Instructional principles for fostering learning with ICT: Teachers' perspectives as learners and instructors

Educational literature identifies several instructional principles essential to fostering learning with ICT, such as contextual learning, active learning, social learning and reflective learning. Since the ways teachers are taught relate strongly to the ways they later teach, this study sought to explore teachers' use of ICT as university students and their perception of the potential for ICT in school. Data were collected through interviews, questionnaires and the analysis of participants' online activities. The results indicate that while teachers exploit ICT for their own learning, they are cautious about integrating advanced technologies into school studies. Teachers value the potential of technology for making school studies relevant to pupils' real-life contexts and for stimulating their learning, but do not think that ICT is preferable to class-based instruction in terms of promoting cooperation and reflection processes in learning.