Importance of technology for tertiary education, the KWASU example

In a globalised economy with a high degree of competition amongst countries, the success of a nation depends on the level of education of  its workforce. This is true not only for those just entering or already integrated into the labour market, but also for the unemployed who may lack the qualifications required by the growing demands of a knowledge economy. BINTA SHAMA writes on how KWASU is breaking the shackles of unemployment.

Educational reform is essential to provide learners with what are commonly called 21st century skills, those competencies and values needed to become responsible citizens in a learning society and sustain employability throughout life in a knowledge economy.

KWASU

Students at the Kwara State University (KWASU), usually every new session enter a campus that looks like any other, except that a serene and conducive learning environment welcomes them. What makes this citadel of learning unique is that the students, staffs and even visitors agree to the fact that the University is a pace setter and stands out amongst other universities in Nigeria.

This is an example of outstanding leadership by the Vice Chancellor, Professor Abdulrasheed Na’Allah. One of the creative ways the management, leadership and lecturers at KWASU are using to enhance their students’ learning in technology.

Across the University, faculties are using technology to help students, master subjects from elementary and main course instruction to bioengineering to structural equation modelling. They are developing their own skills while making students comfortable with the technology that will help them become successful after leaving KWASU. As they introduce more and more technology into the classrooms, faculties are finding it raise the quality of class discussions and involving students much more deeply in their own education.

KWASU’s deployment of Technology in learning has helped improved the dynamics between teachers and students, often leading to enhanced learning. Moving forward with technology, as the University moves towards an increasingly coordinated approach to the use of technology, several efforts are underway at KWASU to determine just how technology can be used to most effectively enhance learning. The research team is collaborating with specialists from other universities within and outside the shores of Nigeria for Software Integrated Systems.
The potential benefit of this is that, the students, lecturers and Nigeria at large have the opportunity to develop a much better understanding of the kinds of resources required for the society to use technology in ways that consistently enhance student learning and productivity of human resources.

Like its counterparts in other parts of the world, KWASU has grown and is growing tremendously in size, productivity and adding to the overall growth and development of the Nigeria education system.

 

KWASU and Technology

At the administrative level, KWASU’s use of technology has also helped education systems more efficient by helping teachers and administrators streamline routine tasks and improve assessment and data collection. In the classroom, technology can be a powerful catalyst for pedagogical change, as students use technology to take a more active role in personalising their own education, and teachers take on new roles as facilitators of knowledge rather than knowledge transmitters.

Believing that technology also has the potential to transform education by extending the learning space beyond the four walls of a classroom, Na’Allah led management deployed technology to offer a variety of learning opportunities beyond the physical limits of school.

Gadgets to support students

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) in general, and broadband in particular, have the potential to create highly versatile education and training environments that can provide equal access to learners regardless of gender, geographic location, socio-economic or ethnic background, illness or disability, or any other circumstance that would normally hinder the provision of high-quality education.

By the end of 2011, nearly 2.3 billion people were using the internet, suggesting that about a third of the world’s population is now online. This includes everyone at KWASU, simply because of the commitment of the present led administration of Na’Allah. Since its inception, the leadership of KWASU have made important efforts to support school technology adoption. Typically, school technology policies have called for the acquisition of equipment and networks, the provision of teacher-training programmes and teacher-support schemes, and more recently the development of digital content by the lecturers themselves.

 

Pride of KWASU

Nevertheless, it is clear that the KWASU leadership have made significant investments in ICT in education in recent years. This is to mention the intensive research mindset of the lecturers being transferred to the students. What comes to mind are the three final year aerospace engineering students of KWASU who unveiled some space technology they invented at the university’s Fifth Undergraduates Research Day (URD) in 2017. The trio, Abdulrahoof Sarafadeen, Abdulkadir Abeebulahi and Abdulwasiu Ahmed, worked together to build a rocket prototype, a Quadcopter, and Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV).

It will be recalled that at the same event, a final year student of the College of Pure and Applied Sciences, Gideon Awojobi, unveiled an electrical device that prevents power surges. The leadership of KWASU designed the URD to stimulate undergraduate and post-graduate research culture among students of the university.

It is worthy of note that, not resting on her oars, KWASU has continue to promote and propagate Kwara State and Nigeria being the first university to offer programme in Aeronautics and Astronautics. What is however needed at this juncture is partnership from relevant stakeholders to explore and develop Aeronautics and Astronautics in the country as well as develop the needed manpower required in the field. Yet, as it stands, aspiring to greatness is a welcome history of the institution that will interest students, faculty, administration, alumni, and citizens in general, at the same time that it provides rich material for scholars of other universities wishing to contextualize their own objects of study.

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