Technology Implementation at the University of Jordan: 

 Strengths and Weaknesses

 

Why is Technology Implementation at the University of Jordan Ineffective?

It has always been argued about the effectiveness of technology implementation in the educational process. In other words, it has been many sides of arguments discussing its ability to create an educational environment that upgrades the expected outcomes of learning. At the university of Jordan; likewise, the effectiveness of integrating technological methods within the courses is also an issue.

 

As (Edutopia, 2018) mentioned on their website: "successful technology integration is achieved when the use of technology is: routine and transparent, accessible and readily available for the task at hand, supporting the curricular goals and helping the students to effectively reach their goals." These three basic elements of successful integration of technology must be first taken into consideration to be able to call technological methods ones with effective results on the student.

Some professors at UJ intend to use some technological methods within their courses and try to make it a routinely focused method. What's more, mixing both traditional and technological education is kind of an entertaining alteration from the old tedious approaches. However, it has negative impacts as it causes dispersion on so many different levels. Firstly, developing technology as a teaching-focused technique is almost impossible with the distraction between it and the traditional one. Secondly, the professors' would-be suffer from the non-focused certified method would possibly in turn affect their students' too. The confusion between the information in a book and the information on e-slides doesn't lead to any better learning or teaching. Students find it difficult to deal with many source materials when it's time to study, not to mention that this led them to prefer the traditional learning methods rather than the technological one. Mixing online and real teaching should be only at school to prepare students for full engagement of technology at university.

Good educators were defined in a book by (Hamilton, 2015) as the ones who "aspire to meet the needs of their students. Find out how integrating technology can help! Choosing from a wide array of available technologies, you can find tools that fit your unique teaching style and curricular goals, while engaging your students." Blended learning, UJ e-learning office, Microsoft tools, and other basic tech tools are the mostly used tools at the University of Jordan. Most of the students who study at the UJ from different faculties and majors are familiar with these methods. Yet there are no specific required tech tools that help fulfill each major's needs. Each course in a specialization has its own needs. So, generalizing the tools for all majors without organizing a planned strategy may impede the aimed expectations and goals of the course. Probably, that is the reason why most students who study at the University of Jordan don't believe that using these tech tools don't add much to their learning. So, each major must have certain required tools and softwares that meet its needs.

 

Creativity and productivity are aspects that must be seen as a result of integrating technology effectively. Unfortunately, the lack of encouragement and supervision caused retroactive effects on learning. Professors usually ask their students to visit websites to expand their learning curve despite the fact that some students need to learn some reading strategies that they lack, and the other need to be motivated to read. Professors are hard to satisfy and students don’t get rewarded for what they deserve, especially surface learners who need this encouragement the most. (Vanderbilt University, 2018) shared on their educational website that teacher should "encourage these learners often and help them reflect on what they've learned and what they've accomplished." So, the motivation to use technology is an essential aspect yet it is almost missing at UJ.

 

Another essential aspect for an effective technology integration is devoting its use to educational purposes only. Nevertheless, this can't be possible with the distracting impact it causes to the process. (Wandering Educators, 2018) mentioned on their website that: "It is not uncommon to see a teacher steal a quick glance at his or her social media or personal messages while in class. Such kind of distraction not only sets the class back by a few minutes in literal time, but it sets them all back by quite a bit mentally. If this happens regularly, it can cause quite some damage over time." For example, this issue can be solved by replacing mobile phones with computers and laptops which have access only to educational websites related to the course.

 

The issue of the ineffective technology implementation at the University of Jordan doesn't affect only the students as individual learners but the educational system as a whole. Achieving successful integration of technological methods doesn't need much but good managing and utilizing for the equipment available at the UJ. The consolidation of the UJ attempt to reach the required level for implementing technology effectively will make the university educationally and technologically prosperous. All it needs is just an understanding of the students' needs as scholars who are willing to earn more knowledge using effective technology.

References page:

Edutopia. (2018). What Is Successful Technology Integration? | Edutopia. [online] Available at: https://www.edutopia.org/technology-integration-guide-description

Hamilton, B. (2015). Integrating Technology in the Classroom: tool to meet the need of every student.

Vanderbilt University. (2018). Motivating Students. [online] Available at: https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/motivating-students

Wandering Educators. (2018). Can Technology Be a Distraction in Education?. [online] Available at: https://www.wanderingeducators.com/best/stories/can-technology-be-distraction-education