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Leveraging digital technology for meaningful learning
Training is still needed in the post-pandemic era for teachers to create learning methods that harness educational technology and places students as the main, active actors in the process.
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A student interacts with a human body model during a life cycle exhibition organized by the Health Ministry in Bandung, West Java on Sept. 9, 2024. (Antara/Novrian Arbi )
D
igital technology in education has long been practiced and reached its peak when the COVID-19 pandemic struck the world. Teachers were quickly required to shift to online teaching methods, utilizing digital technology such as teleconferencing applications and Learning Management Systems (LMS).
This trend continues in the post-pandemic era. However, the extent to which technology is truly enhancing learning remains a question and requires deeper investigation.
A survey on 2,773 in-service teachers and 410 preservice teachers conducted by Chaeruman et al. (2019) revealed that 38 percent of in-service teachers are still unable to distinguish modern learning methods and 4 percent are unaware of modern instructional designs.
This finding indicates the need to equip teachers with competencies in using technology in education.
Using technology for education is different from using technology in education. The former may simply mean employing technology to meet current demands.
For example, a teacher may use advanced technology such as artificial intelligence or presentation applications with sophisticated features. However, if the teaching method remains the same, with the teacher lecturing and students listening passively, followed by practice questions for exams, it cannot be said that the teacher is using technology in a way that genuinely fosters learning.
On the other hand, using technology in education means integrating technology and pedagogy. In this sense, there is no dichotomy between technology and pedagogy: It is not a matter of pedagogy first, and then technology, as in the English dictum "the pedagogical horse before the technology cart" (Tsui and Tavares, 2020).
