Use of educational technology in Science Education

 

1.1.            Introduction:

In less developed countries like Pakistan, Possibly the most difficult task for a teacher is the ability to understand a topic as his/her listener understand it. In order to explain and teach students teacher much develop short range and long range strategies. These strategies will help the students to learn more quickly and enhance its understanding towards science education.

Science can help Childers to gain healthy brain and learn thing in shorter periods of time. Using science equipment’s can help the student to be informed with social issues and to be involved in the responsible community actions. Science can help student to make better decisions for their career. Science education contributes in the development of the heathy community not only by the young generation but also for the citizen to overcome social issues.

If we narrow the role of science from the community to the students, we should know that teacher is something more than just letting. Most of the people thought that teaching especially science education is easy but they will see that it is much more than that. Good teaching requires great thoughts, design and preparation. In our system most of the teachers uses textbooks and teacher everything from that book without exploring the knowledge for other sources. In 1985 a survey was done by, Iris Weises and he found that about 93% of the teacher uses book or notes for teacher without using any other source. Songer and Linn, in 1991 documented that students can learnt law of thermodynamic more easily of they are explain to them practically from the student who are taught by the textbooks.

I think the main purpose of the education either in school colleges and universities should be to explore more and more about the specific topic form the different literature beside just teaching from the notes of old published textbooks. Now it doesn’t mean that I am saying that we should left textbooks but we should not totally dependent on the textbook. Developed countries are using different technologies to educate their generation e.g. radio, computers, different media, multimedia, games etc. So we should learn from them and tries to uses these methods. Although these methods are used in our universities but our schools and collage education is still lacking these technologies and completely dependent on old method of learning.

In this article we will discuss some technologies that must be added in our educational system to enhance the capability of the student to learn thing in shorter periods of time .I think these method will help in community, learning attitude and healthier brain development and student that are upset form heavier school bags are able to get rid of it.

Computers and other multimedia in general are playing an important role in every field of life along with a major role in education by modern ways of better learning as well as teaching. Various techniques are used to increase the level of learning.

IT is the future of every field of working. Computers are used in education system for better teaching-learning process. It was first used in 1970 in education but now almost every education institutes are using the computer across the globe. Before IT took over the education system, there were many shortcomings in the system. Computers along with internet access has made education very easy for people. Now that the need of modern education has been given the importance it needed, accessibility to good education has given countless opportunities. Now, if someone want to study in a foreign university, it’s not necessary for the person to be physically there (Standing 1973).

Smart classes have been the new trend now a days brought using technology. Teachers use multimedia to give visual aids to students within the classes for a better learning process. According to the theory of cognitive learning through multimedia, in a small amount of time, for a better learning process, information should be provided through visual, auditory as well as tactile stimuli which is perceived by the students as much as their concentration towards the stimulus provided and this information is stored in long term memory. It has been proved by research and various surveys that student learn best through multi-media with graphics and sounds as compared to the words alone (Sandholtz 1997).

There has been a continuing and broadening debate going on about the role of multimedia in shaping the memory and better learning process. Computers, radio, multimedia, print media etc. all are responsible to stimulate a specific stimulus like radio stimulating the auditory system and print media stimulating the vision. But, for a better learning and good memory of the learned subject, it important to use all of the technologies with each other. Only hearing to something or talking about something will not give better learning but if along with talking, some visual aids are also shown to the student by the using some print medium or a better alternative, using a multimedia showing all the graphics will give a better understanding which in turn will shape the cognitive memory of the student providing a better learning method (Mukti 2004).

 

Here, the figure shows that the information is provided through instructions provided by sounds, talking and music perceived by the auditory system while visual system is stimulated by using text, graphics and animations. Along with this manipulative technology is used to stimulate the sensory memory by a tactile stimulus. Till this point, the multimedia usage by teacher is used for better understanding of the learner. From this point further, the concentration and attention of the student is responsible to understand the subject and the formation of long-term memory (Moreno et al.,2006).

Now a days, use of computer and multi-media is for the following purposes:

1. ·         To teach and practice writing
2. ·         To improve cognitive thinking
3. ·         To increase communication through internet
4. ·         To use tools i.e. word, spreadsheets etc.

There are also some other benefits of computers:

1. ·         Basic skills and learning of the students can be improved by using computers.
2. ·         Not only the learning process has become easier by the introduction of computers, the retention of the learned subject also increases using computer.
3. ·         Computers makes teaching much easier and more effective which makes it important for the teaching-learning process effectively.

1.2.            Role of computers:

In the beginning of the induction of computer in the educational system, it was used to learn the basic tools for skill improvement like the word application on the computer was used to improve the writing skills or spreadsheets were used to handle data more efficiently. Computers made the work already been done by hand more efficient and less time consuming.

Now, computer is not just used for skill improving but due to the modern ways and technologies, computer has become an integral part of the modern-day education system. The new technologies in the IT world with software sophistication has changed the education system dramatically and the process of making it more efficient is still in progress.

Broadly, there are 3 major roles of computer in education system:

1.3.            Remote Learning:

Computer has been made an integral part of the world and is being used everywhere, be it in home, office or any institute. The integration of internet with computers and the enhanced versions of every software has made the computer important for distance learning through many ways like video conferencing, telecommunication, video text, multi-media, online discussions, online database, hyper media, e-books etc.

Virtual/online classes are the new era for education system and are also the need of time. Teachers and students can interact with each other without being present in the same place.

The benefits of remote learning are:

1. ·         Cheap source of studying
2. ·         No obligation to time and place
3. ·         Effective learning by availability of mass course work online
4. ·         More students can be benefited simultaneously (Rahman 2014)

1.4.            Online examination:

Modern day education system has evolved in the past few years which has dramatically changed the old ways of exams and monitoring systems. The system shows impartiality and more fairness as compared to the old ways. There are many exams/tests taking place online now a days like GRE, SAT, GMAT, CCNA and many more all over the world.

The advantages of this system are:

1. ·         Impartiality and fairness in exams
2. ·         More secure system
3. ·         Cost-friendly system
4. ·         Saves time (Guo et al., 2008)

1.5.            Computer-Aided Education:

Computers have improved the way of teaching as well as enhanced the leaning of the student by using various tools like multimedia and presentations etc. The old ways of teaching can be boring for students which makes them lose their attention more often leading them to be more frustrated. Computer aided learning grabs the attention more and makes learning more interested using graphics and animation and at the same time makes them understand better making them learn better.

Following are the advantages of the aided learning:

1. ·         Makes learning more interesting
2. ·         Makes best use of learning time
3. ·         Individualization
4. ·         Better learning way
5. ·         Analysis of error is more enhanced
6. ·         Student interaction is increased
7. ·         Syllabus pre-processed to determine the total course work
8. ·         Repetitive practice is made better (Dabas et al., 2018)

1.6.            Role of radio and multi-media:

Multi-media is the blend of writing, graphic, animatronics, auditory, and audiovisual which are everything we experience in our day-to-day life. Multi-media have many applications which use one or more of media sources. It gives the learner a quick and grabbing way to have information in a smaller time. It gives more interaction than common books and convey information more accurately to the student. Students can use various formats to obtain the knowledge they need.

Multimedia if is computer based, can give the student the opportunity to go through various steps for a specific subject in all types of formats i.e. audio, video, animation, text etc. Multimedia is also used by teachers to provide students with lecture in the form of presentation using all types of formats. Such type of presentation when provided to student even without lecture can be easy to understand and learn (Cairncross et al., 2001)

Education system always need improvement thus is always finding ways to give a better learning process. It’s a common knowledge that people tend to learn more when they see or hear it rather than just reading about it. Also, a static book is less likely to grab the attention of student as compared to the graphical representation or animated view of the same thing. Education system always evolve to present a better way to give the learner better ways which is why the multi-media made its place in the modern-day education (Milková et al., 2012).

Following are the broad advantages of using multi-media in education:

1.7.            Better understanding:

Research shows that multi-media give better understanding due to the fact that human brain when presented with verbal and visual stimulus of the content, it makes better connection which leads to understanding at a deeper level thus it also shapes the cognitive memory (Moreno et al., 2002).

1.8.            Enhanced problem solving:

The human brain dedicates a larger part to the visual processing. Multi-media thus use the visual representation along with the text which use and engage maximum part of brain processing to understand a problem. This strategy not only increase understanding of problem but also the retention of the knowledge. According to research, those students that were taught using a multi-media-based lecture showed more efficiency in problem solving as compared to those students that were taught using only text provided through a print medium only (Thurman et al.,2000).

1.9.            Amplified optimistic emotions:

According to research, students that learn in environment that uses modern education by the use of computer/ multi-media etc. tend to be more optimistic and show more positive behavior in the society. This is due to the environment of studying they learn in, which is far less frustrating for student as compared to the usual static ways of learning practiced in education system before. Due to this optimistic environment they tend to learn more and are more active

1.10.        Access to diversity of information:

With the help of advancement in the field of information technology, access to the information has become easier everywhere. The information can be accessed by the world wide web on different multi-media’s medium like smartphones, tablets, laptops, televisions etc. According to surveys, 95% of student all over the world are using internet access to check information about various subjects. Access to more knowledge has also increased the confidence level of students to participate in discussions which is also helpful in a better learning experience.

1.11.        World exploration:

As the information has become accessible, similarly the world has come closer to the screen of any multi-media device. if a student is to learn about geography, he/she are now not left to wonder about places but can see all the places for themselves. Similarly, for a science student, they can explore space, marine system a dissection of a rare species all on the tap of the screen due to availability of multi-media environment (Atkinson et al.,2000).

2.           References:

1. Atkinson, R. K. (2002). Optimizing learning from examples using animated pedagogical agents. Journal of Educational Psychology, 94(2), 416.
2. Cairncross, S., & Mannion, M. (2001). Interactive multimedia and learning: Realizing the benefits. Innovations in education and teaching international, 38(2), 156-164.
3. Dabas, N. (2018). Role of Computer and Information Technology in Education System. Іnternational Journal of Engineering and Techniques, 4(1).
4. Guo, P. (2008, December). The research and application of online examination and monitoring system. In 2008 IEEE International Symposium on IT in Medicine and Education (pp. 497-502). IEEE.
5. Milková, E. (2012, April). Multimedia Applications-Effective Support of Education. In 9th International Scientific Conference on Distance Learning in Applied Informatics (pp. 13-21).
6. Moreno, R. (2006). Learning in high-tech and multimedia environments. Current directions in psychological science, 15(2), 63-67.
7. Moreno, R., & Mayer, R. E. (2002). Learning science in virtual reality multimedia environments: Role of methods and media. Journal of educational psychology, 94(3), 598.
8. Mukti, N. A., & Hwa, S. P. (2004). Malaysian perspective: Designing interactive multimedia learning environment for moral values education. Journal of Educational Technology & Society, 7(4), 143-152.
9. Rahman, H. (2014). The Role of ICT in Open and Distance Education. Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education, 15(4), 162-169.
10. Sandholtz, J. H. (1997). Teaching with technology: Creating student-centered classrooms. Teachers College Press, Teachers College, Columbia University, 1234 Amsterdam Ave., New York, NY 10027.
11.  Songer, N. B., & Linn, M. C. (1991). How do students' views of science influence knowledge integration?. Journal of research in science teaching, 28(9), 761-784.
12. Standing, L. (1973). Learning 10000 pictures. The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology, 25(2), 207-222.
13. Thurman, R. A., & Russo, T. (2000). Using virtual reality for training. Aircrew training and assessment, 85-103.  

By: Muhammad Muzammal

     Centre of Biochemistry and Biotechnology

 Gomal University, Dera Ismail Khan, KP, Pakistan