Integrated ICT and Evolving Technologies in Teaching and Education

It took me almost six months to choose a university for my second bachelor's degree. I had no excuse to make a mistake because I had significant years of work experience in ICT-Finance within the oil and gas project management sector in Nigeria.

I believe you cannot preach what you do not practice. If you want to teach me ICT, especially Digitalisation, Computing and Electronics (DICE), then I expect you to practice it in your lectures.

Below are my criteria (my algorithm) for choosing a degree programme with teaching methods and quality of teaching as the first global variable, which is the icing on this post:

• Teaching methods and quality of teaching -DICE teaching is based on high-quality, excellent scientific research
• Industry-relevant curriculum
• Research culture at the faculty
• University collaboration with local and global industry and internship opportunities
• Cost of living and fees
• Extracurricular activities - student associations.

Oulu is the capital of Northern Scandinavia. This city has successfully built a research culture around ICT that is constantly evolving. While Finland and the rest of the world are still busy with 5G networks, this city is already testing the first blocks of 6G, and all this research is led by the universities of this city.

I can already see that you are excited to come here! ;)

Teaching methods and quality of teaching:

Digitalisation, Computing and Electronics (DICE) is the core area of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the Faculty of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering at the University of Oulu.

The teaching methods and quality of teaching here are top-notch. I will give you an example: the first year of study includes the following courses: Calculus I, Elementary Programming, Device and Data Networks, Survival Finnish etc.

The syllabi of each course from Elementary Programming, Calculus, Device and Data Networks are aligned (magnificent work by teacher Riku and team) so that concepts are repeated in a subtle way, for example,

• Programming the equation of a circle in Python - this is a connection between math and elementary programming
• Orientation courses are about study methods, time management and how to settle quickly into Finland (bank accounts etc.)
• Mathematics teaches a logical flow of algorithms and functions needed in programming.

All these courses are coordinated in terms of content and time to make you an experienced programmer who not only deals with syntax but always applies the 5-why approach to problem-solving.

A centralized medium called Moodle is used to track course enrollment and progress. These courses are divided into hands-on exercises, stack quizzes, and even micro exams, with teaching tools like Zoom, hands-on experiences with Raspberry coding, and even my Survival Finnish course right in the city.

In this post you will find a list of integrated ICT applications used in each course:

• Moodle
• Zoom
• Teams
• A fully functional digitalised classroom
• Laptops provided by the university that you can borrow
• Numerous study rooms for your personal study - my favourite is the library and Tellus
• Free WIFI on campus - that you can use with your student account
• Free apps like Microsoft Student Office
• Access to the physical and online library.

With a population of over 200,000, the University of Oulu is a fully automated ICT centre that nevertheless does not lack the human touch. With its evolving research in Vision Sensing Technologies and Artificial Intelligence conducted by the same faculty members who are also researchers, this university is the best choice if excellence is one of your values.