Digital Pedagogical - Literature review Example

Digital Pedagogical Review Name: University: Date: Digital Pedagogical Review Background and Context In their study, Robertson and Al-Zahrani (2012) determined how general self-efficacy is perceived by the pre-service teachers with respect to ICTs integration in their prospective as well as current pedagogical approaches. They also determined whether the perceived self-efficacy is related to the ability to access a computer at the Institution of higher education as well as their computer qualifications and prior computer experience. The authors maintain that ICTs have been integrated effectively into people’s day-to-day life, but in the developing countries, the dissemination of the expertise remains uneven. The public policy utilised to support the new technologies development in Saudi Arabia according to the authors is very strong in every facet of day-to-day life, which includes the education sector. Still, the higher education’s teaching content and approaches have failed to rival the common societal trends in developing and developed countries. In their digital pedagogical model, the authors incorporate two crucial concepts; self-efficacy and pedagogical change. Robertson and Al-Zahrani (2012) posit that the success factors for ICTs integration in learning and teaching at the universities exhibit a multifaceted combination of new and old paradigms. The existing literature on ICTs adoption in Saudi Arabia’s higher education as cited by Robertson and Al-Zahrani (2012) exhibits the significance of perceived and actual self-efficacy in the new paradigms. The study involved approximately 325 Saudi pre-service teachers from King Abdulaziz University’s education faculty. The authors established that the participant’s computer skill levels were very high and their self-efficacy perceptions as instructors at universities improved their computer qualifications as well as computer experience. Such findings connote that many pre-service teachers in Saudi Arabia exposed, trained and have access to ICTs and computers successfully improved their computing habits, motivation, and self-efficacy. Still, there is some perceptual gap that can be solved by innovative pedagogies, strategic and sympathetic leadership, and effective curriculum design. The digital pedagogical tool suggested by Robertson and Al-Zahrani (2012) have been espoused in numerous countries like Australia, United Kingdom, the United States, and Germany. The world’s geographically complex and most populous countries like India and China have also adopted technologies in their higher education teaching and learning process. The connection between perceived self-efficacy as well as teaching practices with the view to the emerging information communication technologies depicts present practices within the educational settings. Robertson and Al-Zahrani (2012) further established that developing economies like Saudi Arabia have initiated a change process towards ICTs in the higher education. Still, there is a challenge attributed to the conventional ‘expert’ steered techniques where the instructors are considered as the knowledge source, but are not compatible with the ICTs’ interactive nature as well as their powerful search engines. Basically, the knowledge revolution attributed to the accessibility of ICTs provides leading edges to knowledge in different directions. In Saudi Arabia, Robertson and Al-Zahrani (2012) observed some differences between institutions of higher education based on infrastructure since the majority of them are newly instituted. A number of the old universities are still positioned in old structures; thus, they do not have suitable infrastructure to support ICTs education model. Still, numerous ICT tools could help improve the teaching and learning techniques; thus, improving teachers and students’ outcomes. Critical Appraisal Although Robertson and Al-Zahrani’s model seeks to address knowledge production, technological and cultural issues, it was not completely effective. The authors agree that change introduction into the system is somewhat easy, but making sure that change flows into the classroom is very challenging. I concur with the authors that integrating ICTs in the educational paradigms cannot happen ‘overnight’. In Saudi Arabia’s universities, the introduction of Internet as enormously influenced the use of ICT, particularly in the development of e-Learning. As mentioned by Alturise and Alojaiman (2013), the government of Saudi Arabia has exhibited some commitments in facilitating and promoting the dissemination of eLearning systems into the Saudi institutions of higher education. Still, Alturise and Alojaiman (2013) posit that there are some existing problems like the large religious, cultural and geographical segregation reasons based on some issues such as gender. In agreement with Alturise and Alojaiman (2013), Robertson and Al-Zahrani (2012) assert that the Saudi Arabian government has emphasised four crucial demands: expansion of the Arabic online content; expansion as well as improvement of the present ICT infrastructure; reducing the digital gap that exists between the nation’s segments; and using the e-government concept. Furthermore, the government has made efforts to improve digital pedagogy in the educational sector through the formulation of the Ten Year Plan between 2004 and 2014. The plan includes developing goals of the infrastructure needed for the digital technology to be included into the Saudi Arabia’s education system. I concur with Alturise and Alojaiman (2013) that integrating ICT in learning and teaching involves incorporating different pedagogical philosophies and approaches. Still, ICT as a digital pedagogy is complex since it requires certain skills from the societies, individuals and institutions. Alturise and Alojaiman (2013) agree with Robertson and Al-Zahrani (2012) that the increasing adoption of ICTs has consequently changed the instruction paradigm. The most common barrier that administrators in the institutions of higher education face lack the time to train on how to utilise ICT; resulting in ICT integration failure into higher education’s curriculum. Besides that, lack of adequate technical support and poor Internet access connotes that universities’ instructors cannot utilise the ICT in the classroom setting. Mulhim (2014) support Robertson and Al-Zahrani assertion that ICT inclusion in the higher education is obstructed by either school or teacher-related barriers. Teacher-level barriers according to Mulhim (2014) include the attitude of the teachers towards ICT, change resistance, insufficient time, poor technology skills and knowledge, and self-doubt in utilising technology. School-level barriers, on the other hand, include inadequate technical support, technology inaccessibility, poor training, costly software and hardware, and so forth. Technology integration into Saudi schools as mentioned by Mulhim (2014) is limited because of Internet unavailability and lack of hardware. I subscribe to Alfahad (2012) argument that utilisation of ICT in education is crucially important since it enables the students understand ICT and improves the teaching standards. Given that the modern-day society has become more and more reliant on IT, Alfahad (2012) believes that it is imperative for all people to gain knowledge about IT. However, the decision by the teacher to include ICT in teaching is influenced by internal factors (individual anxiety, feelings, beliefs, perceptions, preferences and fears) and external factors (institutional support, the size of the class, and faculty demographics, particularly gender and age. All in all, I believe that digital technology conveys positive overtones that ICT can result in education transformation. Player-Koro (2012) asserts that individuals use belief systems to regulate their behaviour, especially in terms of self-efficacy as well as personal efficacy. Therefore, the student or teacher’s perception of his/her ability to utilise ICTs competently has been described by Player-Koro (2012) as computer self-efficacy, judging one’s ability to successfully use skills to far-reaching tasks, like advancing education. This form of self-efficacy according to Player-Koro (2012) influences the choice of people concerning the usage and espousal of the computer. Robertson and Al-Zahrani (2012) maintains that self-efficacy defines whether capabilities, as well as tools, can be utilised to undertake certain tasks. Player-Koro (2012) agrees that improving self-efficacy can consequently enhance the academic performance of the learners and also the education environment. ICT is without a doubt an important digital pedagogy since it improves the flexibility of education delivery allowing the students to access knowledge ubiquitously. As indicated by Noor-Ul-Amin (2013) ICT could influence the how instructors teach as well as how students learn. In consequence, this prepares the learners effectively for long-term learning and improves learning quality. Noor-Ul-Amin (2013) argues that educational programs that are facilitated by technology normally reduce temporal limitations that special needs’ students normally face. Clearly, ICT-facilitated learning and teaching result in education democratisation, particularly in developing economies such as Saudi Arabia. Application to My Own Professional Context The paradigm presented by Robertson and Al-Zahrani (2012) depicts the global ICT adoption patterns in the education systems and seems to be very promising. Still, ICT has not been integrated effectively in Saudi Arabia’s education system; thus, the country is fallen behind the other developing economies. Therefore, I think it would be valuable for teacher training as well as preparation in terms of technologies to be improved in Saudi Arabia. Given that the traditional pedagogy approaches are still practised and accepted extensively in Saudi Arabia, I concur with Robertson and Al-Zahrani (2012) that the prospect of effectively integrating ICTs into the education system is very low. This is attributed to issues such as training, Internet accessibility, computer affordability, and technical support. I believe that the ICT model can remove the aforementioned barriers if implemented effectively with a backing of government policy. Furthermore, using the ICT-enhanced model could help solve issues such as cost, poor education quality, as well as distance and time-related barriers. From a professional perspective, I think both teachers and students in Saudi Arabia should access knowledge through ICT in order to stay abreast with the state-of-the-art developments. In addition, ICT could be utilised to get rid of communication-based barriers like time and space. In my view, ICTs could be used to create digital resources such as digital libraries that could facilitate the professionals, teachers and students to easily gain access to the course material as well as research material ubiquitously. These digitalised facilities would ease networking of researchers as well as academics; thus, promote sharing of academic material and prevent work duplication. Using ICT in education is important since it reduces time-related barriers for both teachers and learners and also eradicates the geographical barriers give that students can access education materials anywhere and anytime. I believe that Robertson and Al-Zahrani’s suggested ICT if improved to meet the Saudi Arabia’s cultural, religious and geographical factors can offer novel approaches to education. It may offer rapid education dissemination to the target population and could improve the Saudi’s educational services’ international dimension. Utilising ICTs in education generates improved skills like problem solving and collaborative skills. More importantly, it enables the student to understand their world of learning and get prepared for the new digitalised economy and society. Personally, I have observed that teachers who use ICT to teach are always motivated and consequently their performance improve. Furthermore, using technology does not only improve teaching, but also learning and the development of crucial skills. Integrating ICT in Saudi Arabia’s education system would improve the education quality through learning facilitation using critical thinking, real time dialogue, self-learning, directed instruction, and so forth. I concur with Robertson and Al-Zahrani (2012) that ICT has presented a completely new teaching and learning environment; therefore, creates the need for new set of skills. For instance, evaluation, research, in addition to critical thinking skills have become more crucial as learners have a vast amount of information from different digital sources to scrutinise. Clearly, a number of countries have integrated ICT into their education system; as a result, learning and teaching processes has been changed through the addition of different vitality elements to learning surroundings. Clearly, ICT model suggested in Robertson and Al-Zahrani is an effective tool that can be used to offer educational opportunities in Saudi Arabia. I find it challenging to fathom or imagine a learning environment that is not technologically enhanced. Considering that ICT has been disseminated widely in the contemporary societies, particularly by the digital generation. For that reason, it is clear that the learning environment would be affected in one way or another by the ICTs in the present day and in the coming years. For ICT to be successful in the education, I think that authenticity is in the learning environments’ design as well as development should be addressed effectively. Furthermore, the learning environments must depict the possible utilisation of knowledge gained by the students to facilitate in preventing the gained knowledge from turning out to be inert. Moreover, the instructors must motivate their students to take part in the construction of active knowledge. This can be achieved in the learning environments that are open-ended rather than those that place emphasis on the mere facts transmission. Undoubtedly, ICT offers both students and teachers opportunities to access lots of educational information through different education resources and they can also view the information from different point of view; hence, promoting learning environments’ authenticity. I believe that a well-established ICT could make multifaceted education processes much easier to fathom by means of simulations, which bring about authenticity in the learning environments. Therefore, ICT serves as an active learning facilitator and promotes co-operative reflection as well as learning regarding the content. References Read More