Moving from local to global teaching: integrating appropriate technologies – a reflection

Abstract

There are many reasons why universities and other tertiary education institutes are moving away from providing local (or face-to-face) teaching to global teaching. Our School of Computer and Information Science is one that has increasing number of students who are studying our programs overseas. The face-to-face mode of learning is effective as it provides instant feedback and cross-communications between lecturer and students and among students themselves. Moving from face-to-face learning to global learning can impair the effectiveness of teaching and learning unless technologies and strategies that can provide rapid feedback and communication are maintained. In this paper we share our experiences in the educational use of communication technologies to provide alternative communication channels for our global students. We examine the use of existing off-the-shelf software and software being developed in our School and different approaches to encourage active rather than passive participation by students in a situation where cultural and language issues are significant. We also investigate the impact of these technologies and approaches on our students. Finally, we discuss our efforts to provide an online environment that goes some of the way in meeting the requirements of academics, administrators and students.