Educational Technology and ICT Integration
Educational Technology and ICT Integration
This domain tests the purposeful use of tools to improve learning, not the mere presence of devices. Items ask you to classify a use, choose the right model, or judge whether the pedagogy justifies the technology.
Core rules
- Distinctions: educational technology = the systematic design of learning (broad); instructional technology = media and methods for instruction; ICT = the tools themselves.
- TPACK (Mishra and Koehler): effective integration sits where technological, pedagogical and content knowledge overlap - the same tool fails in a different subject without pedagogical and content fit.
- SAMR (Puentedura): Substitution (same task, digital), Augmentation (same task, functional gain), Modification (task redesigned), Redefinition (task previously inconceivable). Substitution alone is not transformation.
- ASSURE for lesson design: Analyse learners, State objectives, Select media and materials, Utilise, Require participation, Evaluate. ADDIE for course development: Analyse, Design, Develop, Implement, Evaluate.
- Ghanaian context: the National ICT for Accelerated Development policy, the ICT in Education policy, the Computing curriculum, and GES e-learning plus radio and television lessons for low-connectivity schools - so offline, mobile and OER solutions are legitimate answers.
- Non-negotiables: digital safety and privacy, copyright and attribution, accessibility for learners with disabilities, and a fallback plan when power or internet fails.
Worked example
'A teacher replaces a printed worksheet with the same worksheet on a projector; a colleague has learners use a free simulation to test a hypothesis they could not test in class.' The first is Substitution; the second is Redefinition. Reasoning: the first changes the medium but not the task or its cognitive demand; the second enables an investigation that would otherwise be impossible, which is exactly redefinition.
Traps that cost marks
- Marking every use of a projector as 'ICT integration'.
- Confusing TPACK (knowledge overlap) with SAMR (levels of task change).
- Choosing a tool without pedagogical or content justification.
- Ignoring power, connectivity and device-sharing realities in Ghanaian classrooms.