ICT in an IES

The proliferation, in recent years, of tools, practices and models based on ICT is remarkable. ICT can provide many useful resources for learning in the class; it can also foster new literacies, and easy ways to transform, enrich and make information more visual and nicer. ICT also promotes the pupil’s role as agents to spread knowledge rather than just receiving it, and creates situations where they have to work in collaboration and make decisions on their own more naturally.

On the other hand, models based on key competences, multilingualism and multidisciplinary approaches, are also being recommended to teachers by experts. Common sense tells anyone with an open mind that this might be the only solution in a teaching context where we do not know what the jobs of the future would be.



Being a teacher is, thus, more and more complex, and we can only expect succeeding in our task by adopting an active role both in our classes and in the school, sharing knowledge, involving the community and a being ready to engage in-service training, reflection with colleagues, and sharing what we do. We would not succeed, either without the active support of our school management, and of the administration, which must provide means and policies, and make our work easier. Society must value what we do, too, but we cannot expect the parents of our children to be less diverse than they are, can we? It is for the teachers, the schools and the administrations to take the lead.

Each and every one of us has the responsibility to become more efficient in finding, filing and retrieving resources and in improving our capacity to address diversity in the language classroom. We must also design rich learning environments and implement different methodologies and teaching approaches, adapted to our teaching environment. It is also very important that we use ways, such as Portfolios, to file, praise and evaluate not only our pupil’s work, but also our own.

Organizations like APAC are here to help us, but we cannot expect these organizations to do the work for us. Experienced teachers must help novel ones, and novel ones have to transmit their energy and willingness to learn to teachers who have been doing the same for ages. Innovation in schools will not exist if we do not favour exchange of educational materials and reflections, if we do not do our best, and make sure what we consider our best is actually perceived as such by those around us.