I've written at length about presentation apps, office suites, mobile technology and blogs, but haven't really considered all these things within the wider context of technology in education as a whole. They are just components of a vast collection of hardware, software, practices and concepts that have been working their way into all aspects of education for decades now.
Perhaps the most beneficial aspect that technology has brought to teaching is the way it has increased access to education. The rise of the web has opened the doors to the world's knowledge, now searchable and readable to anyone with a browser. It's had such a profound impact on every aspect of society it's easy to forget the World Wide Web was only invented in 1989.
This has been a double-edged sword in university teaching. With tutors able to find and use resources from anywhere on the planet it has made preparation and delivery much more effective. However it also means tutors are now competing with every blog, YouTube channel and e-learning site in the world, many of which eschew the depth and understanding of the university method in favour of bite-size quick-fixes. There is even a suggestion our exposure to instant gratification of knowledge is fundamentally rewiring our brains to work differently (Carr, 2011).
It has also brought with it some other problems; since anyone can publish to the web it is harder to prove any page contains reliable, peer-reviewed information. Academia, which values rigorous, traceable data hasn't yet embraced the web in the way it recognises established, 'hard' sources such as books and journals.
Nevertheless, technology is if nothing else empowering, and is one of the significant drivers of a shift in how we teach. Classes can now draw upon on-line resources - and so much of it free! - as part of the teaching process, or use usable, accessible personal devices to improve interaction, collaboration and engagement that new ways of teaching have opened up, particularly with the sharing of information. Notably the idea of flipped learning - the current buzz word in work - leans heavily on the deep integration of technology to facilitate students' self-learning (Bishop & Verleger, 2013).
Technology has also replaced many long-established teaching tools and modernised many others. For example the once ubiquitous overhead projector and slide projector alike have been all but decimated in favour of digital projection systems and interactive whiteboards. Computers can do more, more quickly - the rise in cost is seen as a reasonable trade-off in return for the huge increase in functionality. A tablet can simultaneously replace physical books, pen and paper, sketch pads, calculators, atlases, drum machines and more. Whether it should is a separate debate.
I've discussed the issue of cost before, at least in terms of money. Other barriers to technology in teaching as suggested by a study by Butler & Sellborn (2002) include reliability and the human factor - introducing new ways of teaching comes with the need to retrain staff and that takes time from other work duties, sometimes impacting on personal time as well. It also requires effort, and a willingness to adopt change. Not everybody has both enough time and the right attitude to do it, and often the advantages are not made clear enough.
Perhaps the most beneficial aspect that technology has brought to teaching is the way it has increased access to education. The rise of the web has opened the doors to the world's knowledge, now searchable and readable to anyone with a browser. It's had such a profound impact on every aspect of society it's easy to forget the World Wide Web was only invented in 1989.
This has been a double-edged sword in university teaching. With tutors able to find and use resources from anywhere on the planet it has made preparation and delivery much more effective. However it also means tutors are now competing with every blog, YouTube channel and e-learning site in the world, many of which eschew the depth and understanding of the university method in favour of bite-size quick-fixes. There is even a suggestion our exposure to instant gratification of knowledge is fundamentally rewiring our brains to work differently (Carr, 2011).
It has also brought with it some other problems; since anyone can publish to the web it is harder to prove any page contains reliable, peer-reviewed information. Academia, which values rigorous, traceable data hasn't yet embraced the web in the way it recognises established, 'hard' sources such as books and journals.
Nevertheless, technology is if nothing else empowering, and is one of the significant drivers of a shift in how we teach. Classes can now draw upon on-line resources - and so much of it free! - as part of the teaching process, or use usable, accessible personal devices to improve interaction, collaboration and engagement that new ways of teaching have opened up, particularly with the sharing of information. Notably the idea of flipped learning - the current buzz word in work - leans heavily on the deep integration of technology to facilitate students' self-learning (Bishop & Verleger, 2013).
Technology has also replaced many long-established teaching tools and modernised many others. For example the once ubiquitous overhead projector and slide projector alike have been all but decimated in favour of digital projection systems and interactive whiteboards. Computers can do more, more quickly - the rise in cost is seen as a reasonable trade-off in return for the huge increase in functionality. A tablet can simultaneously replace physical books, pen and paper, sketch pads, calculators, atlases, drum machines and more. Whether it should is a separate debate.
I've discussed the issue of cost before, at least in terms of money. Other barriers to technology in teaching as suggested by a study by Butler & Sellborn (2002) include reliability and the human factor - introducing new ways of teaching comes with the need to retrain staff and that takes time from other work duties, sometimes impacting on personal time as well. It also requires effort, and a willingness to adopt change. Not everybody has both enough time and the right attitude to do it, and often the advantages are not made clear enough.
References
Carr, N. 2011, The Shallows - What the Internet is Doing to our Brains. New York: W. W. Norton & Company
Bishop, J. & Verleger, M. 2013, The Flipped Classroom: A Survey of the Research [Online] http://www.studiesuccesho.nl/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/flipped-classroom-artikel.pdf, last accessed 18/1/2016
Bishop, J. & Verleger, M. 2013, The Flipped Classroom: A Survey of the Research [Online] http://www.studiesuccesho.nl/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/flipped-classroom-artikel.pdf, last accessed 18/1/2016
Butler, D. L. & Sellborn, M., 2002. Students, Computers and Learning - Making the Connection [Online] Available at http://er.educause.edu/~/media/files/article-downloads/eqm0223.pdf, last accessed 17/1/2016
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