Dr Fay Patel, Director of Education Management at Monash University Malaysia
The purpose of technology is to enable people. It should be a means to an end, not an end in itself.
“Unfortunately, this is not always the case, especially when it comes to education,” says Dr Fay Patel, Director of Education Management at Monash University Malaysia.
She believes that technology is only an asset if used correctly so that it impacts learning more effectively.
Her book Online Learning: An Educational Development Perspective, which was published in October 2014, busts some of the myths about technology being the answer to learning and teaching enhancement.
Patel explains that in many higher education systems, technology is promoted as innovative practice and institutional leaders think that technology should be integrated into all learning and teaching initiatives.
This is usually because all institutions want to be seen to be very much part of the 21st century, and want to compete with others and be the first to do everything.
“However, I think that when it comes to how those agenda issues are communicated to the broader learning and teaching community, including staff and students, it is highly problematic. This is because many senior administrators either do not understand technology-enabled learning, technology diffusion or issues of access to technology as they should,” says Patel.
According to her, sometimes the learning design agenda is too dogmatic, forcing everyone to come on board or risk getting categorised as people who are not forward-looking and do not want to be proactive in embracing technology-enabled learning practice.
In addition, very little is communicated in discussions between the academic staff and other key stakeholders in the university about how to embed technology effectively within a pedagogical framework.
Patel believes while the academic staff need to understand what the impact is going to be and how it is aligned to their learning goal, the learners also need to know why the technology is included.
At the end of the day, technology-enabled learning is meant to enhance the learning experience. If it does not, then one should question why it is being used.
She believes that to move forward, there needs to be ongoing conversations and collaborative partnerships among all stakeholders who are together responsible for developing a holistic educational framework. The academic community, learners, educational technology design staff, as well as educational development staff have a role and responsibility in contributing to effective learning design.
Her book emphasises that these very critical conversations between academic staff, education technologists and learners are not being conducted.
“I think we have to build a community of forward-looking teachers and learners who will constantly reflect and question why we’re putting something in and how it is impacting student learning. Let’s ask the learners and the community that we are reaching out to.
According to her, some higher education systems (for example, in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa) have introduced an educational developer in the last 20 years or so. This is the person who fills the gap (to advise and guide learning design) between the academic staff and the education technologists.
While this seems to help, not everyone is fully qualified to understand the intricacies and complexities of embedding technology in learning design.
“I think that’s one of the reasons why there isn’t enough communication. We might have a lack of expertise, knowledge and experience in education technology design and diffusion,” says Patel.
She maintains that in many countries, distance learning is actually thriving because of technology. Canada and Australia are among them.
While distance learning can sometimes be well complemented by technology, it should also be scrutinised for impact.
“If it’s not well thought out, then we are actually using technology to isolate some learners from others – learners who may not have access to technology, cannot afford technology, or may not be as adept at using technology. They get left behind even in those systems.”
“Again, technology is great, it would work very well in a distance learning context. However, if we do not take into account that many of our learners – mature learners and high-school learners – are not all able to access technology, then again we are doing a disservice to them as our main stakeholders and I think we’re not taking our social responsibility seriously,” says Patel.
She believes that if technology-enabled learning is not inclusive, equitable and diverse, then some learner or teacher has been left out of reaching their learning and teaching potential at some point.
“I think at the end of the day, really good effective models of technology-enabled learning would be those models that are inclusive, that respect equity and diversity,” says Patel.
To do so, learners and academics should be regarded as primary stakeholders in higher education.
After all, it’s not the technology that leads learning. Technology is just the enabler.
“Technology-enabled learning is not about the technology. It’s about the pedagogy. It’s the desired learning and teaching impact that’s going to decide which type of technology is to be used when and how, and why it best suits the goal that you have in mind for a collaborative forward-looking learning community,” concludes Patel.
http://www.monash.edu.my/news/archive/2014/why-use-technology-for-learning
