The Use of Technology in Education

Use of technology in education, my learning experiences, exposures and its application in teaching practice. Post 1

In this post, I will focus on the importance of ever evolving/innovating technology in education, its purpose, impact and necessity. Technology as it has many definitions, it can be well described in the paradigm of medical education “the application of body of knowledge for practical purposes in teaching and learning”. (Hansen, 1994). It is a reality and a fact that as the world outside the boundaries of educational institutions is changing faster and faster, most of the teachers and students are not being well equipped to succeed in the future that’s competitive and challenging. We’re embracing a unique era where there’s a lot of value to evolve, innovate and formulate new trends in every field not just in education. (McLaughlin, 2019) As an academic in medical education, these innovative technologies in education played a very important role and had a great impact on my domain of medical education. In this post I will focus on the importance of ever evolving/innovating technology in education, its purpose, impact and necessity. Technology as it has many definitions, it can be well described in the paradigm of medical education “the application of body of knowledge for practical purposes in teaching and learning” (Hansen, 1994). It is a reality and a fact that as the world outside the boundaries of educational institutions is changing faster and faster, most of the teachers and students are not being well equipped to succeed in the future that’s competitive and challenging. We’re embracing a unique era where there’s a lot of value to evolve, innovate and formulate new trends in every field not just in education (McLaughlin, 2019). As an academic in medical education, these innovative technologies in education played a very important role and had a great impact on my domain of medical education. In this post, I will focus on the importance of ever evolving/innovating technology in education, its purpose, impact and necessity. Technology as it has many definitions, it can be well described in the paradigm of medical education “the application of body of knowledge for practical purposes in teaching and learning”. (Hansen, 1994). It is a reality and a fact that as the world outside the boundaries of educational institutions is changing faster and faster, most of the teachers and students are not being well equipped to succeed in the future that’s competitive and challenging. We’re embracing a unique era where there’s a lot of value to evolve, innovate and formulate new trends in every field not just in education. (McLaughlin, 2019) As an academic in medical education, these innovative technologies in education played a very important role and had a great impact on my domain of medical education.

As a passionate teacher/trainer I always had a desire to innovate and wanted to create new model of concepts for teaching, so that the students are well engaged, as I have seen in beginning of my teaching career, the model of education in a typical medical college set up was a mass production factory model, as it did not provide an individualized experience to the students (Shaw, 2019). Since 1989 I have seen variety of developments, which were monumental, as they changed from teacher centered facilitation to student centered pedagogies/learning and design changes in learning spaces with open classroom plans, this was just because of the inculcation of the latest innovative methods and technologies in education. (Byers, 2019). I have embraced these changes graciously with all positivity and open-ness, which made me an effective learner and a practical passionate teacher.

The changes I have experienced as a lecturer within the course curricula and in class teachings were rapid, and these were influenced by the following factors:

• Redesigning of learning spaces and classrooms (Byers, 2019)
• Changes in sitting arrangements (Barrett P. S., 2013)
• Diversity of pedagogical techniques (Amer F. Ahmed, 2018)
• Latest advanced educational tools using digital technology
• Incorporation of Social media and online networking (Whyte W, 2017)

Purpose: The purpose of using advanced technology in medical education fulfilled the following:

• Acquisition of fundamental knowledge
• Decision making
• Skill coordination
• Psycho motor skill improvement
• Team based learning
• Practice on virtual Human body
• 3D visualization of dissection of human body (Guze P. A, 2015)

The Impact: These advancements in medical education technology has a greater impact on my learning and teaching methods and made me understand very well the importance and need of technology, pedagogy and content, the fundamentals of TPACK (Mishra, 2006). The inclusion of virtual reality, interactive human physiology and anatomy technologies were a great boost to my teaching techniques, even though these required training and time. I adopted and incorporated this unique virtual reality-based software and interactive technology very effectively in my teaching practice by providing enhanced content. Application and usage of these technologies made me an effective facilitator and my classes have an interactive, exciting, engaging and team-based learning atmosphere. The students are now able to get individualized and subjective attention and personalized experience, this has changed the mass production factory model of producing health care professionals to well informed, passionate and caring healthcare professionals.

Necessity: Interactive digital human physiology/anatomy and virtual reality technologies can help basic medical sciences academics to integrate latest creative ideas in their learning outcomes by compiling audio visual effects, 3D animations, videos, worksheets and concept questions with ease (Amy Heather, 2019). The use of these technologies can help increase student attendance, interaction and engagement. The students can demonstrate an effective understanding by self-manipulation of the interactive technology, linking their earlier and current learning experiences both inside and outside the classroom. The use of this unique pedagogical technology-based concept can make students to be highly creative, interactive, motivated, engaged, well informed, and technology literate. (Workman, 2019)

In conclusion, the inclusion of educational technology innovations and social media increased peer connectivity, students became more collaborative as they were able to express their individual ideas clearly and concisely. Understanding of subject, engagement and collaboration increased, the classrooms became more positive, energetic and facilitation of teaching and training concepts are made easy. Because of the social media connectivity and various online platforms, the student queries were answered in real time, the feedback to their assessments were given on time with utmost subjectivity and confidentiality. To my colleagues in healthcare education I would like to advise them to use online platforms like TED-Ed, Participate, Edu-Clipper, Kahoot and Thing Link. (Chauhan, 2019)

References

Amer F. Ahmed, E. &.-E. (2018, February 21). Classroom Diversity and Inclusive Pedagogy. Retrieved from Association of College and University Educators ACUE: https://community.acue.org/blog/classroom-diversity-inclusive-pedagogy/

Amy Heather, T. C. (2019). Educational Strategies, Teaching and Learning, Technology, Basic and Foundation Sciences, Simulation and Virtual Reality. MedEdPublish , 1-18. doi: https://doi.org/10.15694/mep.2019.000077.1

Barrett P. S., Z. Y. (2013). A holistic, multi-level analysis identifying the impact of classroom design on pupils’ learning. Building and Environment, 678-689. doi:doi:10.1016/j.buildenv.2012.09.016

Byers, T. &. (2019, October 31). Does the space make a difference? The Churchie Experience. Retrieved from Churchie.com.au: https://www.churchie.com.au/churchie/media/Documents/Churchie-s-New-Generation-Learning-Spaces-Booklet.pdf

Chauhan, A. (2019, October 31). Digital Education Tools For Teachers And Students. Retrieved from eLearning Industry: https://elearningindustry.com/digital-education-tools-teachers-students

Guze P. A. (2015). Using Technology to Meet the Challenges of Medical Education. Transactions of the American Clinical and Climatological Association, 126, 260–270. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4530721/

Hansen, R. &. (1994). Defining technology and technological education: A crisis, or cause for celebration? International Journal of Technology and Design Education, 4: 179. doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01204546

McLaughlin, P. T. (2019, November 8). The future of learning and teaching: Big changes ahead. Retrieved from RMIT School of Education : https://www.rmit.edu.au/study-with-us/education/discover-education/the-future-of-learning-and-teaching-big-changes-ahead-for-education

Mishra, P. &. (2006). Technological pedagogical content knowledge. A framework for teacher knowledge . Teachers College Record, 1017-1054. doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9620.2006.00684.x

Shaw, A. (2019, November 2). Factory Model vs 21st Century Model of Education. Retrieved from Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/factory-model-vs-21st-century-education-anne-shaw/

Whyte W, H. C. (2017). Social Media use within medical education: A systematic review to develop a pilot questionnaire on how social media can be best used at BSMS. MedEdPublish , 6, [2], 21. doi:https://doi.org/10.15694/mep.2017.000083