The need of technology in teaching-learning environment: Present Status and Future Perspectives
By Milan Pandya, Gujarat, India
Abstract
Globalization and technological change processes that have accelerated in tandem over the past many years created a new global education system “powered by technology, fueled by information and driven by knowledge”. The use of technology in education has become an integral part of today’s educational phenomenon. It is creating a new learning environment in which student is now having the chance to learn through computer-application based courses of studies. This is an era where technology and teacher education go hand in hand. The use of technology in teaching mediums is taken very seriously governments and education systems around the world. It is like a combination of heart and brain which creates a new life. It becomes too important to be aware of the current status of this discipline and its future directions.
This paper throws light on the emergence of information technology and teacher education [ITTE] followed by the paradigms for research and development work in ITTE. It also projects our knowledge about ITTE in the current scenario and shows a way towards the research needs in the field for the ubiquitous development.
This paper touches all mentioned aspects of ITTE on a surface level. It shows how this discipline evolved and what are the possible areas that can be explored and endeavored. This paper becomes significant in terms of consideration of the brief past, its current status and future perspectives in ITTE.
Introduction
The field named ‘Educational Technology’ has links that could go back for almost eighty years. The chief in the development in this field is the success of training and development work during the two world wars. Around 1950s Educational Technology started making visible growth and continued to play a significant role in many colleges of education.
The unique field of educational technology I’ll explore in this paper do not contain a long past. Information Technology [ITTE] is now a scholarly and professional discipline but it has only recently become so. During the 1970s and early 1980s while most educational technology programs continued to emphasize more traditional concepts and skills such as the systematic design and development of instructional materials, a separate group of graduate programs emerged that provided some of the foundations for ITTE known as ‘Educational Computing’ programs. They dealt with skills and concepts needed to support the educational uses of computers. By 1970s the use of computer was quite limited, however as the field developed and the technology became more diverse and complex, it becomes obvious that there was a need for specialization.
Plenty of the educational computing programs have matured into general educational technology programs while some have elected to specialize is a sub discipline. One of those is now known as technology and teacher education or ITTE.
[1] The dawn of ITTE as a discipline
In 1983 a special group for teacher educators became interested in the use of computers. The International society for technology in education [ISTE] was the first organization to recognize the emerging needs of ITTE. That same year the special interest group published the Journal of computing in teacher education, the first referred quarterly journal dedicated to scholarly research and professional practice in ITTE. In 1990 the first national ITTE conference was sponsored by the organization later named the society for Information Technology and Teacher Education [SITE].
At present scholars and practitioners have a number of publications outlets for the general field of ITTE. They include the specialized journals, journal of computing in teacher education, journal of technology and teacher education and journal of information technology and teacher education. In addition to the general journals on technology and education and the journals on ITTE, there are also a number of content specific journals that accept papers related to the support of teachers in those fields. All the general ITTE journals are less then twenty years old and many of the content specific journals are even younger.
One more signal of the emergence of ITTE as a sub discipline in the pattern of reports from the congressional office of technology assessment [OTA]. The main OTA report on technology and education [OTA 1988] dealt with the entire field. One area of that reports dealt with teacher education. The final report, “Teachers and Technology” making the connection 1995 [OTA 1995] was one of the last reports produced by OTA before congress eliminated the agency.
[2] Research paradigms and progressive work in ITTE
ITTE is heavily influence by psychology, particularly education psychology.
Defining the term research in an educational or psychological context was not difficult some years ago, research was quantitative which involved a research design and it was done to support a particular theory. But a promising dissatisfaction with quantitative research brought about other research paradigms. There are three predominant research paradigms in the field today 1] empiricism 2] critical theory 3] interpretivism.
Empiricism also called logical positivism is based on the assumption that the scientific method is the only proper method for studying human behaviour because of its success in heart sciences. Most researchers’ working from empirical view believes in an external reality that can be known. It also tries to examine narrowly defined variables in a small sample of a given population in order to generalize findings back to the overall population. Survey projects are its best examples. Truly it has provided the field with a continuing story of the development of computer use. It suggested that integration of computers into classroom learning was an almost painful slow process. The surveys provide continual update for scholars interested in understanding and changing classroom teachings related to computers.
Critical theorists are mainly referred to as the Frankfort school because the movement originated at the University of Frankfort. Critical theory research is ideological. It thought that modern societies had within them many power relationships that benefited one group at the expanse of another. It attempts not ot describe a single study nor did it summarized result of a series of individual studies, instead it took a broad view of the field. This study discussed in detail whether teaching as a profession will be enhanced and empowered by the advent of technology. The common approach among critical theorist is often concerned with larger and more complex issues, such as the study of how integrated learning systems improve the achievement test score of disadvantaged students. Critical theorists argue that in a computer-intensive learning environment, the roll of the teacher as an interpreter and clarifier of cultural knowledge becomes important because of the bias built into the computer as an educational tool. Many critical theorists have even developed specialized methodologies to study various aspects of educational technology. They regularly adapt and revise existing research methodologies to better fit their purposes, but the defining characteristics of critical theory research to date is the focus of the research, not the methodology used. The critical theory literature can, indeed, provide only a negative perspective and far too few examples of positive work have been done from a critical perspective. However that is changing, more and more critical theorists are taking the initiative and developing approaches to problems in our field that reflect their values and perspectives. Research from the critical perspective in educational technology is appropriate and crucial to the field’s growth with the use of instructional design process to create new instructional experiences based on the critical perspectives.
Interpretivism is the third research paradigm for ITTE. It is a philosophy of science related to constructivist theories in psychology and to the forms of research that are rather described as qualitative. The crux of the interpretive approach to research is that social science cannot hope to find universal truths about human behaviour. There are multiple reasons for that but the ultimate outcome is the rejection of a search for law like generalizations. The realities of social science research once discovered are true for now and forever. In the interpretive paradigm, realities are local, transitory and contextually based.
Realities are constructed by humans in groups is the statement given by interpretivism. So what becomes real for one group may not be the same for the other group. This approach to the central idea of what constitutes meaning and reality leads to a decidedly different approach to research in comparison with other paradigms. For example much more importance is given to the context of the research since much of the meaning is in the context. Then without surprise, experimental research which is done ‘out of context’ in carefully controlled settings is much less significant and relevant than research done in context. The argument which interpretivists would raise is that in empirical research, the technical quality of the research called as internal validity is often more important than whether or not it carries our attention which means external validity. Relevance in the most important criterion in interpretive research. The stress on meaning in context would lead to acceptance to a wide range of activities which frame research, for example thoughtful case studies might only be useful to restrict empiricists as forerunners to a later research study could become a valuable primary source of understanding since they offer rich data on a topic instead of data gathered in qualitative studies.
Interpretivists welcome and accept reflective professional practice papers. The argument that sources of understanding such as case studies and professional papers are unacceptable because they are subjective and are dealing with local context. One fact that all truth is local breaks down a number of barriers in research. For instance, the contrast between research and program evaluation melts away since it is based on the idea that program evaluation leads to local truth, on the other side research leads to generalizations that go well beyond the entire particular settings of the study. Because interpretivists believe that all knowledge is local, there is no need for the distinction. The prominence on context also points interpretivists towards what has been termed particularly research. Particularly research consist particular action research and many other forms that break that break down the wall between the research and participants. In this approach there are participants, not subjects, and they may play active roles in everything from the design and development of the research to the data analysis and write up. At last, the interpretivists have led to broadening of the ways research can be done. Still traditional research papers filled with context and recognition of the subjective nature of the research is the most common form of reporting are also acceptable. A case that is told as a story, a video or a play, a metaphor, a piece of art and others.
[3] Our knowledge about ITTE:
This largely depends on the paradigm used by. It varies from one point of view to another. The empiricist paradigm is called the most restrictive since it accepts as valid research only studies that meet very detailed criteria. The next most restrictive theory is critical theory because it emphases on ideological framework on research. Least restrictive is interpretive one which embraces the vary fact that we can learn from many different forms of research. In order to include findings from each paradigm, we can use the interpretive perspective to sum up our knowledge in ITTE today in order to include findings from each paradigm. We also know that interpretive
Doesn’t accept the idea of an external reality and that creates some challenges. The problem is that we can’t review the literature and conclude that certain facts are absolutely true. The best we can do is to come at some of the general agreement about ITTE. There are chances that this general agreement may change, evolve or even disappear over the next few decades but it is what our knowledge says about it today. But in any case it is impossible to provide a truly comprehensive review of the ITTE research base.
Survey research has provided some noticeable contributions to our knowledge of ITTE. End number studies examined the current status of the field. In general, the surveys report that teachers have positive attitudes about the use of technology however they are not confident of their ability to use technology and do not think that their teacher education programs prepare them to use technology in innovative ways. It is also observed that future teacher education students would not appreciate the potential of technology in teacher education and thought that technology in classroom actually builds the teacher-student relationship. We have other survey studies which have looked at specific aspects of ITTE. One study viewed at the computer literary skills and fond that teacher education reported only limited computer expertise. Although there was a steady increase in the level of computer literacy. One more type of attitude study involves looking at changes in attitudes after technology related experiences. Numerous studies suggest that completing a computer course improves attitudes towards technology. There have also been a number of criticisms of attitude and survey research. The point is not that we don’t require additional studies of attitudes toward technology. It is that we need many other types of research as well. Surveying attitudes is a relatively straight forward methodology that is easily implemented. Being easy to do however does not mean it is always important as a means of advancing the field.
Another issue called as policy issue in tend to be a somewhat neglected aspect of ITTE and can be approached from any of these paradigms. Major four threads consistently identified by the experts as very important to training teacher to enable the design of constructivist based distance learning environments include 1] determining facilitator roles for teachers. 2] Embedding assessment within the learning process. 3] Creating non-problem based learning and 4] creating multiple approaches for knowledge development. Perhaps the most surprising fruit of this investigation was the secondary role of technology tools in the process. Many training sessions have centred on issues such as time management, instructor presence and presentation issues. The results show that the training should centre on the instructional issues first and on the operational issues second.
Diffusion of innovation is also another important aspect since numbers of scholars have reported efforts to infuse technology across the entire teacher education curriculum. It says that students who had more contact with technology also supported more student-centred approaches and had more confident in their ability to be successful teachers. It truly appears to be a promising method for work in integrating technology across the teacher education curriculum. It shows that students were more comfortable with technology, more confident and more positive about technology in education. In order to add knowledge to ITTE, one must look at the literature on diffusion in ITTE as it comes from the proponents of the innovation. The teachers felt that the preparation before they were to implement the innovation was inadequate and that they did not realize the potential of the technology until they were well into the implementation phase. It mainly argues that conceptions of change and diffusion that are situated solely in institutional and organizational context are incomplete because all change is also personal change.
One must observe that there have been number of interesting component studies in ITTE looking at the impact of adding a computer based simulation activity to a field experience. It is observed that students who were involved in a simulation which called for them to make decisions about the use of technology in the classroom had higher score than to those who did not use it. It also looked at whether pairing students when they learned to use an electronic mail system via a computer tutorial was more effective to pair students. Numbers of studies on the impact of adding telecommunication resources to a teacher education course are available observing that the course experienced is enhanced by the addition of email or discussion activities. Teachers were linked via email to practising teachers to help the students to gain a greater understanding of philosophies of reading through collaboration.
[4] The prospects in a multiparadigmatic background
There seem to be discussion about what frame outs research but it should not be on what is right or wrong rather what catches our attention. One should question that how should we deal with the issue of paradigm. One possible solution is that one can pick a paradigm he likes and then both conduct research and keep up with the research done within that paradigm. Naturally research from other paradigm would be ignored. We think that is an inappropriate response for several reasons. First, the foundations for each of the paradigms are flawed; none is so compelling that it virtually requires any thoughtful and open person to accept the paradigm. Also, valuable information has been developed by researchers in all three paradigms. In a general opinion, most scholars and practitioners will want to concentrate on doing research confining them in just one framework because it takes considerable efforts to master the professional knowledge and procedures associated with each of the three paradigms. Still ideally we should all attend to ITTE from all three paradigms. It actually acknowledges that all research is subjective in one way or another and proposes that it is the responsibility of any scholar to understand not only works in his or her own personal paradigm but in completing and alternative paradigms as well.
Conclusion
There were four main aspects of this paper: 1] the dawn of ITTE as a discipline. 2] Research paradigms and progressive work in ITTE. 3] Our knowledge about ITTE.
By using a multiparadigmatic a multiparadigmatic approach, we pulled together some of the main threads we know. For instance it is observed that most teacher education students have very positive attitudes about the use of technology in education but are far less confident about their ability to actually to use technology. We are aware of the fact that teacher education faculty also have positive attitudes toward technology in education but many do not feel they have a strong background in actually integrating that into the courses they teach. We also know that most preparation for teachers in the area of technology remains inadequate.
Main two requirements have been noted so far are 1] case studies of diffusion efforts and 2] information on innovations that have been developed and are in use are good fits with the interpretive paradigm. The need for teacher educators and teachers to become enlightened about the biases in technology use today fits the critical perspective best. We are aware of the fact that much of the educational software available is more appealing to boys than to girls. There are also other biases that are based on gender, social class and racial or ethnic background. Critical research can help make those open to us especially the problems. Empirical research has also tried to contribute through control experimental group studies which compare one form of teaching and learning to another. The main aim is to generally support one theoretical framework over another. We refuse to believe the studies in this tradition which are likely to achieve their goals. There seems to be too many variables, too many differences between the groups and too little commonalities across the approaches termed behavioural or constructive to allow us to the luxury of broad generalizations. However it is worthwhile to think of these studies as stories about the local use of an innovation. Present ITTE work needs to provide a grounded, rich and thick description of the development of cognitive tools for teacher education. The ITTE emphasized on integrating technology into teacher education curriculum which has also altered the type of research needed to inform the field. In the initial years, empirical and survey research describing the efforts of programming and computer-literacy experiences and courses on students were common. Today, information about student and faculty experiences with and attitudes computers are no longer as relevant. Later phases of ITTE have been influenced by an emerging belief that computers will not be used to deliver information to students and reinforce traditional methodologies but will be used as cognitive tools to support critical thinking and model creation. Thus, one of the major challenges for ITTE researchers is to create and study sues of computer as a cognitive tool to expand and enhance educational experiences, both in technological courses for teacher educators and throughout teacher education programs.
To sum up, it appears crystal clear that the prime research paradigms in education can all contribute to the advancement in the growth of ITTE as a discipline.
**Milan Pandya studies in MA (English Literature), final year at H M Patel Institute of English Training and Research, Gujarat, India
1 comment