Essay: Use and Effectiveness of Technology Tools in the Pedagogical Scenario

 

Use and Effectiveness of Technology Tools in the Pedagogical Scenario

Technology has become an essential part of our daily lives. It offers diverse means to represent, engage, and express. Its influence and daily life and social perspectives, issues, and bias is more than evident.  That is why it is crucial to bring their features to educational settings since this is a formative place where students learn about the world and its challenges. The pedagogical practice occurred in the Academia Militar “General José Antonio Anzoátegui, an academic institution where several ICTs technology tools were used. In this essay, I will present my experience and insights on the effectiveness of technology in educational settings, and what led me to claim that technology is a tool that allows the inclusion of diversity in design, engagement, and expression, only if it is supported by innovative strategies to ensure learning.

 My experience in the development of the practice component of the course allowed me to reflect upon the necessary change of the education concept, since there is a necessity to include innovative strategies aligned with a globalised world where everybody has access to a large quantity of information. Here, it is when “learn to learn” is necessary since it offers the opportunity to bring technology into class. The possibility of diverse design, conception, and interaction is opened. The outcomes registered are aligned with the diversity of possibilities of design, engagement, and expression that modern technologies offer. Here, it is necessary to clarify that ICTs were the most used technology in the design and planning of teaching materials. Platforms such as Canva, Genially, and Nearpod were used. Several ways of representation and engagement were used, such as design platforms and interactive ones, which offer multimedia resources to be included to present the content and to keep students motivated. It was observed that its inclusion into the teaching-learning process is well perceived in the class. However, the observation showed that the outcomes were acceptable, but a conceptual change of strategies and the process in itself must be changed in favour of ensuring students’ learning. Even when ICTs represent an innovative and at least mandatory tool in this era, given the gap of technology facilities which Colombia has in public and rural education, pedagogical and didactic strategies and mythologies are still essential to make learning happen. Innovative approaches are necessary to ensure and promote learning with critical thinking face an era where misinformation and conflicts are growing. Likewise, strategies focused on integrating technology as useful and effective tools, not only as a modern way of displaying content where it is where ICTs tools fall with a poor pedagogical background supporting the pedagogical practice.

Modern technologies are already part of the class settings since institutions can include ICTs to be used in the class design. Students saw this as an interactive way to watch, listen, and read the content. However, the methodologies given at a certain time become monotonous, even when the platform and activities to ensure representation, engagement, and expression were considered.  It can be said that, even though several tools were used, it was complex to search for platforms that offer interactive interfaces, given the expertise in designing and planning classes with flexible structures, as the PPP approach was used to plan each stage of the planning. This approach is useful for inexperienced teachers but is inflexible. For that reason, the UDL framework was considered, being a “guidelines offer a set of concrete suggestions that can be applied to any discipline or domain to ensure that all learners can access and participate in meaningful, challenging learning opportunities” (CAST, 2024). Therefore, the outcomes showed that students had a good perception and the materials and the ways of presenting the materials, since “when learners learn with technology, it assists them in developing their higher order thinking skills. It can be concluded that the true combination of multimedia and teaching methodology is very important to attract learners’ attention towards English language learning” (Ahmadi, 2018, p. 118). This is why innovative strategies are required in teacher training. Approaches as Project-Based Learning and Flipped Classroom or Gamification can be a change in the conception of how modern devices and their features can be set to facilitate and guide learning because these approaches “constituye una alternativa didáctica que puede estimular el dinamismo e interacción del proceso de enseñanza aprendizaje de la unidad educativa" (Zambrano, Hernández, Mendoza, (2022, p.180). Differently,  ICT tools will only be used as a means of displaying content and not as a means of representation, which is inclusive and diverse; means of engagement where its components and interfaces caught the attention, and as a means of expression where communities grow as an opportunity to interact through forums, wikies and blogs where students share their cosmovision about their world and the use of language as a mean of expression. In this way, this issue can be addressed, avoiding making classes monotonous and a waste of time, ensuring learning and critical thinking in a world where information is accessible in large quantities and where students will need to “learn to learn” and “learn to live together”.

In summary, Technologies are useful since they diversify the means of representation, engagement, and expression. However, their inclusion in the teaching and learning process must be accompanied by innovative and student-centered strategies and approaches focused on ensuring that students can be competent in a changing and complex world full of social issues, where critical thinking and humanity will be required. This is when the conception of design, strategies, and frameworks based on the twentieth-century needs is required, reflecting upon interaction, communities, the internet, and inclusion, being topics that mold the society and give insights into the people that Colombian society needs.

References

Ahmadi, D. M. R. (2018). The use of technology in English language learning: A literature review. International journal of research in English education, 3(2), 115-125. https://ijreeonline.com/article-1-120-en.pdf

CAST (2024). Universal Design for Learning Guidelines version 3.0. Retrieved from https://udlguidelines.cast.org

Zambrano Briones, M. A., Hernández Díaz, A., & Mendoza Bravo, K. L. (2022). El aprendizaje basado en proyectos como estrategia didáctica. Revista Conrado, 18(84), 172-182. 1990-8644-rc-18-84-172.pdf