Reaching Deeper Understanding

Learners can develop their literacy with ICT in more meaningful ways when they apply and extend their critical and creative thinking across the curriculum. To develop literacy with ICT, students need to learn how to decide whether or not to use ICT, which ICT to use and when and how to use ICT to help meet their learning goals. Teachers also need to use their professional judgement to ask if and how ICT can help their students grasp essential concepts and construct personal understandings in language arts, mathematics, science, social studies and other subject areas.

While literacy with ICT is important, a more fundamental educational goal is to strive for deeper understanding based on some central questions:

What does deep understanding look like?
What is worth learning and understanding in depth?
How can students reach deeper understanding?
How will teachers and students know when students have reached deeper understanding?

Learning for deeper understanding is not dependent on, but can be enhanced and extended with, the use of technology. For example, the use of ICT can

extend students’ access to worldwide educational resources and primary sources
deepen students’ understandings by making abstract concepts visible
assist students in organizing, analyzing and transforming information as they think critically to construct personal knowledge
extend students’ means and dimensions of creative expression
promote students’ collaborative and reflective learning
motivate students to synthesize their knowledge into unique multidimensional products
enable students to communicate with authentic audiences to show understanding
allow students to transfer their knowledge to unfamiliar contexts
enhance students’ engagement with learning

Guided by the Developmental Continuum for Literacy with ICT, students and teachers together negotiate when and how to use ICT to help them reach deeper understanding.

Resources for Deeper Understanding

For access to more resources about deeper understanding, visit the LwICT - Resources for Deeper Understanding site. This site is moderated, if you have a recommended resource that you would like to share, just double click and post your resource to the site.