Successful Use of Technology in Learning and Teaching and Some Reflections from Teachers, Students, Parents, Employers and Employees

An example of successful use of technology in learning/teaching:

One example of successful use of technology in teaching and learning that I have read on the internet is about the use of wiki in the classroom. Richard Byrne, a teacher librarian shared his successful story of about helping students to create their own wiki page (Byrne, 2009). The students were engaged to find out more information of their assigned African countries through browsing the web and adding information that they found to their pages on the wiki. Byrne suggests that the use of technology in teaching and learning enhanced the efficiency of both teaching and learning for both students and teachers in his class since students had easier access to more and deeper information. Byrne also presented more current teaching materials to students to arouse students’ interests. The bringing of more information into the classroom via the internet both by the students and teachers and the creation of the wiki pages by the students enhanced more discussions and activities among students. Also through creating the wiki pages, students demonstrated a more in-depth understanding of the topics than by using their text books. Byrne also found that his students were motivated to learn. Because wiki is open to public, students put extra effort in creating the pages. By the end of his first lesson, his students tried to compete with each other to create the best wiki page. In addition, students in Byrne’s class learnt how to learn through verifying information on the web and asking and answering questions via researching information that they have access to.

Some reflections/comments about using of teaching from teachers, parents, students and employers:

-             Reflections of some teachers: Sugar, Crawley & Fine’s research (2004) indicated that the decisions for the use of technology in classroom were influenced by teachers’ individual attitudes towards technology adoption. The teachers’ attitudes were formed from their own personal beliefs about the consequences using technology in teaching and learning. Some teachers welcome the use of technology and believe that it would enhance students’ learning. Since it motivate and engage students to learn. However, some are resistant to the changes using technologies in classrooms since they challenge their way of teaching and their roles as a teacher. Training and implementation of technology for teachers may help them to understand how technology can assist them in teaching.

-             Reflections of some students: Hartshorne & Ajjan (2009) find that students felt the use of Web 2.0 applications as tools for improving their learning and writing ability and increase interactions among themselves. However, few students chose to use them for educational purpose. Hartshorne & Ajjan (2009) suggests that further study will be needed to investigate the factors behind students not using the applications for educational purpose. One reason could be students’ attitudes and cultural norms towards using Web 2.0 for social purpose only.

-             Reflections of some parents: In the study conducted by Plowman, McPake and Stephen (2007) parents tended to think that their children were self-taught on the use of technology and underestimate their own role in supporting their children in learning with technology for educational benefits. They were not aware of the way families could support the learning through using of technologies. Children’s at home mainly use technology for communication and entertainment purpose and hence parents often associate children’s use of computer and other technology for social purpose only. In some Asian household parents may even forbidden children using computers before they have finished their homework. Educations may need to consider offering parents family learning programmes to promote learning technology at homes.

-             Reflections of some teachers and students from different cultural background: Teachers and students from various cultural backgrounds may have different perspective on using technology in teaching and learning (Chen 2007). They have different interpretation and organization of information. In the west, with the use of various technologies such as internet and computer, the role of teacher has become less formal and authoritative. Teacher is the facilitator to help students learn for themselves. However for some teachers and students in Asia, this approach may challenge their traditional way of teaching and learning and thus become resistant in using the technology in classroom.

-             Reflections of some employers: Proactive employers always find new tools and tactics to keep employee learning and growing and make their companies more competitive in the market (Kaufman 2011). Technology offers such solution to engage employees to continuous learning. Kaufman gives one example about Gail Brooks, vice chancellor of human resources for California State University (CSU) who described using webcast to deliver information to campuses, while in the past employees needed to travel to different campuses and gave professional development seminar to students. In addition more online classes were offered to students. As a result, employees needed to learn more technical skills to deliver the service online instead of giving face to face service.

-             Reflections of some employers: Individuals’ understanding of the nature knowledge and the creation of knowledge may be two of the major factors affecting employees’ attitudes towards e-learning. Harteis, Gruber & Hertramph (2010) found that employees who agreed that learning is connected with negotiation of meaning and with the distribution of knowledge had better quality of e-learning process. More investigation will be need to find out how many failure cases e-learning contributed of employees’ belief system towards the understanding and creation of knowledge.

          

Reference:

Byrne, R. (2009). The Effect of Web 2.0 on Teaching and Learning. Teacher Librarian, 37 (2), 50-53.

Chen, C. (2007). Cultural diversity in instructional design for technology-based Education. British Journal of Educational Technology, 38(6).

Harteis, C., Gruber, H., & Hertramph, H. (2010). How Epistemic Beliefs Influence e-Learning in Daily Work-life. EducationalTechnology & Society, 13 (3), 201–211.

Kaufman, B. (2011). Don’t stop thinking about the future. University Business, February issue, 45-48.

Plowman, L., McPake, J., & Stephen, C. (2008). Just picking it up? Young children learning with technology at home. Cambridge Journal of Education, 38(3), 303-319.

Sugar, W., Crawley, F., & Fine, B. (2004). Examining teachers’ decisions to adopt new technology. Educational Technology and Society, 7 (4), 201-213.