Question

What expectations are placed on today's study by use of technology? What expectation are placed on instructors also?

Answer 1

Over the last few years, the technology-enhanced learning (TEL) community has made the student digital experience a central concern.

School, national culture, and family background play a part, along with the subjects that they choose to study. A few have very limited experience of ICT at all. But some expectations seem to be widespread:

• robust and ubiquitous Wi-Fi across campus locations
• easily to connect their own devices to the university network, and access personal/social web services
• continued access to institutional devices, especially desktop computers with relevant software for their use

Students need a flexible environment that lets them experiment, learn from each other, and create their own blend. They need a flexible environment that lets them experiment, learn from each other, and create their own blend. But many of their most valued experiences – specialised skills such as design, data analysis, reference management and journal searches – are formally learned as part of the curriculum. This means that the confidence of teaching staff has a strong impact on students' satisfaction with the use of technology.

Reasons for the need of technology in today's study environment

1. If used correctly, mobile devices and the applications they support, will help prepare students for their future careers.
2. Integrating technology into the classroom is an effective way to connect with students of all learning styles.
3. It gives students the opportunity to enhance the interaction with their classmates and instructors by encouraging collaboration.
4. Using technology in the classroom gives teachers and other faculty members the opportunity to develop their student's digital citizenship skills. It's one thing to use mobile devices, it's a completely other thing to know how to use them correctly and responsibly.
5. Integrating technology in education helps students stay engaged. Most students today have been using mobile devices like tablets and smartphones to play and learn since they could crawl. So it only seems logical to align today's classrooms with the way that your students want and are used to learning.
6. Combining new tech like VR (virtual reality) with traditional classroom instruction is one example of how the introduction of new technology can enhance the learning experience and create new opportunities.
7. When mobile technology is readily available and performing correctly in the classroom, students are able to access the most up-to-date information quicker and easier than ever before.
8. The traditional passive learning model is broken. With technology in the classroom the teacher becomes the encourager, adviser, and coach.
9. Technology helps students be more responsible. Owning your own device or borrowing the school's devices gives students the opportunity to improve their decision making skills as well as taking ownership of a valuable (and often times expensive) device. Again, this needs to be complemented by proper digital citizenship training to see the best results.
10. Technology transforms the learning experience. Students have access to an incredible amount of new opportunities. From learning how to code to learning how to better collaborate across teams and with their instructors--technology empowers students to be more creative and be more connected. New tech has super-charged how we learn today.

Preparing teachers to use computer-related technology in classrooms is an exciting challenge for the educational community, especially teacher preparation institutions. Teacher education is often criticized for the inadequate preparation of education majors concerning using educational technology in the learning/teaching process.

To address the issue of educational technology infusion in teacher education programs, several organizations, such as the Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education (SITE), the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), and the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE), have focused attention to the issue by holding conferences, publishing journals, and writing standards, on the topic. Changes in the amount of technology preparation in teacher education are a substantial challenge, but these changes are important to the future of education and its institutions. The most important factor in
improving technology preparation of students, is the increased use of technology by faculty, especially in the classroom setting.

Three general elements seem to be key for the increased faculty use of educational technology in teacher education institutions: 1) access to equipment, 2) expectation from the institution that effective educational technology be used, and 3) training and assistance to use technology, both personally and professionally, that is provided on an on-going basis.

Six specific institutional objectives within teacher education programs appear to be especially important for the effective use of educational technology by faculty. Each of these objectives focuses on one of the three key elements: equipment, expectation, or training/assistance. Together these six institutional objectives assist in providing an overall instructional environment where faculty members are indeed willing to take the extra time, and put forth the extra effort, that is necessary to model the effective use of educational technology in teaching and learning. Each institutional objective is described below.

Objective 1: Ensure that each faculty member has convenient access to a computer and appropriate software. Whether on their desk, or in a faculty use area, the convenient and relatively private use of a computer and related educational technologies is an important encouragement to faculty members for experimenting with different computer applications, and makes it easier for them to become proficient users of technology. When the computer and other technology becomes a helpful tool for the individual faculty member, then the use in classes with students is the next logical step. Some institutions have used various forms of equipment allocation as a way to provide such access to faculty and encourage the incorporation of technology into professional activities.

Objective 2: Attain the equipment necessary to support classroom technology use. It is indeed very difficult for any faculty member, even the most enthusiastic, to embrace the instructional use of educational technology without at least some access for students and classes. A traditional computer laboratory may be necessary to help support a 'hands on' oriented class, or at a minimum, a computer and display station may be needed for demonstration. Some institutions also use 'ready to go' mobile carts which can be moved from classroom to classroom, and provide relatively convenient classroom access.

Objective 3: Provide an institutional expectation that faculty will include educational technology in their instruction. Many faculty may feel that if educational technology is important enough for them to integrate it into their own classes, then technology is important enough to be an expectation for the institutional curriculum. In essence, it should be expected that all faculty will integrate technology into appropriate courses and situations. It is especially necessary for faculty to feel that they are not only supported in personal or office use, but also encouraged to use and model educational technology .related teaching techniques.

Objective 4: Provide periodic technology training for faculty. The fourth institutional objective builds upon the equipment related objectives, and helps to support the faculty's ability to "keep up" and build an understanding of new technologies. Often, because of the perceived stature of higher education faculty members, they or their institutions are reluctant to become involved in training activities. Actually, periodic training has been shown to be critical for the adoption of technology based instruction by higher education faculty, and an important component in their willingness to integrate educational technology into the curriculum. Some institutions use individuals who are 'early adopters' and 'enthusiasts' within the faculty to help facilitate training, while others use the services of external
professionals, such as outside consultants.

Objective 5: Provide coaching and assistance for faculty as they infuse educational technology into courses. Although effective training is a needed part of technology infusion in teacher education programs, the actual results of training programs are often disappointing. While some educators will, immediately after training, try new technologies in their classrooms, others need mentoring or coaching before they will try new techniques or technologies. Although coaching and mentoring techniques have been recognized in K-12 education as important approaches to infusing technology into the curriculum, it is often overlooked at the university level. In order for educational technology infusion to occur in education courses, teacher educators need more than just knowledge about educational technology, they need practical examples and ideas that work with learners; they need assistance in incorporating such infusion ideas; and they need coaching and mentoring as they try new techniques in their classrooms.

Objective 6: Provide an institutional environment supportive of the 'risk taking' necessary by faculty to try new approaches to instruction. Faculty members must also believe that their overall institutional environment is supportive of the general 'risk taking' necessary to try new approaches to instruction. For many faculty, the use of a new technology-based activity in their classroom means discarding a relatively successful past technique. Faculty members must be aware that 'failure' in such new technology related endeavors will still be recognized as an important effort and as a contribution to moving the institutional curriculum forward. Some universities have shown faculty the value of such efforts by formally designating such endeavors as 'learning experiences,' and have included the integration of technology into classroom activities and courses as a part of the faculty growth formula. Most importantly, an institution needs to show relative patience with a faculty member who is working on such integration, since it often takes three or more years for teachers at any level to make a substantial and effective change in their teaching.

Together, these six institutional goals target an environment where the faculty have the necessary equipment to attempt technology use, an institutional expectation that their efforts are important to and supported by the institution itself, and the appropriate faculty training and assistance to infuse technology into courses appropriately. It appears that all three of these elements need to be addressed in order for wide-spread technology
integration to take place in teacher education programs.