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Implementing technologies in business schools can bring significant benefits to students, faculty, and other staff. However, common mistakes can hinder the effectiveness of new technology. These mistakes include underestimating the importance of user training, neglecting students’ needs, ignoring ethical concerns, failing to monitor and evaluate technology’s impact, and inadvertently widening resource access inequalities.
Successful implementation of technology needs a clear plan, personalised training, ethical reflection, continuous assessment, and equitable access strategies. While new technology such as AI can not yet replace humans, it can significantly enhance the learning experience when implemented thoughtfully and inclusively.
Higher education institutions, and in particular business schools, face the crucial task of adopting and implementing new technologies to help students acquire a wide range of technical, social, and emotional skills.
Here are five mistakes commonly made when introducing new technologies for teaching and learning.
The five classic mistakes:
One of the most common mistakes is to underestimate the importance of teacher and student training. Integrating new technologies requires a thorough understanding of why they are being chosen, how they work, and how they can be used. Too often, institutions fail to provide adequate training.
Faculty members unfamiliar with the advanced features are likely to use only the most basic functions of the tools or not use them at all. The same applies to students. A more cautious approach involves appropriate training or awareness-raising programmes, enabling optimal use of technology and improving the learning experience.
Another common mistake is to neglect the learning needs of students in the process of integrating technologies. Technologies can positively transform the learning experience, but only if they meet the needs and preferences of learners.
To ensure successful adoption, institutions need to actively solicit students’ feedback and involve them in the tool selection process.
Business school administrators may be convinced in good faith that these tools will improve the student learning experience by offering, for example, easy access to resources, online collaboration tools and opportunities for interactivity.
However, during the deployment phase, it is not uncommon to find that the tools do not fully meet students’ needs. Some students may complain about an unintuitive user interface, which makes it difficult to navigate and find relevant content. Others may report compatibility problems with their devices, which limits their access to the platform. Still, others may feel that the tool lacks interactivity and does not allow for effective engagement on their part, undermining their motivation and commitment.
Without adequate consideration of students’ needs, the tools’ functionalities may not fully correspond to their preferences, leading to limited use and reduced adoption.
Recent technologies, and in particular generative AI, raise important ethical issues, particularly regarding data confidentiality, the protection of privacy, users’ intentions and the consequences of their actions.
Everyone, particularly teachers and students, needs to be trained and made aware of these aspects. What am I trying to do by using ChatGPT? Work less? Work faster? Make people think I am capable when I am not? Equally, on the ethics of consequences, what are the consequences of my actions if I use ChatGPT without telling the teacher? It is essential to include ethical reflection right from the initial planning and development stage of any integration.
A common mistake is a lack of monitoring and evaluation of integrated technologies’ effectiveness. To ensure long-term adoption, institutions need to put in place robust monitoring and evaluation mechanisms to measure their impact on teaching and learning. This involves collecting relevant data, analysing students for aspects like learning assessments, and continually adjusting technology strategies based on the results.
Finally, the introduction of technologies, and in particular GAI, can inadvertently widen the gaps in access to resources. The costs associated with the purchase of subscriptions, where applicable, and knowledge of the tools may exclude certain students, particularly those from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds. Without an equitable strategy for technological integration, higher education institutions risk reinforcing already existing disparities in access to education, thereby compromising their mission of inclusion and equal opportunities. It is, therefore, crucial that institutions take steps to ensure that all student populations can benefit from the advantages of recent technologies.
Conclusion
Introducing technology into an educational environment is complex, especially when the issues at stake concern the learning of students from diverse social and geographical backgrounds.
Adoption depends on being truly clear on how the technology will help intended users and the learning process. The worst thing you can do is to be swept along simply because technology is the latest thing. As AI develops and evolves, ethical considerations must be central to your decision-making at every stage. Finally, monitoring and adaptation must become a regular habit.
Source of information https://www.globalfocusmagazine.com/five-mistakes-when-introducing-technology-in-business-education/
