My name is Owais Tariq and I am working as IT/ Business Faculty for HCT Madinat Zayed and Ruwais Colleges. I live in Abu Dhabi and drive daily four hours to work. I did my Bachelors and Masters in Information Technology and Second Master’s in Business Administrator. I have expertise both in IT and Business area. I have been teaching courses like networking, programming, databases, accounting, marketing, management, human resource to bachelor level students.
I am using educational technology for last five years both as a teacher and as a student. During my Master some of my courses were online where I have to do online reading, discussion and assignments and this was only possible because of educational technology tools. In our colleges we are using BBVista and Pearson Lab to provide online learning to our students. These are very important tools for our colleges as most of our staff and students are travelling daily for four to five hours. Some of the other important tools that we use on daily basis are interactive boards and joint distance video class rooms to deliver our lectures. We are teaching in two different colleges which are 180Km apart and with the help joint distance video class rooms we deliver classes without being physically present on campus.
If we look back 10 to 15 years we will see getting knowledge was much more difficult as compare to now. We didn’t have Internet and computers at school and colleges. Technology was rarely used in education and there were very few educational technology tools available which were not affordable by every institute. Teachers used to come in class and deliver their lectures on board or maximum use overhead projectors to show illustrations. If student miss one class then he has to read books and request his friends to help him. Even reading books didn’t guarantee him that he will be able to understand everything on his own. Redundant research was going on as there was no way to share existing research globally.
Education technology has changed all of that and it has made the life of student and teacher much simpler as compare to old day. It has brought a positive change in teaching methodologies. Now teacher can explain their taught using multimedia tools which students can understand more easily and quickly. With the help of these tools students can now learn outside the class and can engage with studies more interactively which we all agree is a positive change. One of the biggest change and advantage of educational tools for me is the collaboration and sharing of knowledge. We don’t have to reinvent the wheel any more. We can share knowledge and learn from other experiences.
I agree with author of “Ten reasons for using education technology” that these basic fundamental reasons rules can clearly justify the use of technology in education. Most of the reasons which come to my mind for using technology in education are mentioned in this article. Like by showing real interactive examples we can increase the level of understanding of students. We can gain knowledge any place and at any time with help of mobile technologies. We can collaborate and learn from others quickly. Some of the other reasons of using education technology which are not mentioned in this article can be:
1. Saving our planet by not cutting trees to print more papers
2. Providing learning environment for disable people
It sounds like you’ve had plenty of positive experiences with educational technology as a seasoned user, and you’re a true advocate.
ReplyDeleteFunnily enough, at my college our students have both two to three textbooks for each FNDS English class as well as their laptop computers! So much for saving trees, but I’m sure we’ll make an environmentally friendly change in this regard in the near future. Thank you for sharing that Owais!
- Donna
Hi Donna
DeleteThank you for your response. I agree with you that students are carrying many books but we all know that how many pages they actually read from these books. For example I am teaching management course this semester. Students are provided with 500 page book from which they have to read 100 pages only. Most of them don’t bring their books to class as they say it’s too much heavy. Good part is that this book is online as well. Almost 80% are using their laptop for reading this book online. So question arises is there a need of physical book.
Hi Owais
ReplyDeleteI am always amazed at the distances involved for you guys working at those campuses, makes me feel guilty about my 20 minute leisurely drive to work!
Clearly your job would be almost impossible without technology, you can't work at campuses 180km apart without using ICT (or a helicopter).
I like your added reasons for using technology, sustainability and environment and wider access. Not just for disabled people, though that is part of it, but just making human knowledge more widely available - for example I would take the work of Paul Kim at Stanford http://www.stanford.edu/~phkim/ and his "pocket school" project http://pocketschool.stanford.edu/
This is truly inspiring stuff - kids in Asia and Africa learning together sitting under a tree using mobile devices.
Good luck in M2 Owais - best Mark
Hi Mark
DeleteThank you for your comments. I wish we had helicopters or transportals like Stark-Rek to transfer us between colleges.
I agree with you that with the help of technology many barriers of sharing knowledge are overcome. If we have to learn something new we don’t open dictionary or do research in library we just Google it or search it over Wikipedia or You tube. Learning is much easier than before.
Looking forward for your comments and guidance
Owais