USE OF CUTTING-EDGE TECHNOLOGIES FOR EFFECTIVE TEACHING AND LEARNING ENVIRONMENT IN HIGHER EDUCATION

It is a high time that teacher educators and institutions realize to extend educational technology field ahead of its present focus and build up a strong perceptive of pedagogical matter. The educational technology field desires to accomplish and reach out, not only to teacher training institutions. By pooling up resources with our teacher education colleagues, we can increase the power of educational technology and cure any possible rifts earlier than they occur especially technology verses teachers. Teacher Training Institutions and organizations all over the world especially in Pakistan are moving ahead of traditional teaching practices and putting their efforts in order to integrate the curriculum with modern technology for desired learning outcomes. The function of education technology is constantly increasing from Overhead projectors to smart boards to smartphone apps that allow better interaction between teacher and students in the classroom. A variety of features of educational technology fitting as inbuilt part of the educational experience for students, teachers, parents, and management. Some institutes have started training of their faculty members so that they can take advantages of technology and connect their teaching with it effectively to get optimal results. However, there is still a school of thought that still believes that technology might distract students’ attention from the main subject. There are teachers who do not want to come out of their comfort zones and believe that technology is being given unnecessary importance in teacher education. On the other hand there is a thought amongst many teachers that integration of technology is a need of time and it can bring a world of learning in front of students. Students will have knowledge and information of new trends in pedagogical content knowledge on their fingertips. As a result they can achieve their learning outcomes in a better way and will be able to develop an effective communication with their students. Reflecting on the present scenario about the use of technology in teacher training institutions in Pakistan, it is observed that use of mobiles, tabs and laptops have enriched students’ interest and attention. They feel comfortable to connect to the available resource on internet and reflect upon it on whatsapp and telegram groups of their class. They feel comfortable to take pictures instead of copying from board. The paper discusses the need, effectiveness and impact of using and integrating technology in teacher education. In this connection the author has reviewed and analyzed relevant literature about the impact and benefits of integrating technology in teacher educations. Author has also got an opportunity to teach in different universities of teacher education that helped in linking the ideas with literature. The author has found out that use of technology in teacher education maximizes students’ learning and interest and leads to active participation. However, many of the faculty members in teacher education universities and institutions particularly public sector, are not fully aware and user friendly of technology and its gadgets. They specifically do not have a clear understanding of integrating the technology with their teaching.