Technology is playing a vital role in shaping our education system. The advancements in technology have opened many new doors of learning for current students. The development of the educational system has been possible with the help of technology. In the current pandemic where it was not possible to go for on-site learning, using technology in education has played an important part in ensuring that students were able to learn and study without any hindrances with the help of online classes. Post pandemic, schools, colleges and other educational institutes have realized the importance of technology in education and we can safely say that our education system has been revolutionized with the help of technology.
What are some good ways to use technology in education?
There are many ways as to how modern technology can be used in education. Technologies which are used in education are often known as EdTech. There are many ways in which technology can be incorporated into education:
- Virtual Classrooms: A virtual classroom is an idea which saves time and money for many students. There are many online classes which are now being conducted that students from all over the world can attend, surpassing all geographical barriers.
- PowerPoint Presentations with Multimedia as an added feature: The PowerPoint Presentations are used to teach students since a long time, however, the text based PowerPoint are now outdated, and teachers are now adding graphs, short clips, videos etc in the form of multimedia in the slides, to make the content more interesting and understandable.
- Protecting the students’ privacy: Students IDs and data are often accessed by the hackers, which can be avoided with the help of technology. Students can use a VPN extension while accessing their database or LMS. A Mozilla VPN free will help them in securing their data from unauthorized use/access. Students use many browsers like Firefox, Chrome etc, all of which have a VPN extension available. These VPN extensions are generally free to download, without any hidden charges. A high speed VPN extension can be added to your Firefox browser which will automatically hide your personal data from potential hackers. Schools can also get VPN free and then use it to protect students’ confidential information.
- Virtual Grade Books: The grades and performance of students are maintained virtually which can be easily accessed by students at all times and there are less to no errors expected in this way.
What are 5 educational technologies?
Among the many top trending education technologies, following are some which are widely used by educational institutes around the globe:
- eLearning: eLearning is one of the top technologies which is about delivering education electronically through laptops, computers, tablets, etc. This encourages interactive learning, sharing of on screen information through screen sharing options, decision-making scenarios etc. Zoom, Google classrooms etc are few of the tools by which eLearning is conducted.
- Artificial Intelligence: AI or Artificial Intelligence is one of the most modern technologies that is gaining trend in today’s world. Artificial Intelligence helps in automitizing the basic learning activities like marking the papers which have fill in the blanks or multiple choice based questions. Moreover, AI is used by teachers to provide feedback on educational programs. Virtual Assistants are also provided through AI, which is an important aid for both teachers as well as students. AI helps in alerting the teachers regarding students’ performance and that which student needs more attention and in which area.
- STEAM-based programs: STEAM is again one of the trending technologies in EdTech, which stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math to solve the problems with the help of different activities and creativity. STEAM encourages curiosity about the environment and how each [problem can be solved in many innovative ways. This provides not only hands-on learning but helps the students in thinking out of the box.
- Gamified Learning Experience: In the current era, students’ attitude towards education is changing, and instead of rote learning, teachers need to introduce new ways to attract students towards education. Gamified Learning is one such technology which has its center on Gamification. As the name suggests, this is about incorporating gaming into the learning.
Gamification is divided into two broad classifications; Structural and Content Gamification. These two ways are quite different from each other but both play a vital role in making the learning interesting for students. Gamified learning is widely used not just for kids but also for adults, as it helps them in coming up with interesting innovative solutions.
- Virtual Manipulative Tools: These are new education tools which are generally used for teaching mathematical concepts to students. With Virtual Manipulative tools, you can easily teach complex mathematical concepts to students like base ten blocks etc, which are otherwise difficult to understand.
Thus, technology for teaching and learning is widely used and practiced all over the world, and with the new educational tools, and VPNs to protect students data, the education system has been completely revolutionized for the betterment.
