Technology Will Change the Objectives, Methods, and Outcomes of Education In Future
| Subject: | 🎓 Education |
| Type: | Synthesis Essay |
| Pages: | 4 |
| Word count: | 1017 |
| Topics: | Teaching Philosophy, Innovation |
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Everything in the modern world depends on technology be it business, governance and education. Education, in particular, is presently experiencing a change attributed to technology. The new models like e-learning are but the products of technology. Therefore, with technology, education is currently experiencing a shift and the future of the sector is set to be highly dependent and influenced by technology. The situation has prompted the research and academic community to focus on what the future of education will look like, including objectives, methods, and overall impacts of learning. Some see the future of education as student-centered owing to the excessive use of interactive technology, while others view future of education as being defined by increased accessibility to learning (through open learning) and augmentation of the current teaching models to ensure quality outcomes. However, some are skeptical that impact of technology on education in future will depend on attitude and how the specific technologies address emotional, cognitive, and contextual concerns. Therefore, technology will change education in future by redefining objectives, methods, and overall impacts of learning as well as embracing a student-centered approach along with increased accessibility to education through open learning. However, the success of technology in changing education will depend on attitudes and how technology addresses the cognitive, emotional, and contextual concerns of learners and instructors.
To some, the impacts that technology will have on education in future is attributed to the overall improvement in learning outcome by enhancing and strengthening the current teaching models. For instance, Aubusson et al. attribute the impact of technology on learning by outlining how it will improve the rich task pedagogy, a valuable approach defined by “authenticity in relationship of the learning approaches to real-world scenarios, resource intensity, pluradisciplinarity, reflective student learning, and greater involvement or engagement of students” (p.221). The rich task pedagogy focuses on quality and overall outcome of learning. Hence, as technology will become more integrated into education in future, quality and outcome of the entire learning process will be highly stressed in the future pedagogy.
As the digital generation continues to adopt technology, it manifests some of the elements of future of education as defined by technology. For one, Evans and Laura see the future of education as one where “faculty and student interaction is highly augmented” (400). Therefore, technology will increase faculty-student mentoring relationship and further the skills, knowledge as well as career preparations in their specific areas of study. Consequently, technology will change the goals of students in learning by focusing on getting mentorship from the instructor. The Net Generation is highly connected and continuously linked to the world, “can intuitively multi-task, move from work to school, to recreation, and expects immediate feedback” (Evans and Laura 400). Technology will make speed a vital construct in education and learning, an example seen in how text messaging has taken over as part of written communication. Therefore, with technology, students will demand more of mentorship, attention, and time. Essentially, technology implies that teacher-student interaction will be the embodiment of successful learning as Kumar and Ron also found out that with the increased adoption of e-learning, “students prefer student-centered approach with limited moderated sessions” (p.263). Moreover, technology has profound implication on the learning approach, more so changing the learning to focus more on active student participation (Dougherty, Kevin and Brita Andercheck et. al. 95); hence, for educators, the future of education will experience a paradigm shift towards a student-centered approach in learning.
Ossiannilsson et al. (160) points to the ever-increasing debate and concern on the extent of the changing and improving learning as well as teaching praxis becoming more digitalized and widespread. Technology continues to have a profound impact on lives of people, at the local and global levels. The authors suggest that technology will change education in the future by widening accessing to higher learning. It is set to ensure and provide open access to education, which to a greater extent, will maximize its impact on society as well as ensure that education is successful and sustainable. However, the change will come at the expense of attitudes of the sector and a change in mindset to emphasize the flexibility in growth instead of maintain the fixed traditions, which to a greater extent, will require system-based approach for integrating technology and digitalization in education management and leadership (Ossiannilsson et al. 174). Hence, with technology, education will be open and institutions will adopt the open education pedagogical approach, or a self-directed approach to learning in fostering openness.
Other theorists are currently of the opinion that technology will lead to more informal learning because interaction with technology leads to higher self-efficacy in searching for knowledge and information. By using Roger’s innovation adoption and diffusion theories, Straub (627) indicated that the influence of technology on education will be subject to the specific influence that the introduction of technology has on society. The author argues that adoption of technology is a complex process that should be treaded carefully because how individuals perceive technology influence their overall adopting. Hence, how technology will influence education in future will depend on the extent to which the adopted technologies have addressed emotional, cognitive, and contextual concerns. Considerations are highlighted like how a teacher’s experience with technology influences the use of the technology, their interaction with technology, thereby calling research to focus on the deeper implications of technology adoption in learning in future (Straub 627).
In conclusion, the above research has shown that some theorists see education in future as being changed by technology. The embodiments of the changes will include the use overreliance of student-centered learning due to increased connective, more access to education through open learning like e-learning opportunities and improvements of current teaching models to augment quality outcomes. Despite the perceived positive benefits, all will depend on the readiness of teachers and students. For instance, the attitude of teachers towards teaching technology will influence adoption of technology. Besides, technology will have to address emotional, cognitive, and contextual concerns of teachers and learners for it to be accepted in the education sector.
- Aubusson, Peter, et al. “Teachers choosing rich tasks: The moderating impact of technology on student learning, enjoyment, and preparation.” Educational Researcher 43.5 (2014): 219-229.
- Dougherty, Kevin D., and Brita Andercheck. “Using Facebook to engage learners in a large introductory course.” Teaching Sociology 42.2 (2014): 95-104.
- Evans, Retta R., and Laura Forbes. “Mentoring the’net generation’: faculty perspectives in health education.” College Student Journal 46.2 (2012): 397-405.
- Kumar, Kari L., and Ron Owston. “Evaluating e-learning accessibility by automated and student-centered methods.” Educational Technology Research and Development 64.2 (2016): 263-283.
- Ossiannilsson, Ebba et al. Transformation of teaching and learning in higher education towards open learning arenas: A Question of Quality Open Education. In Blessinger, Patrick, and Bliss TJ (ed), International Perspectives in Higher Education Chapter 8 (pp. 160-77), Open Book Publishers, 2016.
- Straub, Evan T. “Understanding technology adoption: Theory and future directions for informal learning.” Review of educational research 79.2 (2009): 625-649.
Offered for reference purposes only.