International Journal of Pharmaceutical Research and Technology Volume 3, Number 2, July-December 2011, pp. 87-91
Innovations in Teaching and Learning: Use of Computers and Internet to Improve Effectiveness of Teaching Rajendra Awasthi* and Giriraj T. Kulkarni
ABSTRACT: In pedagogy, it is great challenge to ensure that the teaching and learning processes are taking place effectively in a classroom environment for better transfer of knowledge to the students. For doing so, a teacher has to do several activities such as proper planning, providing effective instruction for learning using appropriate methods and techniques. That means, a teacher has to perform vast activities inside and outside the classroom. A teacher has to create classroom environment, which is conducive for student learning. Information technology has revolutionized all the fields including education. Computers and Internet can be effectively used to transfer the “knowledge” to the students. Some of the methods that can be used for such purpose include: Blogging, Instant Messaging/VOIP, Mind Mapping/Concept Mapping, Online Office Suites, Podcasting, Social Bookmarking, Social Networking, and Video Hosting/Sharing. The present paper discusses the advantages and applications of the above mentioned techniques in improving quality education in pharmacy/ other technical fields. Keywords: Professional education, Web based teaching, Multimedia teaching.
INTRODUCTION The goal of teaching is to improve students understanding of the subject by maximizing opportunities for learning in every lesson. Such improvement reduces wastage of resources such as time, effort and money by producing students with the right skills and knowledge that delight the employers. With the tremendous growth of academic institutions opening new institutions of pharmacy and the increase in enrollments at existing colleges and universities, recruitment of motivated, highly trained, and passionate faculty is essential to the future of profession (Raehl, 2002). For better transfer of knowledge to the students by understanding of learning styles may become increasingly critical as classroom sizes increase and as technological advances continue to mold the types of students entering higher education (Romanelli, 2009). Excellence in pharmacy education comes from innovative teaching techniques and effective instructional materials. In the traditional teaching * Laureate Institute of Pharmacy, Kathog, 177101 (Teh. Dehra, Dist. Kangra, H.P., E-mail:
[email protected]
methods, lecturers offer course materials in a classroom where students listen, take notes, copy materials, execute homework and complete assignments. In many cases lecturers fail to transfer knowledge to students effectively despite personally having sound technical knowledge in the subject area (Erdle, 1985). Classroom planning, management, instructional skills and performance skills are considered as important teacher characteristics. Teachers must demonstrate that they possess these skills during teaching, and then are evaluated each year to determine if they have maintained these skills. Teachers hold the main responsibility for improving undergraduate education, but they need a lot of help. College and university leaders, state and federal officials, and accrediting associations have the power to shape an environment that is favorable to good practices in higher education such as; a strong sense of shared purposes, concrete support from administrators and faculty leaders, adequate funding for the appropriate purposes, and continuous evaluation of how well the purposes are being achieved (Erdle 1985). Good practices
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in professional education should encourage: (Chickering, 1987 and Suen, 2005) •
Good contact between students and faculty,
•
Development of cooperation among students,
•
Active learning and prompt feedback from students,
being physically present, web-based teaching requires new instructional practices built on a unique relationship between learners and instructors. This has resulted in entire online courses built using these platforms, with interactive webcasts, podcasts, or vodcasts, timed online quizzes, use of discussion boards to communicate, and online grade books (Suen, 2005), (Seipp, 2002) and (Xin, 2004).
•
Respecting diverse talents and different ways of learnings.
Blogging
Apart from these, the good practices also emphasize on timely completion of the tasks. Today, we are in the age of IT revolution. In the last decade, there has been a tremendous growth of different computer and web based technologies for different purposes. The technology has brought remarkable changes in the education system also. This paper deals with some of the important technologies which can be used to improve the teaching-learning process in higher education in general and pharmacy education, in particular. INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY FOR IMPROVING EDUCATION QUALITY Due to technological advancements, there are many new concepts and technologies, which can improve the teaching and learning process. These technologies have been well accepted and evaluated in the developed countries and need to be completely adapted in the developing countries, including India. Some of the technologies that can revolutionize pedagogy are described below. Web-based Teaching Technique The revolution in IT provides universal learning opportunities, explores how best libraries/ teaching practices can blend or redefines their own systems and services so as to address the needs of the new learning environments (Gokhale, 2009). Many institutions use various techniques such as Blackboard ®, WebCT ®, and Desire-2Learn® to house class handouts, syllabi, and other course documents, whereas others are using such platforms with the aim of advancing teaching strategies from a faculty centered to an active learner-centered paradigm. Without a teacher
College-level instruction in blogs is important to bring journalistic standards to this growing medium. (Gokhale, 2006). A blog is an easily created website that allows an author to update and publish instantly from any internet connection. This website can be comprised of reflections and observations and are usually updated everyday. As an educational tool, blogs may be integrated in a multi-faceted manner to accommodate all learners. Class blogs are easy to create and update efficiently, post handouts, notices, and homework assignments, or act as a question and answer board. Blogs provide a space where teachers and students can work to further develop writing or other skills with the advantage of an instant audience. Teachers can offer instructional tips, and students can practice and benefit from peer review. A class blog opens the opportunity for students to discuss topics outside of the classroom. With a blog, every person has an equal opportunity to share their thoughts and opinions. In addition to providing teachers with an excellent tool for communicating with students, there are numerous educational benefits of blogs. Blogs motivate the students, especially those who otherwise might not become active participants in classrooms (Poirier, 2000). Online Office Suites Web-based office suites offer many of the things that users need such as word processing, spreadsheets, presentations and many other tools associated with desktop office suites. Online suites allow creating, editing and sharing documents online. (Suen, 2005) They help in development of skills to make good presentations, handouts, discussions.
Innovations in Teaching and Learning: Use of Computers and Internet...
Mind Mapping/ Concept Mapping
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Learning is the process of comprehension and retention of the data in such a way so as to use it effectively at the time of need. So when a student is learning something, the best way is to get it visually. A Mind Mapping is generally a combination of words and image used to represent words and ideas linked together and arranged around a singular idea. There usually is a single image with connections between portions of information. A Concept Map is a diagram that shows how concepts relate to one another by linking concepts with arrows. Concept maps are usually of hierarchical structure and take a constructivist approach to learning (Poirier, 2000).
and evaluate the visual and aural component of their teaching that exactly what he/she really said or did, how much time did he/she spend on the topic? How many times did he/ she ask questions? How often did he/she move around? A teacher should try to do an audio recording at least once in each full-semester. This gives a chance to see if any speech problems are still there or if new ones have cropped up. This can serve as a tool for self evaluation and improvement. The same can be followed in laboratory while demonstrating experimental techniques. If high quality recording tool is used, the audio/ video file can be uploaded in the institute’s website to serve as learning aid for students (Yusuf, 2006) and (Keller, 2005).
Video Hosting/ Sharing
Social Bookmarking
Video hosting service / video sharing is a way for individuals to upload clips to an internet site. The video host stores the video on it’s server and displays a code that allows users to view the individual types of codes associated with the video. This makes it an easy and free way to host videos on a website and share them with the world. TeacherTube’s is a site where teachers can post videos designed for students to view in order to learn a concept or skill. YouTube is the leader in online video, and the premier destination to watch and share original videos worldwide through a web experience. YouTube allows people to easily upload and share video clips on www.youtube.com and across the Internet through websites, mobile devices, blogs, and email. Wiki Tools is a website where anyone can edit anything anytime they want (Suen, 2005) and (Poirier, 2000).
Social bookmarking is a way for internet users to save, store, organize, share and manage bookmarks of Web pages online. Using a social bookmarking service users are able to save their favorite web pages online that can be accessed from any computer with an internet connection5. In education it can be used to store information about different websites providing information about a particular topic. Social bookmarking is an online catalog of hyperlinks for users to found helpful topics. Many social bookmarking applications allow individuals to vote on a link’s usefulness or comment on the accuracy of the information it conveys (Farwell, 2010).
Audiotape and Videotape Recordings Modern technology has given relatively inexpensive and easy access to audio and video recordings of what we do as teachers. Videotape recording of micro lesson can provide richness in detail of actual teaching interaction. A small audio recorder can be put on the teacher’s desk or a video recorder on the side of the classroom and let it run during a class session. Later, we can listen to or view it. Videotape recording also provides the opportunity for teachers to analyse
Instant Messaging/ VOIP In higher education, a large percentage of students select Instant Messaging as their first communication path. Media technology is an integral part of graduate or undergraduate student’s lives in the twenty-first century. Instant messaging and chatting is a form of real-time communication between two or more people based on typed text. The text is conveyed via instant messaging programs over the internet. Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) is a protocol that allows voice communication or transmission over the internet (Silverstone, 2008). These can be used as tools for discussion regarding the topic and instant clarification of doubts, provided all involved persons are online (Kinzie, 2005).
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Podcasting Podcasting is a relatively new technology that has been used to deliver education to meet the ûexible needs of students’ dynamic learning activities (McCombs, 2007). Podcasting allows users to automatically receive multimedia files, on a computer or portable multimedia player (such as the iPod), which are distributed over the Internet. The podcasting software checks regularly for any new files that become available and downloads them to a particular computer - or directly to a multimedia player (Barry, 2005) and (Lara, 2009). Recently introduced ‘Nature’ podcasts are very popular and useful in knowledge transmission. These podcasts can be downloaded to computer and can be used in multimedia presentations. Image Storing/ Sharing Image Storing/ Sharing is a way to transfer digital images to an online environment and share them with others either privately or publicly. Flickr is a photo-sharing community that enables users to upload hundreds of photos and tag each photo with descriptive words. Photobucket is a popular site on the Internet for uploading, sharing, linking and finding photos, videos, and graphics. Picasa is free software that helps to locate and organise all the photos on the computer, edit and add effects to photos. This can be used as a tool sharing diagrams, photos, illustrations and 3D objects concerned to the teaching topics. All images must describe deûned conditions and include interactive options to guide and assist the learning process. This method of knowledge transferring offers virtually unlimited use of image and video illustrations of clinical procedures and biological phenomena in a cost-effective manner. (Nattestad, 2002).
which students learn and largely trying to avoid the pitfalls of passive knowledge transmission. PowerPoint presentations are the primary teaching medium in, for example, distance learning situations. There are various good reasons to use PowerPoint for effective teaching like appropriate use of PowerPoint can enhance the teaching and learning experience for both teacher and students and to encourage students to listen to a presentation rather than spend all their time writing notes. It is argued that a ‘chalk and talk’ presentation slows the lecturer down, allowing students to catch up with notes and even provides time for students to think, but all of this is equally possible within a pedagogically-sound PowerPoint presentation. In fact, some faculty believe that using PowerPoint slides may disrupt the facultystudent relationship and attention to what a faculty member is saying rather than what is listed on the screen (Ricer, 2005), (Gonyeau, 2009), (Driessnack, 2005), (Sansgiry, 2004) and (Jones, 2003). CONCLUSION People who have chosen careers as teachers in higher education owe it to themselves, to their students, and to their institutions to fulfill their responsibilities as effectively as possible. This paper included many ideas and methods to improve one’s teaching over time is to continuously monitor and evaluate that teaching, and then to use the information obtained to make needed changes. There are a number of educational resources described in this paper. Good teaching would require adequate preparation and effective delivery in a motivated classroom environment. REFERENCES [1]
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