Colleges Must Upgrade Their Technology Training for Students

Technology in Higher Education

Why use Technology in a College Classroom?

Author Linda B. Nilson does not posit that technology suits all student needs nor does she assert that technology is helpful to all types of students. But in a survey involving 882 college students (from Texas, North Carolina, and New York State), 99% had a cell phone, 90% owned a laptop computer, and 83% owned an MP3 player (Baker, et al., 2012). Given the overwhelming number of students in this survey (41.2% were female and 58.8% were male) who use technology regularly, it can be assumed that for the most part students would be comfortable with the use of technology in a college classroom (Baker, 2012).

Nilson does explain that technology enhances students' productivity and also allows them to work at the pace they are most comfortable with. Increasingly instructors show a willingness to provide students with computer-based tutorials, and many instructors understand that by offering students technology literacy, they broaden students' employee opportunities once they graduate (Nilson, 2010). Thesis: while it is not the duty of college instructors to be up to speed on the most advanced technologies, it is vitally important that students acquire technological savvy and competencies as part of their major field of study.

Teaching 21st Century College Students to Teach Technologies

Meanwhile, college instructors should be aware that what students learn about technology through higher education impacts what they will take with them, especially if they plan to go into teaching. That is because young people in elementary, middle and high school environments must be given an opportunity to develop a core of foundational skills in information and communication technologies, it is vital that colleges and universities teach future teachers these same skills. Author Victor Wang asserts that today's children are being exposed to a tremendous amount of technology outside the classroom, and hence, when they enter a typical middle school or high school classroom they are literally walking back in time (Wang, 2014). Writing in the Handbook of Research on Education, Wang explains that there are technological advances in today's middle school and high school classrooms, but just because technologies are on hand that doesn't assure that students are leaving classrooms with the necessary skills that can help them succeed in college and in life (Wang, 2014).

And this is where the universities that train teachers enter into the picture. Wang references a study that shows the six barriers that prevent the full integration of technology into schools and classrooms: a) resources; b) skills and knowledge; c) institutional shortcomings; d) beliefs and attitudes; e) inadequate assessments strategies; and f) subject culture (Wang, 2014). In another study recent university graduates in teacher training programs were polled on what they learned and how they feel about the future; it was revealed that these graduates felt a strong sense of self vis-a-vis the content they covered, but as to technology, the majority admitted they were not as comfortable in that realm (Wang, 2014). Hence, a call to action is necessary, Wang continues, because adequate technology training should be required in every college classroom.

Another issue to be addressed, according to Wang, is the assessment of university faculty; how competent are they to teach and model their instruction using technology during the full teaching training program? One problem with Middle Childhood Education courses for pre-service teachers is that the only time they are heavily exposed to the use of leading edge technologies is the final semester of the program (Wang, 2014). It is of little value for a pre-service teacher to use software called chalk and wire to create an online portfolio, then load that personal portfolio on a flash drive so they can show potential employers how attractively they performed when it came to their assignments (Wang, 2014). Simply learning and using technologies that may advance their career is not effective when it comes to being ready to integrate technologies into future middle and high school classrooms.

Moreover, university instructors must realize that just teaching technology theories is not even going half way to actually giving students hands-on learning opportunities. Pre-service teachers need to see the theories and applications modeled, which will in turn give those students the skill to implement them in future classrooms.

Universities are Falling Behind in Digital Learning

A global culture based on continuous learning and driven by new technologies -- that vision can become the world's future as identified by many scholars, researchers, journalists and progressive thinkers in academia. But in order to arrive at a future in which today's college and university students are prepared to participate in meaningful ways to planet-wide social, environmental and economic problems, higher education must embrace technological change to a greater degree than they are at present. Professor William E. Bertrand, of Tulane University, insists that solutions to ongoing problems like global climate change, serious health pandemics like Ebola, and political / ethnic conflicts cannot be achieved without a radical redesign of higher education (Bertrand, 2010). The professor insists that an educational movement that is technology-based and emulates the original goals of land-grant colleges -- a mid-nineteenth century initiative that was signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln as the Morrill Act of 1862. Land-grants gave states the resources to build colleges that offered practical training in agriculture and the mechanical and industrial arts.

Instead of agriculture and mechanical arts -- skills which were seriously lacking prior to and following the Civil War (nearly 80% of the workforce consisted of farmers and artisans) -- today's great needs at the college and university level are linked to technology (Bertrand, 2010). If such a revolution in the greater use of technology at higher education institutions were to come about, and if it were tied to an aggressive research agenda, positive results could transition into immediate and positive action on a global level (Bertrand, 2010).

Moreover, Bertrand takes a hard line when it comes to his perception that universities are becoming increasingly irrelevant to a world that is interconnected on a global level. The professor believes that arrogance on an institutional level has resulted in a pathological resistance to evidence-based change (Bertrand, 2010). He also blames aging professors that are locked into old pedagogical precepts and seemingly ignorant when it comes to new technologies. He further believes that important components of the information revolution have been ignored or simply rejected by higher education, in large part because of what he calls academic ethnocentrism (Bertrand, 2010). In other words, his assertion is that academicians and administrators believe that their approach and their attitudes toward education are superior to others, who call for greater emphasis on the use of technology as part of the cutting edge training that college students should be receiving.