Study Overseas

Taky Cheung started his university career with multiple talents and interests - a handle of pearls. During his university study, pearls were added, polished and carefully ordered. By graduation, the handful of pearls had been transformed into a fine necklace. Something of great, lasting value.

The thread that united the pearls in a meaningful way was technology. Taky's resume and portfolio was not written on a sheet of paper - instead, it was included in a beautifully packaged CD-ROM that included websites, video, sounds and personally authored interactive media.

The story of Taky illustrates a significant change in both higher education and the expectations from employers of university graduates. The assumption is growing that university graduates worldwide will have used a broad spectrum of technology in an even broader range of environments. This fact is radically changing how universities operate and how students learn.

In today's high-tech world, learning about technology is important, but learning with technology is absolutely essential. It is the difference between learning the basic operations of a tool versus learning when, why and where the tool will make a difference. The latter can only be achieved by daily contact with technology.

As an example, many American Universities now assign a username, password and account in an electronic classroom system to every student upon registration. Students receive assignments, review the slides the professor presents in class, turn in work and store projects online. It is assumed that every student will use technology as a part of the educational process.

Students with their own personal computer are afforded high-speed connections in their residence hall room. Those without their own computer have access to labs 24 hours a day in the residence halls, in addition to access to labs in academic buildings. Thanks to the electronic classroom system, a student's computer screen looks the same whether they log in from the English computer lab or from a residence hall. Work started on one computer can easily be completed on another computer in a different location.

Technology also introduces students to professional contacts in their field long before they start sending out resumes. One faculty member in a College of Business

Administration spends the last weeks of every semester introducing his students to Human Resource Management professionals worldwide. In a single semester, students are exposed to HRM professionals in places such as Beijing, China, South Africa, the UK and numerous cities around the United States. Two-way interactive videoconferencing allows students to interact with them, asking questions and making comments.

Many American university students participate in technological internships with outside firms. Teams of interns from Departments of Mass Communications can now create a CD-ROM training module for international manufacturing firms. Weekly videoconference meetings between the interns and company officials kept such projects on track, and ultimately, the student will deliver a self-contained multimedia module that the company can distribute to employees worldwide via CD-ROM. Such experience speaks well to the student's future employers, because it demonstrates that the students can integrate multiple technologies into a finished product.

When students attend a university with advanced communications technology, they check account balances, view their class schedule and monitor their degree plans without standing in line or waiting on the phone. They find a book in the library or consult online full text journal articles and abstracts from the comfort of their room.

Universities utilising these new technologies also provide help for students unfamiliar with the systems. There are entire organisations responsible for assisting other students with technology questions and even campus cable TV channels that provide programs about technological issues 24 hours a day! Some TV programs are offered in multiple languages, as an added bonus.

In a sense, learning about the technology comes about as a product of the daily use of technology. As an example, students can learn how to write well without ever putting a word on paper. Professors can evaluate and return assignments to students entirely online. The result is quicker feedback for the student and a sense of collaboration with the professor, rather than a simple cycle of criticism and correction. Another benefit of a technology-oriented education is that students often stay in contact after graduation with professors via email. These electronic communities provide better integration of university learning and lifelong training and development.

Technology has forever changed the university environment. Of course, every student's needs for technology will be different, but technology is clearly the common thread running through most of the major learning experiences at many of the worlds more progressive universities.

Author
K.B. Massingill
Adams Centre for Teaching Excellence, Abilene Christian University