Technology in Education

“The rate of change in the society in which we live forces us to redefine how we shall educate a new generation”.

- Jerome S. Bruner

There may be some second opinion about that statement, but over the years, educators in search of excellence in their profession, used many innovative ideas and implemented technological solutions to make the learning process an easier one. As of today, use of computers in class room situation is considered as biggest technological implementation by many people. Multimedia contents, Educational resources in CDs / DVDs and Internet are considered as a next level of learning experience. That is true in many ways but will it help students or educators to unleash their creativity in the classroom situation? Does this situation resemble ‘copying’ and ‘pasting’ action or giving ‘exploring’ experience? Does this technological implementation introduce advanced resources for the beginners in that subject? These questions have many answers. Today’s technological products engage students with ocean of knowledge. There is no second opinion about it. But in reality, only very few people collect pearls and many lose themselves in it, just like a boat crew who loose their magnetic compass on their journey. Unguided and uncontrolled knowledge will bring unacceptable level of disturbances in the society. In the words of Galbraith, technology is defined as "the systematic application of scientific or other organized knowledge to practical tasks". At various times in the history of education, technology has been introduced in the hope that it would enhance teaching and learning. Most significant educational technology is perhaps the 'blackboard' which persists today and might be around for many decades!

Kofi Annan once said, “We must ensure that information and communication technologies are used to help unlock the door to education.” Many world leaders also share this same thought about technology across the globe. But the implementers of technology products have their own interpretation. One such interpretation is as follows. "Experts have observed that the learning styles of the youth today have changed. It is said that they easily get bored reading materials from printed books and prefer dynamic digital materials, and then it is important that teachers adapt their teaching pedagogies to suit current learning styles of their students".

The question that arises before us is, whether the technology is about ‘unlock the door to education’ or ‘learning styles of the youth’? The answer depends upon the perception of the educators and their expertise in dealing with technology. We cannot totally ignore the technology in educating today’s youth. They are acquiring most of their knowledge from outside the class room, mainly from internet. The role of educator in today’s world has been changed from the source of knowledge to moderator of knowledge. While we unlock the door of education by using the technology to suit the learning styles of today’s youth, we should not forget the human factor involved in the process of education. Understanding the student’s mindset and his ambition helps the educators to mould the student in right direction. Using information and communication technology equipments in the class room alone will not make any remarkable change in the student’s learning ability. It is the human care that makes many things possible. As an educator we must ensure that the technology should not create a gap between the educators and students.

The master chef is none other than who uses the same ingredient but produces better quality of food. The same is applicable for a good teacher. Appropriate use of technology makes a learning process easier and happier for all the students.

The next level of technology implementation by an educator should focus on evaluation method. The conventional method of evaluation says the total score alone. By using technology we should go ahead with, chapter wise performance and skill wise performance. This analysis about a student will help the educators as well as the learners to find out in which chapters they are strong and weak. This will help the educators to refocus on their strategy of teaching a particular chapter.

Analysing the student’s ability in terms of different levels of skills (knowledge, understanding, application and synthesis) will help the student to realize their true potential. The next level of technology at any educational institution should focus on this aspect. Replacing the blackboards with projector alone is not the only way to claim we are using advanced mode of teaching. The analysis of each student in different skill level and chapter wise performance of individual student and class as a whole is a way of using technology in educational institution.