Aligning Pedagogy and Technology - Literature review Example

Pedagogy and Technology Name Institution Date Pedagogy and Technology Background The paper authored by Monk, Campbell, and Smala (n.d) focuses on a study that intended to show establish how pedagogy can be aligned to technology. The issue of technology has gained a lot of significance in the modern era and scholars have identified that pedagogy can be used in this area. In this particular study, Monk, Campbell, and Smala (n.d) focused on the specific learning approach that was applied to first-year university students. The approach identified in the case study involved the use of clickers, which a typical student response system. All students enrolled at the university pursuing the education course were required to use clickers. The scholars identified that the use of clickers has positive impacts on students as it increases student engagement. When using clickers, the student is required to provide a response which in one way or another contributes to positive engagement on the parts of the students. Lecturers are required to prepare the clickers before they allow the student to present their responses. In a similar fashion, lecturers plan for their lessons or courses; they are also required to so for clickers. The use of clickers has also been presented as to have the solution for classes with large turnout where a lecturer is incapable of engaging each student in the class. The traditional, physical approach to lecturer limits the intensity of this engagement unless in the unique situations where students make their initiatives to engage the lecturers. The use of clickers significantly changes the learning environment by encouraging the participation of the learners especially in classes with many students. One pedagogical approach that tutors use is the student-focused approach where the specific needs of each student stand out as significant. It is a pedagogical approach that puts a lot of emphasis on the social aspects of learning, and the students come in as the critical initiators of the problems. In this educational approach, it is assumed that the students have unique learning needs and lecturers have the ability to sort these needs provided they identify the needs. This pedagogical approach has a unique solution in learners response systems such as clickers. Using clickers, the teachers present content to students in an approach that is perfectly student centered. As mentioned in the research, the use of clickers has already been adopted by the university but specifically for 180 first years pursuing education. The plan has already been set including the time for lectures, time for tutorials as well as the lecturers to take part in the process. It has also been stated that the approach had been approved by the ethics committee of the University thus giving it a clean bill of health. A pilot project had also been conducted by both internal and external lecturers who gave way for implementation. The approach has been identified as to have surprised many students in the Australian-based institution. Some of the challenges that the students faced included the wording used in the clickers, such as wrong answers written in an upside-down format. Critical appraisal Young people find it challenging to live in the modern era that has been characterized by improved technology as well as media activities [Dav081]. One of the major challenges is the lack of ethical moderation in the area of technology. The young generation has a wide range of resources to access from the media which include academic resources as well as non-academic resources. With the availability of the internet, there is a little restriction to access of specific contents even in situations where such contents should have been restricted. The digital media, as well as the available networks, have made such a great impact both in the negative and positive way. Clickers present students with specific knowledge that centers on a specific topic. Teachers can provide knowledge that has been ethically approved by students. When using clickers, students can hardly access irrelevant or explicit information, which helps in enhancing ethics in media production. Critical boundaries such as academic boundaries have not been clearly defined in the new media. According to Milton (2013), media has moved a notch higher to capture the attention of the diverse population around the globe characterized by practices that have not been institutionalized. This lack of institutionalization has proven to have a greater impact on the young generation. As it stands, t can be argued that the media age has greatly had a negative impact on the cultural and social fabrics while at the same time affecting communication and play among the youth. Clickers can help teachers establish a boundary and provide strictly related academic articles. Teachers can provide students with knowledge via the clickers and can also retrieve information from students that can enable development of knowledge. Participation of students greatly increases whenever teachers use. Despite the fact that clickers may only have a limited impact in establishing clearly defined academic boundaries in media technologies, at an institutional level, the boundaries can be realized. This provides hope for further development of the media technologies that will enable the establishment of academic boundaries. Pedagogy in addressing issues of knowledge production, ethical issues and cultural issues According to Buckingham (2008), technology has been identified as a weapon capable of transforming extent as well as structure of knowledge production. It has established that adequate structural data has been developed that is capable of linking different segments of knowledge. To date, several patterns of knowledge production can be identified and studied. Therefore, in this case, knowledge production can be defined as the adoption of IT in assembling various segments or ideas for dissemination to the rest of the knowledge recipients. Clickers have a greater impact as far as knowledge production is concerned. The use of clickers allows students to have an important input in the development of knowledge alongside their teachers. Clickers allow teachers to get a contribution from all students and have proven to be efficient in classes with a large number of students. Allowing all students to contribute towards knowledge production enables the collection of diverse inputs from various students. Various ranges of creativity can be collected and used in the process of knowledge production. In addition, clickers lead to specificity as far as the process of knowledge production is concerned. As far as ethical issues are concerned, it has been established that the internet related technologies lack the aspect of ethical moderation. Aligning pedagogy to education has the potential to enhance the social and cultural environment especially when the pedagogy leads to the production of the right content. As mentioned before, lack of moderation in the media technologies has been the major cause of lack of sanity in the field. Pedagogy has a way of bringing sanity back to the media technologies. It has been argued that technology has managed to change most aspects of lives, but little can be said concerning knowledge production. Aligning pedagogy to technology provides an opportunity for the education sector to develop knowledge using pedagogies. Managing the aspect of ethics in media has proven to be a mountain to climb but pedagogy offers part of the solution if not all the solution required [Dea13]. Many scholars have taken on the initiatives to integrate digital media into learning. One of the important approaches is the development of digital literacy programs that trigger the need for research and development on various pedagogies. The digital literacy programs have rapidly contributed to reforms within the education sector as well as in the development of technology. The move has made many realize that there is a high possibility of aligning pedagogy and technology [Sar10]. Application to personal, professional context From a personal perspective, the current age can be identified as the digital age since there is high access to digital content. The internet technology has led to the development of a free platform where people interact with other people as well as the content. Some countries like in the Arab countries as well as in the Asian continent such as China have made significant efforts to regulate their digital space. However, in most countries, the digital platform remains highly deregulated regarding content creation as well as access to content. People of any age and any class have access to most of the content published on the internet, and this stands as an advantage as well as a disadvantage. As an advantage, people get quick access to good information, but as a disadvantage, some unrestricted content gets into the hands of the wrong hands. The young generation is at the peak of making discoveries, and the digital platform seems to have made their ventures easier and more interesting. Some of the content they get on the internet is not what they need, but there would rather look at such content in the name of adventure. One can easily trace all the reasons for claims that the digital platform plays both a social constructive as well as a destructive social role. From a personal perspective the digital world has to be regulated but the same ideas have not been echoed by the authors whose information has been used in the previous parts of this document. According to Buckingham (2008), digital content can be developed only to suit the specific needs of the youth. This does not solve the social problems, but only offers a solution to the class problem. For instance, clickers have been identified to have the ability to help lecturers in classes flooded with students. This media technology avails the information students and also allows them to engage actively without fear. However, such moves have minimal effect on the student's ability and will to access destructive digital information.The internet remains an open resource that allows people from most parts of the world to create and publish content. The sector remains highly deregulated which implies that students with no ambition still have access to irrelevant information. It is never easy to come up with a solution that can tame the current situation and that makes it easy to agree with the fact that the people who developed the technology paid little attention to important aspects such as political aspects, the social aspect, and cultural aspects. For now, the resource offers benefits on the one hand and allows the society to count the losses on the other hand. In my opinion, it is important to establish the role of learning as far as technologies are concerned. It is also important to analyze, qualify the role of technology in enhancing the teaching as well as learning needs of students. It is important to understand the two types of needs and determine the gap that technology can fill. Any technology used in education must support and enhance interaction of students. Any technology to be used in class should have the capacity to support the teachers and students in developing. References Buckingham, D. (2008). Youth, Identity, and Digital Media. Retrieved October 29, 2016, from Massachusetts Institute of Technology: https://mitpress.mit.edu/sites/default/files/titles/free_download/9780262524834_Youth_Identity_and_Digital_Media.pdf Deakin University . (2013). Deakin Learning Futures AGENDA 2020: Stage 2: Assessment and Learning Design. Retrieved October 29, 2016, from Deakin University, Victoria, pp. 1–55.).: http://www.deakin.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0017/38006/digital-literacy.pdf Milton, M. (2013). Digital Literacy and Digital Pedagogies for Teaching Literacy: Pre-service Teachers’ Experience on Teaching Rounds. Retrieved November 1, 2016, from Journal of Literacy and Technology Volume 14, Number 1: http://www.literacyandtechnology.org/uploads/1/3/6/8/136889/jlt_v14_1_milton_vozzo.pdf Monk, S., Campbell, C., & Smala, S. (n.d.). Aligning pedagogy and technology: A case study using clickers in a first-year university education course. Prestridge, S. (2010). The Alignment of Digital Pedagogy to Current Teacher Beliefs. Retrieved November 1, 2016, from ACEC10: Digital Diversity Conference: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sarah_Prestridge/publication/45192976_The_alignment_of_digital_pedagogy_to_current_teacher_beliefs/links/5577b16008aeb6d8c01ce52d.pdf Read More