LAYING THE FOUNDATION OF TEACHING IN DIGITAL ERA: WHAT HAPPENS TO TEACHERS WHEN TECHNOLOGY CHANGES RAPIDLY
Abstract: Teachers may not
always obtain professional training to improve themselves. Frequently, they
have to learn by themselves, explore ways by their own, and do some trials and
errors. They can be successful or fail.They have to do their own learning
journey. This frequently happens when teachers have to work with ICT.The
flourish, popularity and reputation of ICT in education seem very appealing,
but at the same timeprovide new challenges. The Interactivity, creativity,
affection, cognition, speed and transferability featuresof ICT may tempt
teachers to use it in their teaching. However, teachers may face difficulty
when they haveto change by adopting new technology, but they do not know what
to do, where to start and who can or willhappily help them, especially when
other teachers are busy with their own works. This indicates that the coming of
ICT bring joy, but also difficulty for teachers. This ICT learning
difficulties/challenges are heightened by the nature of ICT which changes and
expands rapidly. In this study, I intend to express my reflection on my own
teaching practice and my analysis on one of my colleagues teaching experience
in our ICT self-learning: what issues we encounter, what we obtain and miss in
our learning journey, and whataspects affect our learning. We find that
professional help for teachers does not always come when it isneeded. There are
many times when teachers should face their teaching field independently
(without professional training). However, we find that embedding ICT into
teaching-learning now becomes not only a trend, but also a need. To do this,
teachers should be explorative, adaptive and reflective learners. There are
many challenges that we have to face during the learning process which relate
to teacher, students andenvironment aspects which require us to do exploratory,
experiential and social learning. Genuine learning may come from self-learning
on what we need in our teaching practice and observation on what environment
provides or not provide for our learning.
Keywords: ICT, self-learning,
learning journey, professional training, learning challenges, reflection,
social learning, exploratory learning and experiential learning
Author: Adi Suryani
Journal Code: jppendidikangg160243
