As practitioners, integration of technology into education is of paramount interest to both the educators and parents. But how do we know about technology, how do we define the daily concept of technology?

Now different faculties explain technology differently depending on the focus. Aligned to today’s  topic, we will go with the simplistic version of defining technology as; a means of applying scientific knowledge to practical problems.

And integration being the act of combining different aspects together to form a whole. Within these two definitions, we have three important aspects that have to be incorporated to achieve better educational results.

These include; creating, using and managing the appropriate processes and resources to facilitate learning and improving performance. This has been supported by research studies in education which highlight the impact of this combination in facilitating student learning,

Despite this comprehensive point of view, public perspective incorporates technology in education as a synonym for computer technology. In other words, technology means computers in the minds of many.

This perception shallows the whole concept to simply access to hardware rather than a combination of both hardware access i.e. computers, radios etc and effective pedagogy as one particular medium. 

Proper pedagogical processes and professional developments have to be facilitated by the proper use of hardware resources reflected in the student’s ability to access information outside the classroom.

Around the country, the government is encouraging teachers to use technology to create exciting and creative learning environments where students teach and learn from each other, solve problems, and collaborate on projects that put learning in a real-world.

So far this is evident in the government’s strategy of placing new technological media in real classroom settings. So far this has managed to operate with various factors in place. 

However, the technology integrated has not fully guaranteed the anticipated results, there might be challenges along the way such as personal attitudes of teachers, little information on usage and inability to effectively use the resources in line with the curriculum.

These could be real issues within the education system. Therefore, teachers have to be facilitated to come up with a strategies or pedagogies to make the provided technological equipment work in their favour as they look to finish the loaded curriculum.

Thus like most educationists say, wise use of technology takes adequate training, time, planning, and support and teacher ownership. May all educationists at all levels embrace the saying as we drive towards Vision 2020.

The writer is school-based mentor