Norwegian students say lecturers can’t get the hang of new tech
Digitalization is a goal for many schools. Nevertheless, students say lecturers are not getting the hang of using digital tools. «NSO [the Norwegian Student Organization] is not going to nag any less about digitalization in the future,» says Mats Beldo.
«A robot is just as good as a lawyer in predicting a result in court, but it is not capable of leading the case,» says Anders Malthe Sørensen, a professor for Computing in Science Education at the University of Oslo.
The Norwegian Agency for Quality Assurance in Education (NOKUT) published their yearly study-barometer recently. The report was clear: the scope of digitalization is quite low at Norwegian schools.
«Students in studies relating to IT, police, and the primary sector of the economy report the most widespread use of digital tools, while students in architecture, medicine and anthropology report the lowest use of said tools,» NOKUT wrote in the report.
Few digital lecturers
The report also shows that many students think lecturers have not gotten the hang of using the digital tools available to them.
«Students want more digitalization, it helps engage them. Today it is up to each lecturer,» said Mats Beldo, the leader of NSO.
The report states there have been «quite a few critical comments relating to solutions that are not working well enough and lecturers/educators who are not getting the hang of the technology that they are using.»
«NSO is not going to nag any less about digitalization in the future,» said Beldo.
[Study-barometer: these students are the most satisfied]
«Not an end in itself»
On the question of whether digital tools are actively used to involve the students in class, the primary-school teacher program comes out lowest, with an average score of 2.1, while police education comes highest, at 3.8. The scale goes from 1 to 5.
«Digitalization is not an end in itself, but just a tool to increase quality,» said Beldo.
The research- and education minister Iselin Nybø says the digitalization process succeeds better in some places than others, but that there is still a long way to go.
«We cannot use electronic tools as we used pen and paper before. We have to change the way we think,» she said.
Digital exams are popular
Digitalization of education is an expressed goal for all educational institutions in Norway. One of the highest priorities of, among other schools, UiO, has been digital exams. The study barometer shows students are satisfied with digital exams, or that they want to have a digital exam available.
«Students are positive towards the use of digital tools in relation to forms of evaluation,» states the NOKUT report.
«The picture here is that things are great, and we must not forget this when we work with challenges. This is a sector which never reaches its goal. This is a group effort and I’m excited to be a part of the team,» said Nybø.
