Using Technology to Enhance the Learning

Experience

Modern education is like being taken to the world's

greatest restaurant & being forced to eat the menu.

— Murray Gell-Mann American physicist who

received the 1969 Nobel Prize in Physics

Any discussion on effectiveness of the learning

ecosystem and how it can be enhanced needs to be
preceded by examining the very origin of the modern
education system.
This mass education as it happens in schools and
colleges is a product of the industrial era. Schools
were factories designed to churn out a workforce
geared to work in the booming factories that were
coming up across Europe and later the rest of the
world.

An environment for children in which they could be

trained to be obedient, to follow orders, and to
perform highly monotonous tasks without rebelling.
The founders of modern mass schooling decided, in
addition, to use the time children spent in school to
impart to them, through endless drill, some skills
that were deemed useful in a thriving industrial
environment. The three Rs—reading, writing,
arithmetic—were seen to provide a work force that
could understand basic instructions, engage in
rudimentary written communication, and perform
simple office functions, thus creating a skilled mass
workforce.
Cut to the present where the purpose of education in
schools and other institutions of higher education is
vastly different. However the format in which the
learning is imparted is still the same and little has
changed in the last almost 250 years.
We still have the same scenario where a teacher is
trying to impart learning to a large group of
students in a standardized, one size fits all
approach.
We have made significant progress in understanding
learning as a phenomenon with learning theories,
instructional design strategies and even a
specialized are of brain function study called
educational neuroscience. However to rollout these
strategies and techniques we not only need to have
well trained faculty but also need a mechanism to
support the faculty to do so.
It is virtually impossible for the professor to
observe and track individual learning styles ,
customize learning and evaluate and give personalized
feedback on a continuous basis through out the
students learning journey, because of the time and
effort it requires is way beyond the capacity of an
individual human being.
Thankfully the way technology is evolving and rapid
development and availability of a vast array of Ed-
Tech tools many of which use AI, this is now
feasible.
A Learning Management System (LMS) has now become an
integral part of University, College and Corporate L
& D ecosystems. Over the years a whole range of
technology enhanced learning and assessment tools
have also emerged. An LMS which supports Learning
Tools Interoperability (LTI) can incorporate and
integrate these tools seamlessly to provide a richer
learning experience.
However, the critical question that needs to be
answered is does this result in improved learning
impact and effectiveness.
Successfully integrating technology does not result
from isolating and focusing solely on technology
issues but rather from infusing technology into the
overall institution culture.
As in the case of every other domain Technology in
education environments should be used to address
specific problems. Technology should not be used for
technology’s sake. Technology is most effective when
used for the specific purpose of:
• Improving the learning outcomes for students
• Solving problems for instructors or students
Ed-Tech is a now a very critical component for
effective delivery of learning for Higher Education
Institutions.
Technology can open up many new possibilities which
were not possible in the traditional Classroom
environment. Technology can:
 Provide access to resources and material not
possible in the classroom
 Enable the kind of evaluation , support and
analysis of the student performance which was
physically impossible for a professor teaching a
batch of 60 students to do
 Personalize the learning experience as per the
individual students learning style , preference
and competency level. Which is again impossible
for a professor to do in a classroom environment
without using technology.
Hence we need to be clear on what is it we are trying
to achieve.
Learning and Teaching
Learning and Teaching are both very complex
processes.
Human learning is distinguished by the range and
complexity of skills that can be learned and the
degree of abstraction that can be achieved compared
to other species.
In order to be effective teachers need to know and do
a spectacular array of things
These include understanding many things about how
people learn and how to teach effectively, including
aspects of pedagogical content knowledge that
incorporate language, culture, and community
contexts for learning. Teachers also need to
understand the person, the spirit, of every child
and find a way to nurture that spirit. And they
need the skills to construct and manage classroom
activities efficiently, communicate well,
use technology, and reflect on their practice to
learn from and improve it continually.
we can design the learning ecosystem and effectively
use available technology solutions to address these
challenges and create an engaging , effective
learning ecosystem.
No doubt his will mean incurring of some expenditure,
but when you look at the unrestricted reach of online
learning and the advantages that Technology Enhanced
learning will being to the table. These expenses will
be more than justified.
At the center of the Learning Ecosystem , you need a
good Learning Management System (LMS) which is
ideally Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI)
complaint.
Some of the already available technology you can use
are:
# Tool/Technology Functionality
1. Summary Street Summary Street . . . will compare
your summary to the original text.
It will tell you how well your
summary covers the information in
the original text. It will tell
you if your summary is too
long for a good summary. It will
also give you advice on how to
improve your summary.

Summary Street . . . is

experimental software. It is not
perfect and it cannot understand
everything you write. It cnnot
recognize what you mean by
misspelled words, so be sure to
check your summary for spelling
before submitting your summary to
request feedback.

2. Automated Essay MI’s industry-leading automated

Scoring essay scoring system is able to
automatically score a variety of
constructed response items and can
work with any number of predefined
score-point ranges and rubric
definitions. PEG® is currently
being used to provide scores in
both summative assessments and
formative assessments.

Project Essay Grade (PEG®)

3. Technology According to the Smarter Balanced

Enhanced Items Assessment Consortium, a
Technology-Enhanced Item is a
computer-delivered item that
includes specialized interactions
for collecting response data.
These include interactions and
responses beyond traditional
selected-response or constructed-
# Tool/Technology Functionality
response.

TEIs have been specifically

designed to encourage students to
construct an answer as opposed to
merely selecting a response. They
require students to think
critically, and thus, they gain a
better understanding of a
student’s depth of understanding
and knowledge of a particular
topic.

These are just a few examples, based on the specific

path you want to follow a lot can be done.