N. V. Varghese - Teaching Learning and New Technologies in Higher Education

Understanding teaching, learning, and the use of technology in improving, facilitating the process require in-depth understanding of the issue, which also helps investigating it with references of different contexts and from various standpoints. One of the important global trends in higher education in this century is the intensification of competition for reputation and the institutional reputation is based on the perceived quality of education imparted by higher education institutions. Modern digital technologies and widespread information have also added another dimension to this. And as a result, teachers are no longer seen as knowledge providers but more like mentors and facilitators of learning. Students also require to process, analyze, and make use of the information available, rather than to memorize it. Realizing these, the majority of developed nations have taken steps to revamp teachinglearning and integrate technology with the process in a coherent manner. In developing countries, including India, it is gradually becoming an emerging area of research. This chapter argues that there is a serious need to focus on the teaching processes, device robust feedback mechanism from different stakeholders, and continuous analytical insights to understand the changing needs before suggesting reform measures. There is also a need to re-examine faculty development. It should evolve to incorporate the new technological developments and use them effectively to facilitate learning. These reforms require a series of innovative and well-calibrated steps, and as of now, there is no single successful model, which stands out from the rest. Experimentations are going on all over the world to find suitable context-specific solutions.