The Impact of Using the KidSmart Program on Facilitating Children's Access and Use of ICT Tools According to Jordanian Public Kindergarten Teachers' Viewpoint
Khalid I. Ajlouni, Abdelmuhdi Ali Aljarrah · 2011
Introduction and Theoretical Background The transformation in the teachers' role, within the system of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), has become a vital requisite today. Teachers are no more a mere conveyers of information with the sole task of instructing the learners. To the contrary, they are expected to utilize this ICT to help students interact and participate with a view to getting the required information. The objective of education is focused on developing the learners' minds, skills, and scientific thinking rather than simply passing the exams. Teachers should also change their traditional (typical) role and play various roles according to the learning situation. The teacher of today may be an advisor, a director of the learning situation, a designer of the teaching / learning process, a producer of the learning materials and an evaluator of the teaching / learning process altogether. Therefore, teachers need a constant academic training as well as an educational and professional development and qualification (Wheeler, Waitte and Bromfield, 2002; Odin, 1997). Today's successful teacher is by no means the person who is experienced in his/her specialty or who is simply skillful in the very subject he/she teaches. Rather, he/she is the one who is capable of utilizing, aptly and adeptly, modern educational techniques (Weinbrgy, Collier, and Reivera, 2003).Teachers' professional development is a great responsibility that is shouldered by the university and the Ministry of Education both before service and in-service. Hence, it is imperative to distribute responsibilities and be responsible for the results to guarantee the quality of the teaching/learning processes. This helps qualify teachers with the required standards that enable them to facilitate the process of learning to achieve its goals (Simpson & Colon, 2001). The Access to the knowledge age, which is based on full exploitation of modern technology in all fields, requires promoting the future vision and reviewing all typical methods of instruction. ICT has become a way of living and not a mere luxury tool restricted to a certain domain or a social prominent class. Amidst the global propensity towards the knowledge economy, which is mainly based on modern technology to upgrade the social status and utilize resources completely, ICT can well be termed now as a means of existence. Thus, it has become an essential and inevitable tool that teachers cannot manage without it in an open world where competitiveness is a criterion for progress and prosperity. Within this framework, the education system is considered the most prominent motivator for dramatic and revolutionary change in the type of life and thinking we live nowadays. The coming generations are always the most capable of achieving the turning point if they have the means and techniques of transformation (Kim, 2003). Ever since the end of the last century and the beginning of the modern one, scientific progress and technological development have had an obvious impact on the teaching/learning process. Nowadays, typical education is unable to meet the requirements of educational institutions in an era that is witnessing rapid movement of knowledge and technological skills. This movement is affecting all aspects including development and qualifying of human resources and technical cadres, following up on modern methods in education, upgrading learning outcomes and achieving progress to occupy a rank amongst the developed countries (Chapman, 2006). New variables are introduced in the educational fields as a result of utilization of modern technology in the field of education and considering it a way of thinking and taking action as well. It is also a problem-solving technique and a methodological process that involves a combination of many factors: equipment and tools, views and opinions, action methods, management and human resources (Goodison, 2001 ; Mackes, 2004 ( In modern society, alphabetical illiteracy is no more considered a difficulty for children, especially under the new laws, education requirements and the mass media. …