Academics Urged To Embrace Technology To Boost Educational Standard

 

Kazeem Badmus

UNIVERSITY lecturers have been charged to key into the far-reaching benefits of 21st-century technology to build an effective relationship with their students and engender innovative strategies that will make teaching, research and assessment easy.

A Professor of African Literature, Oral poetics And Performance, Ademola Dasylva of the Department of English, Faculty of Arts, University of Ibadan, stated this on Tuesday at a Workshop on Teaching, Research and Professional Ethics held at the College of Humanities and Culture, Osun State University, Ikire.

Rephrasing the Registrar, National Teachers Council, Professor Olusegun Ajiboye who was seen on a video speaking on professional ethics, Dasylva, who was the Keynote Speaker at the event, also charged the academics to blend with the current wave of knowledge and develop the abilities to teach all learners with different needs. 

He noted that to effectively get the best from the students, periodic and strategic evaluative methods must be put in place to mitigate the effects of poor learning outcomes. 

Professor Olusegun Ajiboye had in the said video maintained that “as a 21st-century teacher, you must be able to implement technologies in teaching so that you can ultimately deploy the tools to teaching and deliver effective learning. 

“Teaching and Learning warrants a high level of professional knowledge and skills. Teachers must adapt the new trends to make products that can effectively compete, the world over.” 

He likened students to raw materials and added that those who are expected to turn them into products (graduates) must be mindful of what they do, their attitudes and how they teach, stressing that “premium must be placed on continuous assessment and evaluation to establish a sordid framework to facilitate quality assurance and products after exiting the University system.

In his presentation titled, “Pathfinding the Scholar,” the Head of Department, History and International Studies, Osun State University, Ikire Campus, Dr Tunde Decker, encouraged the scholars to uphold the tenets of ethics, integrity, originality and raise the bar to be able to compete favourably with their counterparts across the globe.

He said: “There is no doubting the fact that we are faced with a retinue of challenges as academics in Africa. We have a lot to do. That is not to say we are not doing anything. Let us continue to do our best in research and ethical considerations. We must continue to give our best despite the hindrances that we have.

“Teachers in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities must inculcate the right norms, values and ethics to the students so that they can be better placed in knowledge, character and culture. We have a lot to do.

“The strength of every academic is in what they deliver and churn out to their students. We must be ethical, professional and diligent in what we do. We must not fail in our responsibility to bring out the best in the people we teach. 

“We must be conscious of what we say and do, as authorities in our fields of endeavour. Our discipline and high sense of commitment to whatever we do are highly important.”