RELEVANCE OF EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY IN TEACHING AND LEARNING PROCESS IN CLASSROOM
Teachers have been using new
technologies in the classroom. However, the development and application of new
technologies grows as a measure that is the question of whether teachers are
trained to keep up with them. Here we have two problems. Are the teachers
having the ability to use educational technology and whether the school is
sufficiently equipped with all modern technical means? Numerous studies were
carried out, some are still ongoing, but we have to find the right strategies
to apply educational technology in teaching.
Educational technology is a systematic
and organized process of applying modern technology to improve the quality of
education (efficiency, optimal, true, etc.). It is a systematic way of
conceptualizing the execution and evaluation of the educational process, i. e.
learning and teaching and help with the application of modern educational
teaching techniques. It includes instructional materials, methods and
organization of work and relationships, i.e. the behavior of all participants in
the educational process. The term “teaching resources” is commonly used,
although they are not synonymous (Pedagoški leksikon, 1996). The word
technology is derived from the Greek word “techno” which means the willingness,
skills, knowledge of the way, rule, skill, tools and “logos” which means
science, word, learning, mental state. There is no single term for educational
technology. Different countries use different terms and synonyms as educational
technology, educational equipment, AV resources, and the technology of
teaching.
Terminological
differences mostly occur on the grounds of the approach to the technical
characteristics and the use of modern appliances, and not their actual
application in teaching i.e. their actual pedagogical application. For this
reason, there are different opinions among teachers in the field of social and
technical sciences. Therefore, the application of educational technology
requires knowledge from several areas: pedagogy, psychology, didactics,
computer sciences, informatics... Because of this diversity, there are also
different perceptions of educational technology, where every author defines the
concept of educational technology, according to their needs.
DEFINITIONS OF EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY
Educational
technology is the use of both physical hardware and educational theoretic. It
encompasses several domains including learning theory, computer-based
training, online learning, and where mobile technologies are
used, m-learning. Accordingly, there are several discrete aspects to
describing the intellectual and technical development of educational
technology:
·
Educational technology as the theory and
practice of educational approaches to learning.
·
Educational technology as technological
tools and media, for instance massive online courses, that assists in the
communication of knowledge, and its development and exchange. This is usually
what people are referring to when they use the term "EdTech"
In
Addition, Educational technology involves processes, methods and techniques,
products, resources and technologies organized into workable systems. The
recognition of the need for a multilevel organization of a classroom, for
instance, along with the designing of an appropriate programme and its
implementation, becomes as much an exercise in ET as the use of audio-visual
aids or the information superhighway. There is also a prevalent belief that
modern technologies are better than older ones.
CHARACTERISTICS OF EDUCATIONAL
TECHNOLOGY
Characteristics
of Educational Technology are as follows:
1. It is based on scientific and
technological advancements.
2. It is more a practical discipline and
less a theoretical one.
3. It is a fast growing modern discipline.
4. It makes use of the research findings of
psychology, sociology, engineering, sciences and social psychology etc., and
applies the same to the field of education.
5. It brings pupils, teachers and technical
means together in an effective way.
6. It is the science of techniques and
methods. It locates the problems in the field of education, remedies them and
ultimately aims at improving the education system.
7. It is bound to improve the teacher, the
learner and the teaching learning process.
RELEVANCE OF EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY IN TEACHING AND LEARNING PROCESS IN CLASSEOOM
Effective technology use deploys
multiple evidence-based strategies concurrently (e.g. adaptive content,
frequent testing, immediate feedback, etc.), as do effective
teachers. Using computers or other forms of technology can give students
practice on core content and skills while the teacher can work with others,
conduct assessments, or perform other tasks. Through the use of
educational technology, education is able to be individualized for each student
allowing for better differentiation and allowing students to work for mastery
at their own pace.
Modern educational technology can
improve access to education, including full degree programs. It enables better
integration for non-full-time students, particularly in continuing
education, and improved interactions between students and
instructors. Learning material can be used for long distance learning and
are accessible to a wider audience. Course materials are easy to access. In
2010, 70.3% of American family households had access to the internet. In
2013, according to Canadian Radio Television and Telecommunications Commission
Canada, 79% of homes have access to the internet. Students can access and
engage with numerous online resources at home. Using online resources can help
students spend more time on specific aspects of what they may be learning in
school, but at home. Schools like have made certain course materials free
online.
Although some aspects of a classroom
setting are missed by using these resources, they are helpful tools to add
additional support to the educational system. The necessity to pay for
transport to the educational facility is removed.
Students appreciate the convenience of
e-learning, but report greater engagement in face-to-face learning
environments.
Certainly, educational technologies
offer many exciting possibilities and serve different purposes of
teaching-learning, and equally relevant in contexts of training they would be
teachers. Moreover, the key phrases in Educational Technology are appropriate
technology, that is, appropriate to the task in hand for meeting specific
educational objectives, and the organization of all available resources into a
workable system, which is checked again and again to ensure that it is
appropriate and changing it where it is not working. Formative evaluation and
summative evaluation are essential parts of ET. In applying the discipline of
ET to the field of education, it is imperative that the media choice must
relate to instructional design as well as to what is available and eminently
usable. The same is true of methods and techniques. For instance, the
memorization of facts as a learning strategy still has a role to play. The
ready availability of multiplication tables (pahadas) does speed up
computation. It is the overgeneralization and unthinking application in
inappropriate situations that has brought disrepute to memorization as a form
of learning. Charts, graphs, textual materials, experimental kits, projected
electronic aids, audio materials, computers, films, videos, the Internet, etc.
can usefully serve the purposes of education in their own special ways and
together they can make learning an enriching experience. ET could be defined in
simple terms as the efficient organisation of any learning system, adapting or
adopting methods, processes, and products to serve identified educational
goals. This would involve:
·
Systematic
identification of the goals of education, taking into account nationwide needs
(higher scalability, for instance), the system capabilities, and the learners’
needs and potential.
·
Recognition
of the diversity of learners’ needs, the contexts in which learning will take
place, and the range of provisions needed for them.
·
Recognition of not only the immediate needs of
children but also their future needs in relation to the society for which we
are preparing them.
·
It helps the teacher to modernize
and mechanize the teaching-learning process. It also helps the learners to
study at their own speed/rate with the help of programmed instruction on video
or computers.
·
Educational Technology supplements
the teacher, with AV-aids to make the teaching-learning process more effective.
·
It helps in teacher’s professional
growth.
·
Add to their teaching competence, modify
their teaching behaviour and style, inculcate a scientific outlook, approach
& attitude and help them transfer these to their learners.
·
ET supplements teacher in their
instructional programmes through the structured lessons for remedial,
enrichment or drill purposes.
·
The learners get the training of
self instruction and teachers are relieved of the burden of routine repetition
for exercise & revision purposes.
CONCLUSION
When the teachers explore the
opportunity of educational technology the impact is felt in the classroom. The
presence of educational technology is growing in the classroom. The new
generations of kids come ready to work with these new technologies, which play
an important role in children’s learning and acquiring various cognitive
knowledge so that educational technology must be incorporated into future
curricula. The application of educational technology enhances skills and
cognitive characteristics. With the help of new technology comes an explosion
of learning and receiving new information, especially on mobile devices.
It modifies
teacher’s method of teaching and learner’s behaviour for their own betterment
and for the betterment of the mankind. It is not the same thing as instruction or education or
learning but an aggressive invention which includes in itself everything that
helps in shaping personality.
Earlier
the Concept of Educational Technology was used as a synonym to audio-visual
aids like pictures, charts, maps, and models meant for direct teaching-learning. With the advent of
physical science and electronic revolution there came an era of hardware and
software like projectors, tape- recorders, radio and T.V. etc.
Then
came the age of mass media which led to massive communication revolution for
instructional purposes with the advent of programmed instruction and programmed
learning, a new dimension of educational technology came into existence it has
individualized the process of education and introduced a system of
self-learning in the form of self- instructional material and teaching machine.
The concept of programmed learning added another dimensions
to the meaning of educational technology when some new devices and approaches
such as Micro-teaching.
In other
words we can see one aspect of Educational Technology related to the use of
specific techniques such as ‘educational television, radio, programmed learning
and other audio-visual aids.
In
another aspect, Education Technology is seen as the application of scientific
and other organized knowledge to the practical problems of education.
In the
particular context of the developing countries, the emphasis is on the
application of techniques and knowledge with a view to mobilizing and optimizing the available human as well as
technological resources.
Educational
technology is seen both as a means as well as service to effect and facilitate
better and more productive learning systems. It may be defined as a separate field in the theory of
education dealing with the development and application of the use of
educational resources.
Educational Technology should not be confused with teaching
or instruction or education or learning or engineering but it should be taken
as a sum total of all such aspects
which go a long way in shaping the personality of the learner in a meaningful
context.
It is
neither technology in education nor technology of education but both and all
pervasive which pervades the whole teaching-learning process to make it meaningful for the teacher who
teaches and the learner who learns and modifies his behaviour for his own
betterment and the betterment of
mankind.
REFERENCES
Aggarwal J.C. (2010).
Essentials of Educational Technology
(Innovations in Teaching-Learning), Vikas Publishing Housing PVT LTD: New
Delhi, Page No. 1-10.
Hermans,
R., Tondeur, J., van Braak, J., & Valcke, M. (2008). The impact of primary
school teachers’ educational beliefs on the classroom use of computers. Computers and Education, 51(4), 1499–1509.
Stosic,
L., & Stosic, I. (2013). Diffusion of innovation in modern school. International Journal Of Cognitive Research In Science, Engineering And
Education (IJCRSEE), 1(1), 5-13.
Wang,
L., Ertmer, A. P., & Newby, J. T. (2004). Increasing pre-service teachers’
self-efficacy beliefs for technology
integration. Journal of
Research on Technology in
Education, 36(3), 231–250.
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