Technology Implementation at the University of Jordan: Strengths and Weaknesses
Strengths and Weaknesses
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The Script:
Heba: Hi sally , How are you?
Sally: I’m fine, thank you , how are you?
Heba: I am good thank you, In today’s discussion I would like to ask you some questions that are related to the Jordanian educational system and our main focus will be Jordan university . Our main subject matter will be the following Is technology being integrated effectively within the curriculum of Jordan university’s courses or not. My first question for you today is, how do you describe the educational system in Jordan in general? Do you think it is impacting the students effectively and does it have a strong effect on them?
Sally: In my humble opinion, I think that the Jordanian educational system is one the best based on how it developed , starting from nearly lets say nothing in the early 20’s to now… Jordan has moved forward and advanced its educational system gradually through all these years putting so much efforts in trying to create a superlative system in order to bring into existence an educational environment that has human beings whom are aware of the importance of education. And now based on a research that was made 3 years ago , today there are 2787 government schools , 1493 private schools, 48 community colleges and 19 universities. Jordan and Jordanians are truly developing with determination aiming to reach the highest levels.
Heba: That’s great Sally , I am glad and proud of what I’m hearing. So Sally, moving on to my next question that is more specifically related to our topic. and Before I do ask you the question, from what I heard and saw the educational system of Jordan university is evolving day by day, and it is giving the chance to its students to improve their skills and expand their knowledge by adding the new technological methods to its courses, and I think that is excellent, they’re in the right path and as Barack Obama said “ if you’re walking down the right path and you’re willing to keep walking, eventually you’ll make progress” and in my opinion I believe that University of Jordan is making that progress with its willingness of reaching the top and benefiting its students. And now Sally, firstly do you agree with me or do you see that in another perspective ? and as a current student in Jordan university how do you feel about technology being implemented inside the classrooms , and do all or some of your professors use technology and combine the traditional methods with the new technological ones in their classes? If yes does that influence the students in a manner which achieves a desired result?
Sally: Thank you Heba, all that you mentioned is absolutely right , I agree with you but of course we still do not have that perfect technological educational system in Jordan university. As in my opinion I see an enormous progress and an elevated advancement in the system itself, however we still need more motivation to keep going also to show eagerness in order to attain what is more. Moving on .. In reality the university itself is doing that job and is giving the professors and the students the chance as well as the freedom of employing the technological methods in teaching and blending them with the traditional ones but I personally feel that a lot of professors do not really care and encourage students to use technology , from what I see most of them prefer the traditional methods because they believe that integrating the technological methods within their course would be time consuming , others do not feel comfortable with using them and many other reasons. On the other side, Professors who do so are actually creating miracles , we as students are gaining more knowledge and so much skills comparatively. We get to do our own researches , read more , explore the web and that makes us more interested in accomplishing what we have to do in a certain course. For instance , team work can promote the collaboration between students allowing them to work harder hand in hand , and with these new technological methods that we adding to our courses , we are finding that much easier and more enjoyable. Finally , that means that the use of technology is playing a huge role , reaching to the point where yes it is making a great influence on students with its benefits, not to mention that it excites the students to achieve more, learn more , reconnoiter new, various websites, applications and be introduced to other novel tools.
Heba: well yes Sally. You mentioned significant viewpoints regarding the ineffectiveness of integrating technology that i do agree with you about. The lack of encouragement makes it hard for students to be more technologically interactive. Also, not believing in the technological methods’ role in creating better educational environment will decrease any chance of creativity to invent and develop more tech tools for educational purposes. And talking about miracles, it’s not unreachable to have the essential supportive equipment for technology as a modern method; however, I think that the dispersed management of the available equipment adds another difficulty in dealing with technology. So moving on to the next question, Can technology alone lead to a radical positive transformation in education ?
Or does it come along collaboratively with traditional methods?
Sally: Technological methods in education brings more of a modern sense inside and outside classroom. For example, students don’t have to go to libraries searching for book resources. All they have to do is typing whatever piece of information they need in any search engine they use. Searching on the internet makes your search much wider to get more results. So we do not deny its role in widening the learning space to a more developed and modernized one. But at the same time, we do not marginalize the undying role of the traditional methods too. I mean we don’t see interaction between students when using technology as much as we see it when using the traditional methods. Also, fully implementation of technology would be hard for professors to evaluate their students truthfully by seeing them actually do participate and make seen efforts during classes. Another missing aspect that is the actual interaction between the class mates. They won’t be interacting better as they would in traditional learning methods.
Heba: that’s all right. So with these pros and cons of implementation of technology at the UJ it is considered to be an incomplete loop. Somethings must be added and other things must be excluded to get a better complete vision of technological learning and therefore to have better educational system. So in your opinion, what changes and modifications must be applied to higher education in order to reach the desired level of education progress ?
Sally: as you know heba, higher education is an essential and significant phase of education. Some changes must be applied for the sake of having better education. In my own opinion, i would suggest offering a training course to spread wider definition of technology to help students and professors know exactly why they are using technology in the first place and what’s the aim of having it implemented within courses. They should also know in what parts of education it can be implemented. Both students and professors must know exactly how to use technology. Some courses do need technology and some don’t , each course has its own needs of tech tools to achieve the expected goals of it. Many of those points must be first taken into consideration. So as you can see, all it needs is a little bit of more systematic management to get the coveted results.
Heba: Hi sally , How are you? Sally: I’m fine, thank you , how are you? Heba: I am good thank you, In today’s discussion I would like to ask you some questions that are related to the Jordanian educational system and our main focus will be Jordan university . Our main subject matter will be the following Is technology being integrated effectively within the curriculum of Jordan university’s courses or not. My first question for you today is, how do you describe the educational system in Jordan in general? Do you think it is impacting the students effectively and does it have a strong effect on them?
Sally: In my humble opinion, I think that the Jordanian educational system is one the best based on how it developed , starting from nearly lets say nothing in the early 20’s to now… Jordan has moved forward and advanced its educational system gradually through all these years putting so much efforts in trying to create a superlative system in order to bring into existence an educational environment that has human beings whom are aware of the importance of education. And now based on a research that was made 3 years ago , today there are 2787 government schools , 1493 private schools, 48 community colleges and 19 universities. Jordan and Jordanians are truly developing with determination aiming to reach the highest levels.
Heba: That’s great Sally , I am glad and proud of what I’m hearing. So Sally, moving on to my next question that is more specifically related to our topic. and Before I do ask you the question, from what I heard and saw the educational system of Jordan university is evolving day by day, and it is giving the chance to its students to improve their skills and expand their knowledge by adding the new technological methods to its courses, and I think that is excellent, they’re in the right path and as Barack Obama said “ if you’re walking down the right path and you’re willing to keep walking, eventually you’ll make progress” and in my opinion I believe that University of Jordan is making that progress with its willingness of reaching the top and benefiting its students. And now Sally, firstly do you agree with me or do you see that in another perspective ? and as a current student in Jordan university how do you feel about technology being implemented inside the classrooms , and do all or some of your professors use technology and combine the traditional methods with the new technological ones in their classes? If yes does that influence the students in a manner which achieves a desired result?
Sally: Thank you Heba, all that you mentioned is absolutely right , I agree with you but of course we still do not have that perfect technological educational system in Jordan university. As in my opinion I see an enormous progress and an elevated advancement in the system itself, however we still need more motivation to keep going also to show eagerness in order to attain what is more. Moving on .. In reality the university itself is doing that job and is giving the professors and the students the chance as well as the freedom of employing the technological methods in teaching and blending them with the traditional ones but I personally feel that a lot of professors do not really care and encourage students to use technology , from what I see most of them prefer the traditional methods because they believe that integrating the technological methods within their course would be time consuming , others do not feel comfortable with using them and many other reasons. On the other side, Professors who do so are actually creating miracles , we as students are gaining more knowledge and so much skills comparatively. We get to do our own researches , read more , explore the web and that makes us more interested in accomplishing what we have to do in a certain course. For instance , team work can promote the collaboration between students allowing them to work harder hand in hand , and with these new technological methods that we adding to our courses , we are finding that much easier and more enjoyable. Finally , that means that the use of technology is playing a huge role , reaching to the point where yes it is making a great influence on students with its benefits, not to mention that it excites the students to achieve more, learn more , reconnoiter new, various websites, applications and be introduced to other novel tools.
Heba: well yes Sally. You mentioned significant viewpoints regarding the ineffectiveness of integrating technology that i do agree with you about. The lack of encouragement makes it hard for students to be more technologically interactive. Also, not believing in the technological methods’ role in creating better educational environment will decrease any chance of creativity to invent and develop more tech tools for educational purposes. And talking about miracles, it’s not unreachable to have the essential supportive equipment for technology as a modern method; however, I think that the dispersed management of the available equipment adds another difficulty in dealing with technology. So moving on to the next question, Can technology alone lead to a radical positive transformation in education ? Or does it come along collaboratively with traditional methods?
Sally: Technological methods in education brings more of a modern sense inside and outside classroom. For example, students don’t have to go to libraries searching for book resources. All they have to do is typing whatever piece of information they need in any search engine they use. Searching on the internet makes your search much wider to get more results. So we do not deny its role in widening the learning space to a more developed and modernized one. But at the same time, we do not marginalize the undying role of the traditional methods too. I mean we don’t see interaction between students when using technology as much as we see it when using the traditional methods. Also, fully implementation of technology would be hard for professors to evaluate their students truthfully by seeing them actually do participate and make seen efforts during classes. Another missing aspect that is the actual interaction between the class mates. They won’t be interacting better as they would in traditional learning methods.
Heba: that’s all right. So with these pros and cons of implementation of technology at the UJ it is considered to be an incomplete loop. Somethings must be added and other things must be excluded to get a better complete vision of technological learning and therefore to have better educational system. So in your opinion, what changes and modifications must be applied to higher education in order to reach the desired level of education progress ?
Sally: as you know heba, higher education is an essential and significant phase of education. Some changes must be applied for the sake of having better education. In my own opinion, i would suggest offering a training course to spread wider definition of technology to help students and professors know exactly why they are using technology in the first place and what’s the aim of having it implemented within courses. They should also know in what parts of education it can be implemented. Both students and professors must know exactly how to use technology. Some courses do need technology and some don’t , each course has its own needs of tech tools to achieve the expected goals of it. Many of those points must be first taken into consideration. So as you can see, all it needs is a little bit of more systematic management to get the coveted results.
