Here are three scenarios for you:
Scenario 1: You enter a vanilla class in a traditional school where teachers come and go in their subject periods.
Students open the textbooks, take notes in their notebooks as teachers deliver their lectures, and occasionally put their hands up to answer a question asked by the teacher.
At the end of class, teachers give assignments to students – which involve reading at home, writing an essay or do, or form teams to do group projects. Tests, formative assessments, and summative assessments are conducted in a traditional format where students need to learn and memorize a few things and be able to reproduce them at the time exam is taking place.
It is what a traditional classroom looks like.
Scenario 2: You enter a class that seems to be more modern. There is a smartboard on the wall, and each student has a computer screen or a gadget in front of him.
Teachers still deliver lectures but use animations and multimedia as to explain concepts in a better way. Occasionally, students get to answer a question or vote on a poll created by the teacher using their smart devices.
The school assignments and assessments may be distributed, collected, and graded through apps and devices. The assessments can be done in various ways, including quizzes and game-based formats.
Students can collaborate on social media or online forums to help each other in homework or to do their group projects.
A reasonably modern classroom is equipped with edtech hardware and software to keep students engaged, help them pick up concepts better, and assess them in ways which is not possible in a traditional examination model.
Source: Kansas City Business Journal
Scenario 3: Now, imagine that kids enter a class which does not look like a class at all. For younger kids, it can be a colorful expansive space with high-tech tools. At higher education levels, it is a space with unlimited access to tools, resources, and study material.
Students can choose what they want to learn, and teachers act as facilitators in helping them learn what they want to.
It is not a dream anymore. Northland Innovation Center is an institution which offers an innovative curriculum to gifted students across the K-21 pipeline. It does not have walls or desks or textbooks. The learning is self-directed, and the emphasis is on projects, technology, and collaboration.
Education technology is changing the way we teach and the way we learn. Here are some other examples:
Assists Innovative Teachers and Education Thought Leaders
Vinny Chiaramonte is 38-year-old and a Computer Science teacher at Bumpus Middle School in Hoover, Alabama. He is known for his sense of humor, and for continually innovating solutions to support his students better and prepare them for 21st-century jobs.
It is not surprising that the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) chose as one of the 30 PBS Digital All-Stars 2018.
Education technology plays a significant role in the lives of teachers like Vinny. Vinny uses the Internet to read articles and remain updated about the latest edtech trends. He maintains an extensive network of contacts and is a part of a global learning community.
At school, he starts his day by writing to his students in the Google Classroom tool and asks them questions to keep them engaged. The free Google app allows teachers and students to connect inside and outside the classroom, makes it easier to create classes and distribute assignments, and stay organized.
Impacts Student Learning
Edtech tools are only as effective as the way teachers and students use it. Apps like Notability and OneNote allow students to take class notes by talking into the app, type, and draw – and save it all as a PDF file.
Some edtech tools like Diigo provide you best assignment help that you can hope for. These tools make it easier for you to:
- add text or comment as sticky notes on web pages,
- bookmark websites,
- highlight text on a web page,
- maintain a personal library,
- share your knowledge with groups,
- take homework help from peers and instructors,
- structure your research, and
- tag web pages with relevant terms.
Evernote is another tool that is an organizer, planner, and notebook rolled in one. It allows you to take notes, add images, scan documents, make sketches, and create to-do lists and edit them, save them, and share them with your friends and teachers.
Such tools and applications promote independent as well as collaborative learning.
Promotes Digital Creativity
Many professors and teachers encourage their students to use digital media to showcase their creativity. The BYOD (Bring Your Own Device to the class) concept is increasingly gaining popularity across the world.
Students can now store and use thousands of pictures, videos, and music pieces to enhance their presentations and produce beautiful assignments independently or in groups. Such assignments encourage them to explore more about the topic and also learn more about the latest tools that are available at the time.
Clemson University partnered with Adobe to help students get access to the best tools in the Creative Cloud. Rochester Institute of Technology’s MAGIC Spell Studios is dedicated to game development, animation, and digital media.
Makes STEM Subjects Easier and More Accessible
Crazy Gears is a game that teaches critical thinking and problem-solving skills to students. The puzzle-like app asks students to construct gears – and use the tasks to teach them essential STEM skills across disciplines. Simple Physics and Modern Physics are some of the other Science apps you may try.
Games like Hopscotch help kids learn coding and The Robot Factory by Tinybop allows students to create and design their own robots. Solar Walk app enables students to travel through space and time, explore our solar system, and zoom on a cosmic body to discover new facts about it.
Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology in India has come up with Online Labs for schools with scarce resources. The initiative includes lab videos, animations, and interactive simulations to showcase science experiments to school students from grades 9-12. The Indian government has created another site called Virtual Labs to cater to undergraduate and postgraduate students as well as research scholars in various Science and Engineering disciplines.
The VR First initiative uses Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality technologies to facilitate educators and learners to conduct experiments online. The initiative has attracted more than 850 universities across the world.
Edtech is changing the way we look at education. Virtual tours to historical monuments can enrich a history class, and Google Earth can be incredibly useful in a geography class. 3D printing allows students to create models and produce working prototypes. Language learning tools can help you learn any language easily – using game-based learning concepts, flashcards, and bite-sized content.
The role of teachers is changing too. Technology is taking over the mundane academic chores of checking assignments and grading tests. Teachers now need to enter into the role of mentors and focus on individualized instruction to their students. It is time that educators befriend the tech world and groom the kids of today for the jobs of the future.
Guest article written by: Aditya Singhal is the co-founder of Transtutors, a leading Online Education platform for college students. Having graduated from prestigious Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) – Delhi, Aditya has a personal interest in helping students.
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