Technology has not only changed the way we teach in our schools and colleges but how we look at learning on a wider social scale. We can download an app to learn almost anything nowadays from languages through to quantum physics and we have access online to more material and resources than ever before.
Transformational Teaching and Learning
We have moved a long way from the days of blackboards and writing out lessons in text books. Over the last ten to fifteen years classrooms have swapped chalk and talk for a range of digital solutions. Many have embraced interactive screens that connect to the web and can play almost any kind of media including allowing teachers and students to conference live and access a variety of software learning tools.
Expanding the community
Our children can discuss cultural differences with students in Africa or have a specialist webinar with a scientist in America. Our access to the online world has given us an immediate and fuller sense of community and we are today using it to improve our education and share knowledge. Children now also have access to social media platforms such as Facebook that can be used to improve learning even more.
Tablets and PCs
If software technology has advanced considerably in the last few years, it is only because the hardware and infrastructure is there to provide a platform. We have access to Wi-Fi that means we can turn on our tablets and smartphones almost anywhere and tap our favourite apps or search the web for valuable information. Gone are the days of printing out huge amounts of text in libraries – we are now getting it all on the move in digital format, helping with the ecology at the same time.
Interactive Textbooks
Textbooks used to be hardcopy tomes that we had to carry around in overstuffed satchels. Today’s curriculum can be found largely online and is not just a straight text that has to be read through from beginning to end. Each contains many interactive branches where students can improve their knowledge of a particular subject.
Improving Reach and Capability for Disadvantaged Children
The improvements in technology in education has allowed us to better meet the needs of a wide range of pupils including those from disadvantaged backgrounds and those with disabilities. It means we can more closely monitor progress and introduce solutions that would have been time consuming and costly in the past.
Parent Teacher Communication
Not only has technology changed the way we learn but also how we interact, particularly with the development of administration apps that schools can make available to students and parents so that they are given up to date information. This can include changes to class times, impending exams, dates of sports days and parent evenings. Staff, pupils and teachers can download the apps for free and get the access they need to important school data that enables them to manage their time more effectively.
The future of technology in education is looking ever brighter, providing a solid platform for pupils who are more likely to develop an ethos of lifelong learning than perhaps years ago when school and education stopped with the closing of those hefty textbooks at the end of term.
Image courtesy of Pixabay accessed via Creative Commons