Though we all are living in the 21st century, people are still not using technology to the full extent. Colleges and institutes still practice the traditional ways of accomplishing their work. However, what most of them don’t realise is that using technology can make their job much easier. We had a list of all commerce colleges in Pune and other areas along with some engineering colleges to survey how they used technology to their benefit. The results were not as good as we expected. So here are some ways in which colleges can make good use of Technology.
Use technology in teaching process
I wonder why people still use blackboards in this digital age. Instead of choosing blackboards to write and draw something, a video can be much interesting way of elaborating things. Learning from video or power point presentation can make students much more interested in the concepts and will help them focus for a longer period of time. And the best part of using digital resources is, it can be easily distributed to everyone for future reference. Moreover, it saves time if we compare it with copying notes from the blackboard. Apart from that, the tutor can give live practical examples in the classroom to enhance interaction and boost curiosity.
Embed Tech in various task
Apart from studies college has to carry out various tasks like keeping a record of attendance, or display notice. This all is done manually on paper which again consumes time and paper of course. So to avoid this, open source services like Moodle can be used to manage the different tasks by making a user account for each student. This account can be used to display the track record of the student to parents or may be student themselves. Recording the attendance directly from mobile can help keep a central directory for all the files. Noticeboards can be replaced by digital LCDs or LEDs to spread notices and updates quickly. Managing Library records or railway concessions can be achieved by the same which will give more convenience to everybody and save time. Lastly replacing the traditional ID cards with the new RFID cards can again prove to be useful in integration with the existing system.
Encourage the use of Internet
I have seen many institutes blocking use of the Internet and other devices in the college premises. I can say one thing to all such institutes that Internet is something which you can’t prevent so it’s better you embrace it. Instead of restricting, encourage students to use Internet in every task they perform. Because that is the future they will live in where everything is connected to the grid. Provide them with Internet Lab where they can study more about the subjects and expose them to the vast array of knowledge. By this, I don’t mean that you allow them to misuse it. You can use various software and firewalls to block certain social networking website and other inappropriate websites to increase the productivity.
Make Resources Online
One basic benefit you get when you shift to digital resources is saving paper. Being an engineering student, I know the pain of writing worthless assignments and wasting lot of paper. Instead, students should be made to submit their findings from the practical sessions online on some platform like moodle which I mentioned earlier. Also there are many websites which provide free online courses like Coursera, Udemy, for programming Code Academy etc which can be used by more enthusiastic students. Apart from that, other study materials can be made digital and distributed easily across all students in no time. Making a college app along with website will surely help student to stay in touch with the academics.
So these are some ways in which colleges can embrace the advance technology instead of avoiding it. This will save time, paper, efforts and make the task much more easy. You may argue that using technology will increase the cost, but having a look at engineering and other courses fee I highly doubt that will be an issue. Let me know if you are in favour of using technology in Education sector or not, and if you have your inputs please mention them in the comment section below.