Introduction
Education
is all about learning through various means with a view to not only gain the
desired knowledge and skills but also help evolve a broader perspective to what
the life may have to offer in terms of challenges, opportunities and experiences.
The
quality of learning does benefit primarily from desire and motivation to learn
but is also influenced by the routes and modes which complement and supplement
one-another: from conventional classroom and laboratory instruction to the
forms like learning by observation, learning by doing, learning by
brainstorming and learning by peer interactions. This list is, by no means,
exhaustive.
Although
there are several technology-assisted paradigms of learning, all of them have
potential to misfire if we miss the centre of the learning: the learner and the
facilitators of learning.
One
common mistake, although rarely admitted by the people proposing and parties
deploying technologies for enabling one or more forms of learning is that they
often expect the human learners and facilitators to change their preferred
natural ways and processes in order to suit the technology solution recommended
or deployed by them. This is a fundamental error that not only serves to make
people reluctant to use a given technology for learning or instruction or
evaluation but also leads to creation of a potential mental barrier that, at
times, prevents them from accepting the benefits a given solution may be able
to offer if adopted without bias or prejudice.
The
trick, therefore, lies in the ability of a technology based solution to be so
designed that it requires nothing or next to nothing to be changed that happens
in a normal ambient learning environment where people and processes do not have
to be changed for accommodating the technology chosen.
The Present scenario
How are we using
technology and benefitting from it in the process of to transforming the
education?
During the last three decades, serious
attempts have been made to understand the science of learning which have
eventually helped in gradual evolution of technology specifically created to
assist learning as well as thoughtful re-appropriation of select technology solutions
originally invented for completely different purposes.
Many of the technology-assisted solutions
have been successful, in limited ways, in their own right and must be given
their due credit for their individually or collectively helping in addressing
issues like allowing no-cost to moderate-fee based access to high-quality
learning resources for hundreds to thousands and, in several cases, even
millions of aspirants cutting across work-profiles, qualifications, age-groups
and continents. Some of these technology-enabled solutions, like MOOC and
Online Connected Laboratories have brought in paradigm shifts in the way opportunities
of high-quality participative learning have now become accessible to anyone
keen on learning.
Some Areas of
Concern
These technologies do, however, have their
respective inadequacies as exposed over the years. For instance, many teachers
and students feel that technology use is not desirable in the areas of learning
that they deal with since, in their opinion, undesirable inclusion of
technology-assisted solutions actually impedes the natural flow of in-class
interactions. It is quite another matter that this perception may have more to
do with the possibly poor way they could have been introduced to a given
technology tool or solution.
It does not, however, take away the
benefits these technologies and paradigms offer us in the most of the areas of
study.
SOME
UNLIKELY AND LESS TALKED-ABOUT OBSERVATIONS
While there is no denying the fact
that no technology is perfect and not all situations need or benefit from use
of technology, a major reason of resistance to adopt technology in certain
learning environments comes from a stakeholder who is, by far, the most
comfortable in use of technology: the student! However, this stakeholder does
have a very valid reason to support the traditional in-class learning methods
like the conventional chalkboard over the technology-assisted learning.
It turns out that it is, often, an
issue that has more to do with the under-prepared, less motivated or
disinterested instructors who do not take adequate efforts to properly use the
assistance offered by the technology, as per need and instead abuse it. For
instance, access to the slide presentation tools (like the Microsoft® PowerPoint™) and similar software does not mean
that they have to be necessarily used for every thing, all the time or that the
chalkboard / whiteboard should be totally discarded as a tool. The problem is
often compounded in the cases wherein, particularly in classroom situations,
some instructors misinterpret assistive roles that the technology has to play
and instead try to solely depend upon own or borrowed, uninspiring and ill-prepared
slides and simply make their captive audience in the classrooms to go through
the torture of their monologues by simply browsing through their slides instead
of real participative and interactive approach that the conventional
chalkboard-based sessions so effectively and effortlessly allowed.
It may, however, be interesting to
note that a significant degree of reluctance amongst the teachers and students also
stem from either forcible adoption of a given technology in an inappropriate manner,
often, due to unfair administrative pressure, without due thoughts on the
actual instruments a teacher may in deed require. For instance, these days, it
is not uncommon to visit a so-claimed modern classroom which is replete with well-known
technology tools and a projection screen or two but no chalkboard, whiteboard
or digital smart board that is so vital for effective instruction in an
effortless manner.
The Way Forward
Clearly, the way forward lies in
adopting a multi pronged balanced approach to the careful and effective use of
technology inside and outside of the classrooms as well as beyond the borders
of geographical and political kinds. For instance, one possible approach of
this kind might involve:
A-
Not forcibly using the technology where it is neither
required not useful,
B-
Identifying the right elements of technology and associated
tools, which could be seamlessly integrated / blended with the existing
learning environment in a given institution and preferably, in a non-intrusive
way, to complement, extend or supplement (seldom substitute) the in-class learning
and interactions,
C-
Making use of the resultant solution simple and intuitive to
use rather than requiring users to be conscious all the while about the
technology itself when the focus must be on the subject matter and not on the
assistive tools that the technology provides.
D- Making the technology-enabled
services context-aware, customizable and ubiquitous such that the resultant learning
environment provides different sets of useful services to all stakeholders
involved: teachers, students, administrators and policy-makers.
Of course, the fourth provision, by itself, shall majorly benefit from
not only what has been listed earlier as existing and conventional learning
technologies and tools but also from the emerging paradigm of technology known
as Ambient Learning Environment, where
desirable.
Surely, all of such services shall immensely benefit from other technologies like SMAC (Social, Mobile, Analytics, Cloud) and beyond. While
social connectivity would help form informal learning and information sharing
communities on demand, mobility support shall ensure continuity of access to
live as well as asynchronous learning resources irrespective of the location of
an individual learner and his/her personal constraints. Similarly data
analytics would enable teachers and administrators to better understand what
works and what does not and the ever-growing ubiquitous cloud services would
help keep all these resources, data and services unified and accessible from
any connected device anywhere required.
EPILOGUE
Many of the current and emerging technologies would thus continue to
evolve and converge into making ambient learning technology a technology of
choice for many more people and institutions than what do they do today.
Hopefully, such changes would be so gradual, non-intrusive, natural and
effective that in not so distant future we shall no longer need to discuss
about the role or need of technology to assist, enable or facilitate learning;
and the focus would solely become, as it is destined to be, on scalable,
timely, adaptive, flexible and simple access to quality learning.
