The technology development witnessed nowadays has approached every aspect of our lives. These aspects have benefitted from such development in different manners. One of the aspects which are worth mentioning in the field of education. Education, in general, has benefitted from technological development in a way that facilitated the educational process and at the same time expanded the ways by which the information could be delivered. Nevertheless, the diversity of technological resources could imply the existence of certain inconveniences such as the instructors’ lack of knowledge in using every technology resource available. This essay approaches the possible solutions for this problem along with providing a possible recommendation in regards to one of these solutions.
The first possible solution is the institution of a training program for all levels of technology which should be mandatory for all instructors. Speaking of the advantages of such an approach, such implementation will raise the technological knowledge of the instructors along with keeping the students up to date with the latest tools of IT development. Such a method will allow the educational institution to implement the latest technology resources which in turn not only raise the educational level of the students and the instructors but also could raise the academic reputation of the institution itself among other competitors. It should be noted that such an approach also has disadvantages among which the financial aspect could be named as the most important. As the technological resources are changing every day by leaps and bounds, it could be noticed that educational institutions will have large expenditures, as training programs should be changed regularly. In that sense, any training program could become useless as soon as the institution implements new technology which requires specific training.
The second possible solution is the replacement of all different technological tools with unified ones and forming a certain standard in such educational resources. Due to certain financial requirements, such an approach will require establishing donation programs that will help to raise funds that will cover the cost of the aforementioned replacement. The advantages of this solution address the problem of the diversity in the technological resources creating a unified standard that will eliminate the constant need for new training programs. Addressing the possible need for hardware and software updates, this issue could be solved by implementing a module-like approach where only small parts of the tools would be updated. In that manner, new resources will be implemented based on the existing standards without the need for mandatory training programs.
Assessing the two solutions two aspects should be kept in mind, i.e. the costs and the need for modernization. In that sense, it could be noticed that the solution of replacing the resources with a unified technology addresses both of these aspects. In terms of the financial aspect, the donation program and the raised money are preferable where these funds will be used once, whereas the training programs mentioned in the first solution will require constant funding. At the same time, standardized resources will be more beneficial for the students and the instructors in a way that they will not require adaptation in case they move to another institution.
In solving the dilemma of the diversity in the technological resources in Portland State University, the approach of replacing the technology could be recommended as it serves its purpose better, along with being long-term changes.