Technology for Teachers: Opportunities, Part 1

Working as an information officer (an administrative support, non-IT position) at the University of the Philippines—while I myself have a background in communication, management and training—I have observed that even the premier tertiary educational institution in the country has yet to better appreciate (that is, understand, value and use) the opportunities of technology for teaching.

I am not exactly an advocate of distance learning as I appreciate that existing systems and culture cannot handle full e-learning applications or solutions. Teachers or faculty, however, are not using the full functionality of an Internet-enabled computer for more effective learning.

Situation
While I do not have statistics or formal studies to support my statement, I have the courage to say that faculty members at UP Manila do not use information technologies available to them. Take a look at the classrooms or the lesson plans (if there is one available) and you will see that IT-supported teaching functions are only on audio-visual presentation (which is limited to non-interactive presentations), basic interpersonal communication (like email and announcements through e-Groups) and basic grade recording system (the spreadsheet). Even faculty of computer science have yet to know more about the opportunities available—most of them free!

There are few who use blogs, but these are just for announcements and getting feedback.

In short, opportunities are present and numerous. We just need to learn how to use it—and even this is not that difficult.

(A lot of faculty members from UP Manila know the Internet but fail to use it for their tasks, often giving the excuse of difficulty of learning how to use it. I beg to disagree as practically all online systems available are intuitive and have available tutorials. For example, I created a basic customer contact management system for my training for call center wanna-bes even though I have no training in programming nor database management systems! I guess it is just a matter of humility to admit that there is something else you can learn, or plain laziness in pursuit of professional growth due to pursuit of personal pleasures.)

Enough with my personal opinion. Let's go to the different teaching functions (that I know from experience) and see what technology or technologies are available for you. They are usually free.

Basic Teaching Functions
This is where you would see teachers really use the information technology, but even here, there are other opportunities available.

• Audio-Visual Presentations - Most teachers use information technology for audio-visual presentations, like presenting their reports, lectures, and important points. Audio-visual presentations, however, should be used as support and should not replace the experience of the lecturer or speaker. Interactive presentations, however, have to be improved. For example, Microsoft Powerpoint has options for using links which can be compounded to be used for games.
• Records management - When I first became a trainer for ROTC (Reserve Officer Training Corps), I immediately saw the need to automatically calculate the grades of cadets. There is also a need to create a profile of the student population. A spreadsheet software will help here. There are, however, other functions that can be added, besides managing records of students. We'll look into this in the section for learning management system.
• Interpersonal and Group Communication -Email, instant messaging (chat) and electronic groups are useful here. However, these are not used effectively as they can be compounded with online presentations and storage of files. You can also use social networking sites, blogs and other Web 2.0 technologies.
  

I will stop here. Watch out for my next post which should discuss the following:

A Bit Advanced Functions
Blogging and RSS
Social Networking
Website Publishing

Advanced Functions but Still Easy-to-Learn Systems
Online Document Creation and Collaboration
Online Brainstorming
Learning Management System (LMS)
Niche Social Networking
Project management
Research
Collaboration
Web Conferences
Web Meetings
Webcasts and Online Stored Presentations
Sharing Information and Wikis
Simulations
Others!

If you have more ideas, please do not hesitate to add your comment or email me at info.casupm@gmail.com. You can also view my mindmap for this article here.