Digital Natives

Children today are born in a cradle with all the fancy high-tech gadgets like smartphone, UHD tv, computer, high speed internet etc. The present era can be regarded as era of Digital natives. we need not have to look at any other people around than our own small children at homes. They know how to navigate the smartphones and open websites like YouTube and watch their favorite cartoon movies. It is no more shock to see them using social medias like Facebook, Wechat, Messenger, Watsapps, etc.They know how to login , post their moments, updates, uploads and log out better than anyone who is from 60's era. This is simply because of the 21st century digitization, and the present children are native to this rapid digitization.

A 2 years old (Tandin) watching cartoon in smartphone

ICT as tool for teaching and learning

Teaching is one of the most interesting and enjoyable profession in the world. People loves to teach children in early learning centers, primary schools, high schools , in colleges and universities. And in particularly in Bhutan, teaching profession has been regarded as the highest profession with greater respect from the whole community. It is also one of the highly paid profession in Bhutan.
However, with the change in time, the world is been digitizing with the ICT. And Bhutan is not an exception. Bhutan has been moving with the rhythm of the change and coping with the latest technologies in education. And it is the use of ICT in teaching and learning process in schools.
The use of ICT has been credited with helpful outcomes in the teaching and learning. To highlight, the followings are few areas:

• Better teaching and learning platform : Teaching with the use of computer, projector,TV screen becomes more effective and teacher can communicate more clearly with the children. it also provides better understanding of the concepts and topics.

• Fun learning: Children enjoy when teacher teach using ICT tools. They enjoy PowerPoint presentation, short video clips, and audio-visual contents incorporated in the lesson. 

• Efficient time management: A teacher can plan lesson as per the ICT tool where by time can be managed efficiently. 

• Easy resources in internet: During teaching and learning in class, teacher can easily look for help in the internet by visiting authentic websites and web pages. children also love to browse for additional information in internet for a particular concept or topic.

• Easy to save for future references: The teaching learning materials can be easily saved in PCs, or in Google Drive for future references.

 Knowing all the above advantages it also have few disadvantages as follows:

• Expensive: It is expensive to procure all the necessary ICT devices or tool like computer, Projector, Screen , Microsoft Office, etc for every class.

• Electronic Malfunction: As ICT devices runs in electricity , it may malfunction and can lead to bigger problem to mend it.

• Wrong information: Due to limited knowledge , children may visit unauthentic websites and can be guided with false information. 

Overall , ICT have enhanced the teaching learning process in school meeting the demand for global standard in term of use of ICT tools for teaching and learning.

X C students using ICT tool for learning ,Chumigthang MSS