Abstract
Consistent with the global trend, the Pacific Island countries (PICs) are attempting to shift the focus of instruction from teaching to learning. As a key player in educational technology, the University of the South Pacific (USP) provides blended and online learning to students in PICs. However, owing to the scattered nature of PICs, financial constraints and underdeveloped infrastructure, communication has always been difficult. Educational technology, nevertheless, has the capacity to interweave across these limitations, enabling students to study from where they are and collaborate and cooperate with their colleagues, educators and researchers across the USP region and beyond.
This paper discusses USP’s educational technology initiatives that promote the focus of instruction from teaching to learning in teacher education. This emphasis is necessary owing to the rapid changing scene in the nature of higher education as well as basic, primary and secondary education. Further, education now is seen increasingly as infusing graduates with competencies and skills like creativity, innovation and adaptability (Adams and Hamm 2012). This paper argues that change is a permanent feature of learning and teaching and the use of educational technology stimulates ongoing pedagogical changes and sustains constructively aligned classroom practices.
Keywords
- Constructive alignment
- Online learning
- Blended learning
- Web 2.0
- Teacher education
- Pacific Island countries
- Multiculturalism
- Collaborative learning
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Sharma, A.N., Chief, I.Y. (2016). The Transforming Nature of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education: A University of the South Pacific Experience. In: Amzat, I., Yusuf, B. (eds) Fast forwarding Higher Education Institutions for Global Challenges. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-603-4_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-603-4_6
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