Technology in Enhancing the Quality of Instruction and Assessment in (ODE)

 

Learning is the eye of the mind

-French Proverb-

First of all, let us try to comprehend that education is a process through which the individual is provided with important tools and knowledge to put them into practice in every single day. It seems to me that, instruction is a means used by humans to change the world; therefore, people need to receive some kind of education which allows them to develop as human useful beings for the planet.  It is reasonable to think that there are several types of educational systems which are used in order to convey knowledge and skills as well.   One of the most striking features is that educational systems could be incorporated at the distance. This brings to the question of what is distance education?

Henceforth, we will understand that (ODE) meaning Open Distance Education for its acronym in English. According to Willis (1993), “Distance education takes place when a teacher and student(s) are separate by physical distance, and technology (i.e., voice, video, data, and print) is used bridge the instructional gap” (p.3). Bearing this in mind, it is possible to comprehend that students could learn without attending formal classes or something like that. I strongly feel that through (ODE) students have the opportunity of creating new learning ways.

What is Distance Learning?

A lot people claimed that students who use these programs could found several benefits such as:

• More courses are offered: It is no secret that the class schedules could mean a big obstacle for students; in fact, some of them decided to leave a major due to their work schedules match with those of the courses.

• An opportunity to deliver instructional materials and teaching strategies through different media is provided: Nowadays, technology plays an important role in education, in fact, there are several means of communication like; WhatsApp, e-mail, or google drive which are used students with the purpose of sending their tasks. In fact, Mahbubur (2010) mentions that: “Technology is one of the most important contributors to the dramatic transformation in the evolution of distance learning to its current role in the 21st century. Technology has even changed the concept of distance education, enabling learners to access a variety of resources at anytime from anywhere around the globe.” (preface)

• In the long term, more money is saved: Incidentally, we must not forget that higher education could be so expensive; that is to say, for many students get a professional career could represent invest a lot of money.

Distance education is correlated with learner’s self-efficiency and academic achievement: It stands to reason that students to be aware of their progress, so they in these programs they can combine duties and learning. According to Ramaiah (2001) “The increased availability and accessibility of distance education enables the learners for the first time to check through the learning material of a number of courses and make decision himself when selecting one of them” (p. 3)  

For me, the gist of the matter is that educational technology brought new ways of teaching. It is no secret that technological devices like computers and phones have grown extremely and why not! These have influenced all areas of our lives.      

       

As far as student’s assessment concerned, this article mentions that methods should be similar to the medium in which student elaborate their projects. Taking this into account, educational institutions should offer students access to the equal technology in the assessment procedure as learners have in the learning process.

There is a strong chance that the challenges of information and communication technology in education will bring some disadvantages such as:

The application of Information Technology to every facet of the education industry has been observed to have some challenges as can be seen from the following: 

Technology are poorly equipped with the basic and necessary skills needed for the realization of the set objectives

Resources are obsolete, weak or inadequate. 

Cost and financial implication of acquiring and sustaining the usage of the resource material.

To sum up, technology is an important tool for teaching; I believe that most of teachers are applying educational programs in their lessons planning which are influenced by technology. It is acknowledged that teacher should encourage students in order to develop their skills. So, it seems to me that technology became in an important tool used to teach which must be harnessed in its entirety.

References

Barry Willis. (1993). Distance Education: A Practical Guide. USA: Educational Technology Publications, Inc.

Syed, Mahbubur Rahman. (2010). Technologies Shaping Instruction and Distance Education: New Studies and Utilizations. USA: Information Science Reference.

Y.R. Ramaiah. (2001). Distance Education and Open Learning. New Delhi, India: Naurang Rai for Mittal Publications.