Ever since humanity was dawned with modern technology, the world has changed significantly. And that also changed the learning landscape for the better. Now in the 21st century, we can see how one click can generate multiple related information of your choosing, how we can read books on screen, and how we can produce paperless products. However, these benefits do come with a price - a lag in the system because our educators can sometimes have a hard time learning and transitioning from this new mode of learning and teaching. "Teaching and Learning in Technology Empowered Classrooms - Issues, Contexts, and Practices" by Ajitha Nayarperfectly encapsulate the essential things one needs to learn teaching with technology in the modern world: its beginnings, scopes, and prospects, specific details of technology in the ICT subject.
Nayar believes that teaching should be engaging students in the learning process, that teachers need to make the process of learning and the subject interesting. When the time came that various experiments were being done using computers for assisting learning and teaching, she knew she would adapt to the change. "I was all in for better utilization of technology (Computers) in the classroom and by teachers. I recognized the learning and teaching potential of technology," unfortunately, handheld devices were not popular, available, affordable, nor accessible at that time. In the present time, as she progressed in her career as an administrator for almost a decade, she realized that educators in higher education were not maximizing and integrating technology into their teaching enough. She believes that they did not know how to teach and were quite hesitant to reveal their ignorance. "I felt that it was time for me now to write a book on my primary and preliminary interest, which was "using technology for teaching and learning," she said.
Nayar's book tries to reach out to the first-timers and introduce certain best practices to adopt and adapt in their learning. It gives details to policies and the history of technology education. Just as this book benefits the educators, it is also true to students because this helps them solidify basic concepts of education in general and technopedagogies in particular. From a layman's perspective, this will be an advantage to take up as it gives information on early beginnings and gains them an understanding of the scope and prospects of education.
The entire learning landscape is changing because it has been coupled with technology. Educators should not confine themselves in the etic (outsider) perspective but let themselves introduce a new, engaging teaching method in the emic's (insider's) perspective. Because in the insider's point of view, we get to see why it is necessary to adapt to changes from a generation born into technology. And Ajitha Nayar's book gives us that necessary perspective.
Ajitha Nayar, in her 25 years of professional service, took up various roles as an Administrator, Principal, Teacher Educator in India and abroad. She. Her contributions include training teachers in ICT-mediated pedagogies, initiating collaboration with Chihuahua's Autonomous University, and setting up a Kerala branch of Living Labs / Centre for Dialogue and Transformation, Kerala. She is also involved in realizing the goals of sustainability education through conceptualizing projects and documenting Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Her book, Teaching and Learning in Technology Empowered Classrooms - Issues, Contexts and Practices, has been used as a reference book for both teachers and students for online learning.
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