Technology in Education: The Positives and the Way Forward.

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A quick analysis of how technology has improved the learning systems of the country by creating very positive influences. The concept of personalized learning.

Technology in Education: Revolutionizing the Sector

Technology has permeated every single aspect of our life today. No matter what industry vertical one is involved with technology has in some or the other way impacted it. In some cases, technology has not only positively impacted the field but has also made it more efficient and introduced new opportunities. Education is one such field!

Just like every other aspect of life, education has not been left untouched by technology. It has changed the way students learn and teachers teach. But more importantly, it has also introduced custom writing services like 10 page paper for students. It has introduced them to a more comprehensive view of professional writing and has allowed them to work with people who specialize in certain styles of writing.

Technology has also changed the classroom learning style. Today in countries like US schools are providing at least 1 computer for every 5 students. That is a big leap. But how does this really help the overall picture of the education system?

• Technology Improves Education
• Better Collaboration
• Access to Larger Resource Base
• Improved the Learning Process
• Better Project Management
• Increased Transparency

Technology Improves Education

There are other positive impacts that technology has created in education. All these positive influences have gone on to improve the quality of education. Here are a few things that can be said to have been made possible by technology in education.

Better Collaboration

One thing that is really driving the improvement in quality of education is collaboration. Teachers from all across the globe are able to collaborate with each other better – thanks to technology! Today, they are able to connect with each other across the globe, share ideas, engage in brainstorming, get their concepts reviewed by experts, get advice from others, and then refine their own work. Such collaborative efforts have further benefited the students and improved the quality of education that they are getting.

Access to Larger Resource Base

Gone are the days where students had to spend days staying buried beneath books to complete the research needed for their assignments or projects. Now, the physical libraries have been replaced by the digital resources that are much easier to access.

Students can now have easier access to an abundance of resources and knowledge. This encourages them to dig deeper and try to add more value to their projects by doing better research.

Improved the Learning Process

Research tells us that everybody has a different learning style. Some people pick things up better when it is presented to them in a visual format while some pick up better when it is in audio form. There are a few who are better with reading things and grasping them. In traditional classroom teaching style, it was difficult to ensure that everybody’s learning needs were being met. It was usually a teacher facing the class and trying to engage them through dialogue.

However, technology has now made it easy to ditch the age-old teaching style and do something new. Now classrooms have become more tech savvy and are using a combination of audio and visuals to make lessons interesting for students. They are getting field experts to interact with the students and respond to their inquisitive queries. There are videos being played, movies being screened, and documentaries being shown to ensure that the students get maximum exposure. All this could not have been possible without technology.

Better Project Management

A very important part of education is projects and assignments. Almost all the subjects that are being taught in school and in colleges involve some kind of projects that the students are required to work on during a semester or a year. They are then graded based on the submissions that they make.

During the pre-technology days, the students used to spend hours after hours writing down their assignments and then carry them to the class for submission. On the other hand, the teachers would then spend hours trying to read the submissions and then grade them. All this is now possible in online manner.

Most of the schools and colleges now have their own intranet systems where teachers post assignments for students with deadlines, the students work on them and then make online submissions. The teachers get alerted to the submissions, review them, grade them and get done with it in a more efficient manner.

Increased Transparency

Most people believe that education system involved only two parties – the students and the teachers. However, there are other stakeholders like the administrators, trainers, and even parents of students who often get ignored. They also have some role to play in the whole milieu of things.

Technology has broken the boundaries that kept these stakeholders apart. It has introduced a more transparent way of getting all the parties involved in such a way that the learning system can be more cohesive and effective. The trainers are able to work better with the teachers, the administrators are able to add more value by getting visibility into the requirements of the teachers and students, and parents are able to get more involved with the teachers and administrators to monitor the growth of their ward. Such interconnected system has introduced more transparency for everybody.

Personalized Learning: The Growing Phenomenon

As the technology adoption in schools becomes more rampant, there is a phenomenon called personalized learning that is shaping up. Under this, a learner profile for each student is created which talks about his or her strengths, weaknesses, goals, and preferences. Based on this individual learning, roadmaps are created to bring about academic excellence.

The whole idea is to make learning a competency based progressive program that allows students to hone their skills rather than just learn about them and then move on. It gives them an opportunity to master a particular skill. In order to do this, the learning environment has to be structured in such a way that it supports the individual learning goals. The flexibility of the structure is utmost important here.

Technology in the form of learning management systems and student information systems contributes to this individual learning roadmap. The teaching software and applications have also become adaptive to meet the learning requirements of the student. All of this has combined together to make the learning process more individualized and personalized for the student and not just the teacher. This attribute provided by technology has also made it possible for people shifting or furthering careers to be able to do so  with relative ease at their own time, such that an online fnp degree can be taken right at home without the need to step into a physical lecture hall.

Conclusion

There is no doubt that technology has changed the face of education system across the globe. What really needs to be seen now is that how will the next level of technology evolution impact education system. Technology is not going to be the same a few years down the line. There will be new systems coming up and new ideas bouncing around. It will have to be seen how these upgrades and innovations make learning a more engaging process.

Only time can tell what is in store for future but it would be safe to say that there is no turning back now. Technology is going to further redefine the education system for us.