Changing the Education Culture through Technology (original) (raw)
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2007
Technology has a potentially rich, but largely unrealised, role in teaching and learning. This role is defined variously by what the teacher has available, has had time to learn, or can find an appropriate use for, and by what students have access to, are familiar with, and are willing to use. In all of these ways, technology usually plays an adjunct role to others, more traditional modalities for teaching and learning, including lecture, laboratory, library, textbook, tutorial, and practicum. Researchers perceive problems arising from the significant cultural and organisational differences affecting the management and leadership environment of the modern higher education institutions integrating technology in relation to traditional higher education institutions. This present study describes and analyzes the culture effects in higher education organisations that are challenging the future pre-eminence of the use of technological tools in teaching in higher education. This study tri...
2013
As wider and more diverse audiences attend universities, nowadays, more advanced instructional approaches are required. The current study explores the role of technology in facing this challenge. We report on a continuation of a previous three-year long study, focusing on students' learning-culture, which examined a pedagogical-technological innovation infused into an introductory biology course at the Technion. An online-tutorial was used in the most advanced level of the intervention as the main resource for student self-learning of course content. In parallel, students participated in a more indepth process in small technology-enhanced knowledge-building teams, each focusing on a specific course topic. Findings indicated that students' learningculture was highly affected by the teaching culture encapsulated in the course design. In the current study, we interviewed six introductory courseinstructors at the same institution. These interviews, comprised of 427 utterances, w...
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Background: Technology brought radical changes at each level of education. Traditional concept of education, ‘learning by doing’ has extended by ‘doing and making to learn with technology’. Pedagogically, technology facilitated in terms of management, communication, administration, coordination, development, collaboration and distribution of learning activities. It also turned classroom environment from teacher-centered to student-centered and overall the educational institution structure. The invention of new technological approaches in education has resulted in debates about their implementation, positive and negative impacts on teachers and students in different universities of Pakistan. Aims: The vital role of technology motivated the researchers ‘to investigate limitations and perceptions of the possible or actual effects of technology in teaching at higher education level in Pakistan’.Method: Survey method was adopted to collect the required data. To conduct the survey, questi...
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Teaching innovation in University education, especially when based on the use of information and communication technology (ICT), is a long process and is strongly conditioned by many variables such as the specific cultural context, the availability of resources (human and technological), the level of knowledge the faculty members possess on the educational use of ICT, the different role they are required to cover if they intend to adopt and promote Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL), etc. In dealing with these issues, this article focuses on two primary objectives: one analyzing the teachers' trends in their choice of a specific TEL approach when intent on innovating their teaching with the support of ICT; the other reflecting and offering
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This paper explores the application of technology to pedagogy in higher education. The data are gathered from 21 academics who apply technology to their teaching with University students in England. The research is based on a qualitative inductive methodology. The findings reveal that a complex range of personal, social and professional factors influence pedagogy with technology in higher education. The paper makes an original contribution to knowledge by outlining some of the challenges that exist in using technology to teach in higher education. The research participants do not think that applying technology to teaching is necessarily representative of best pedagogical practice. Caution and thought are recommended if pedagogy with technology in higher education is to be developed effectively. The research reveals that transformative pedagogy is possible when technology is applied to teaching in higher education; however, this necessitates considering the needs of the students alongside reflecting on the personal, social and professional backgrounds of those who are teaching in higher education. This innovative approach to professional development with technology is developed in the paper.
Online Submission, 2007
For the last two decades of this age of globalization we are living, technological advancement remarked every aspect of our lives significantly and especially the developments in the information technologies has revolutionized the teaching and learning centered activities as well as the research related activities in higher education. Apart from providing quality teaching to a larger number of adult students via remarkable technologies, higher education institutions are required to improve their administrative activity, efficiency and accountability in response to the new demands. The study aims to determine lecturers' attitudes towards the acceptance and use of new technologies in their lectures within the context of higher education and provide alternative strategies for the faculty administrators in terms of increasing technology adaptation responding to the demands of both faculty and students. A series of works have been undertaken to collect data for the research. Related literature was reviewed and a questionnaire was developed by the researchers. The study was also followed by semi-structured interviews conducted with the university lecturers and administrators. The questionnaire was applied to 106 lecturers and 44 responses were received, which is equal to a response rate 41 per cent in the quantitative analysis. Data regarding the qualitative side was collected from 7 senior students.
Impacting the teaching culture: Role of the department and the software tools
Establishing a culture of teaching excellence among faculty with limited prior instructional training raises both practical and philosophical challenges. This paper argues that the departmental unit plays a critical role in setting the conditions necessary for faculty engagement, and that multiple strategies can be coordinated to target change in the teaching norms. The paper introduces the Integrated Course Design and Documentation (ICDD) project at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, York University. The ICDD project demonstrates several of our approaches to effecting change in individual behaviour towards student-centered pedagogy. They include: (1) making the solution easy for the faculty; (2) making the solution a stand-alone resource that the faculty themselves can develop over time; (3) speaking the language of the faculty (relevance, contextualization); and (4) providing the social, organizational, and practical support for faculty to make the transition. Overall, we argue that any effort to create and sustain change must be multi-faceted, and must include: enabling the instructors as the key agents of change; promoting collaboration among faculty; lowering practical barriers to change by developing technical, administrative, and educational resources that are fit to the local context.