepts. Overall, the essay argues that ICT plays a crucial role in modernizing education and improving both teaching and learning outcomes.

Running Head: PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION
PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION
Name of Student
Name of University
Author’s Note

1PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION
Activity 8.1
I belong to the Australian Council for Computers in Education (ACCE) processional
network. ACCE is a professional body of national level. It has been found for the people who are
involved in usage of communication and information technology in the field of education
(Morgan, Sheard & Butler, 2015). It includes the educators who provide tuitions on the subjects
regarding information technology or computing technology. It is also found for the teachers who
want to improve the outcome of student learning with the help of ICT. ACCE aims in
encouraging as well as maintaining the level and quality of excellence in the area of endeavor all
over Australia. Every state as well as territory owns their own independent association (Morgan,
Sheard & Butler, 2015). These associations advance the development in professional area of the
members in the usage of learning technologies in the education.
ICT has been very common in most of the businesses, teaching profession has also been
benefitted by the advantages provided by ICT. It helps the teachers to boost their professional
development (Moore, 2016). The usage of ICT in professional development of teachers can be
divided into three parts. First is a focus of study. It develops the ability of the teachers to use
necessary tools of ICT for delivering knowledge to the students. Internet is one of the ICT tools
that can be used by teachers in order to teach students regarding any subject. Second is a delivery
system. This system provides teachers with information that helps them to improve pedagogy as

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well as content mastery (Moore, 2016). With the help of this system they are able to acquire
more knowledge regarding any subject which in turn will help them to deliver complete and
perfect knowledge to the students. The third category is a catalyst for newly developed forms of
learning and teaching. As time pass by, the system of teaching as well as learning become more
developed and there are certain changes in the system every time (Moore, 2016). The teachers
need to stay updated regarding the changes. Some changes include learning procedures that are
inquiry-based, collaborative learning and many other forms of learning. In brief, it can be said
that professional development under ICT has three categories, they are
 Learning how to use ICT
 Learning through ICT
 Integration of the usage of ICT in teacher learning and teaching.
Activity 8.2
ICT can be used in a teaching profession for various purposes. One of the major purposes
is to meet the needs of students as well as teachers. Some uses are as follows
 Use of ICT as tools for presentation such as LCD projectors, electronic whiteboards,
television and many more. Students are provided their academic classes with the use of

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these resources (Bouras, Zainal & Abdulwahad, 2016). It is easier for teachers to explain
the students and provide them a better view of diagrams.
 Usage of ITC tools has reduced the barriers of time, place and space between teachers
and learners.
 Use of ICT has created a healthy as well as interactive relation among the schools,
teachers, universities and institutions (Owen, Palekahelu & Sumakul, 2018). It has also
enabled teachers to contain rich quality of resources in the cyber space.
 The cost incurred in the training is reduced which can be utilized for other purposes.
Value of ICT to support the curriculum
ICT is helpful in the curriculum of the students. Some important areas where ICT
supports the curriculum are as follows.
 Helps in developing understanding as well as application of various concepts. ITC helps
students to develop better understanding ability (Anastasiades & Zaranis, 2017). They
gain knowledge regarding various concepts and where to apply them.
 Develops the power of expression.
 Develops thinking as well as reasoning power.

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 Develops ability of decision making. ICT in education makes students to know about real
life challenges and how to deal with them (Keane, Keane & Blicblau, 2016). They gain
knowledge of better decision making.
 Improves, speed, vocabulary and comprehension. Usage of ICT help the students to
improve their vocabulary in various languages, speed of working and many more.
 Develops value clarification and self-concept.
 Develops good study habits.
 Develops ambiguity, tolerance and scientific temper within people.
Some ICT based activities that would help the children to engage into curriculum concepts are as
follows
 Role-play activities: ICT is a very helpful tool in order to conduct various collaborative
activities. Here learners play different responsibilities and roles. Numerous activities can
be planned so that various learners are able to try their ability in different areas
(Anastasiades & Zaranis, 2017). This helps them acquire a sense of responsibility.
 Teaching: In this feature the learners are provided the responsibility of learning. This
makes them aware regarding the knowledge that they already possess (Keane, Keane &
Blicblau, 2016). This makes them realize the gap between what they should know and
what they actually know.

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 Problem solving activities: Problem solving helps in acquiring the abilities of learning
from examples (Halsey, 2018). It also helps in setting up autonomous strategies; people
understand the needs to apply methodological approach to a particular risk.
 Management activities: Being entrusted by various responsibilities helps people to gain
self-confidence and the ability to design various strategies for performing a task
(Anastasiades & Zaranis, 2017). Referring to the setting in the school, a possible situation
in this case is to provide various group of students, responsibilities for managing a
computer lab.
 Articulated projects: Working on various articulated projects would help students to
integrate their individual work and have a realization of responsibility. This would also
help them to follow an approach that is methodological while handling a task (Keane,
Keane & Blicblau, 2016). Some electronics that are used such as spread-sheets, word
processors and presentation systems help the teachers to design various projects where
the outcome is a product.

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References
Anastasiades, P., & Zaranis, N. (2017). Research on e-Learning and ICT in Education [J].
Educational Technology & Society, 16(4), 287-289.
Bouras, A., Zainal, A. A., & Abdulwahad, M. S. (2016). Evolution of ICT industry landscape
and its impact on higher education competencies. In 15th International Conference on e-
Learning e-Business, Enterprise Information Systems, and e-Government, EEE (Vol. 16).
Halsey, J. (2018). Independent Review into Regional, Rural and Remote Education. Department
of Education and Training.
Keane, T., Keane, W. F., & Blicblau, A. S. (2016). Beyond traditional literacy: Learning and
transformative practices using ICT. Education and Information Technologies, 21(4), 769-
781.
Marrinan, H., Firth, S., Hipgrave, D., & Jimenez-Soto, E. (2015). Let’s take it to the clouds: the
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Moore, P. (2016). Information literacy in the New Zealand education sector. Librarians and
Educators Collaborating for Success: The International Perspective, 295.

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Morgan, M., Sheard, J., Butler, M., Falkner, K., & Weerasinghe, A. (2015, January). Teaching in
First-Year ICT Education in Australia: Research and Practice. In ACE (pp. 81-90).
Owen, S., Palekahelu, D., Sumakul, T., Sekiyono, E., & White, G. (2018). Systematic
educational change and teacher skill-building in developed and developing countries: the
importance of teacher peer learning groups. Teacher Development, 22(4), 447-463.