Education is constantly evolving to adapt to the needs of those using it. There have been many changes to education since the start of the 21st century, including new methods of teaching to help the retention of information. Technology is one of the biggest influencers when it comes to education, enabling teachers to educate their students in innovative and imaginative ways. Not only has technology broadened the scope of education, but it has also improved its accessibility, allowing individuals who may not have previously had the ability to take courses and learn to be able to do this through methods of self-led education.
Online, Distance Learning
The largest improvement that technology has made to education is the new ability to take online courses from anywhere in the world. Not only does this mean that you can work while you travel, but it also provides access to the best courses for your career sector from all around the world, even if you do not have the ability to study abroad. Online, distance learning also helps people who would previously have been unable to get an education due to other commitments, such as caring for a family member or having children, and it also allows people to learn and work towards qualifications which can help to advance their career. For instance, a one year online MBA at Spring Arbor gives you the opportunity to take a course in subjects such as social work, executive management, and nursing from the comfort of your own home.
Interactive Whiteboards
Technology has not only created new ways of accessing education, but it has also improved the way that children and adults are taught in classrooms. One of the most innovative systems that is now in use in classrooms isinteractive whiteboards. These give students the opportunity to learn in an engaging manner with the ability to access videos and other media resources on a larger screen. Interactive whiteboards are touchscreen and can also be written upon like traditional whiteboards, enabling students who learn in different ways, interacting with the screen and the apps on the whiteboard.
Children’s IT Apps
With all this new technology, there needs to be apps available to teach children about technology, and there are now an assortment of applications for home and school usage that aim to teach children about a number of different subjects, including IT. These can be in the form of interactive games and activities and can be utilized on tablets, mobile phones, and laptops. These give children exposure from an early age to the technology that will dominate their lives in the future, allowing them to learn to type and use other forms of technology through fun and innovative applications.
Digital Textbooks
With the rise of e-books dominating the publishing market, there is only a matter of time before digital textbooks become commonplace. Digital textbooks are now seen to be used in classrooms and homes for revision purposes. E-books have many benefits, such as allowing students to access the resources they need on any electronic device, such as a mobile phone or tablet. Digital textbooks can even improve the learning of some students by being cheaper than physical alternatives as well as being easily transportable. They also allow students to highlight passages, bookmark, find the information that they need quickly, and read from where they left off.
Online Portals
Online portals are also another way that education is starting to become more remote, with many colleges and universities already beginning to implement online portals in their learning techniques. Online portals can be accessed on any digital device that has access to the internet and act as communication tools between students and their teachers. Online portals allow messages to be sent between teachers and students in a group as well as enabling the creation of forums where certain set tasks can be discussed.
These portals also allow students to access homework tasks from anywhere, download files and resources that could potentially help them, and view any seminars or lectures that they have missed. In fact, grades can also often be accessed through online portals, allowing students to see their grades from the security of their homes. Many students are now submitting their work onto these portals as well, using portals such as Turnitin, which also acts as a plagiarism checker by comparing a student’s work to other essays and journals on the internet.
Not only this, but technology such as The Cloud has allowed students to collaborate without face-to-face meetings, using this software to perform group projects in detail. These applications allow students to edit a document at the same time, as well as easily view any changes made to the project and access it from anywhere they are.
Internet Research and Access to Academic Journals
Technology has also allowed students to complete advanced research around the topics that they are studying in classby accessing periodicals and online revision websites that can help them to find the information that they need. This has led to the ability to forego the library and learn from home, facilitating a drive towards self-led learning opportunities. Not only this, but the internet is filled with academic journals and databases, where students can find the sources that they need to back up their assignments and select scholarly evidence to support their ideas. Rather than having to invest in an extravagant number of textbooks and other resources, students can now access most of these for free as well as download and highlight these with the information that they need to find later.
It is impossible not to see the huge changes that technology is making to education as well as how this may affect the way that both children and adults learn in the future. Not only has technology led to many advantages for students, such as distance learning, but it has also revolutionized the classroom experience by innovating traditional ways of learning and adapting to each individual student’s needs.