eLearning Papers • www.elearningpapers.eu • 1Nº 20 • July 2010 • ISSN 1887-1542An inquiry-oriented approach for making the best use of ICT in the classroom Roser Pintó Casulleras DirectoroftheCen treforResearchonScienceand MathematicsEdu cation(CREC IM)Digna Couso Lagarón ResearcherattheCentreforRese archinScien ceandMathematics Education(CR ECIM)María Isabel Hernández Rodríguez Researchassi stantattheCentreforR esearchinSci enceandMathe maticsEducation(CRECIM)Summary Manydecadesaf ter thein tro duct ionof ICTsin toscie ncecl assr ooms, therear esti ll manyunanswer edquesti onsab out theimpact tec hn ol og yha sinstu dent s’ lear ni ng . Thisar ti cl eaddresses thegeneral question:“WhatICTsarethemostuseful,andhowcantheycontribu tetobet ter lea rni nginthesci enc ecla ssr oom?”Wecon cei veICTsastoo lsthatcan enh anceparti cularlear ning situa tions orenvironments,and inthissens e,thisarticleelaboratesonthe mostappropriatetechnologies forparticularlearning environmentsanddi scussesinwhatorder,andwithwh atpurpose,thesetechn ologiesshouldbeused.Th efi rst part of this ar ti cl ehi ghli gh tsthemost common ly us ed te ch no lo gi es in scie nceclassrooms,reviewingtheuniqueopportunitiestheyofferthatwouldnotbepossibleotherwise.Af ter discussingthe pot ent ial (or lackthereof)ofthe setechnologies,the secondpartofthe articlepresentsaproposalforusingsomeoftheminaspecificpedagogicalcontext:aninquiry- basedlearni ngcycleforlaborator ywor k.The mainaimofthe pro pos al prese ntedhereistodiscusshowacertainteachingandlearningapproach,suchasinquiry-basedlearning,andacertainteachingandlearningsituation,suchasschoollaboratorywork,canbeenrichedbytheuseof ICTs. Finall y, adetailedexampl eof howspecificICTsareusedin laboratoryworksessionswithan inquiryapproachisalsoexplained .Thispracticalcasecomesfromaresearch- basedactivitysequenceonkinematicsanddynamicsdevelopedforsecondaryschoolstudentswithintheframeworkofthelocalprojectREVIR.Keywords :learning,research,secon daryschool,Informa tionandCommun icationTechnolo gies(ICT),laboratorywork,inquiryapproachIntroduction Theinformationsocietyinwhichweareimmersedrequiresorimposestheuseoftechnologiesinallambit s.Thes etechnolo gieshavechange dandcontin uechangin goureveryd aylivesasregardscommunicationamongindi vi du al s, andtheuse, development andpr ocessi ngof information.Theschoolcannotberemovedfromthisreality.Onthecontrary,itshouldlookforthemeanstoat tainthemaximumbenefitfromsuchtechnologiesforstudents’learning.OCDE(20 01) alr ead yhig hli ghtedthr eemai nreason stoinc ludeInf ormati onand Commu nic ati ontech no lo gi es (I CTs) in ed ucat io n: ec on omi c, so ci al an dpe da go gi cal. Th epe da go gi ca l