BENEFITS OF TECHNOLOGY
IN EDUCATION
personalized learning approach. A current buzzword in education,
personalized learning allows students to become part of their
learning experience. Students will be in control of creating content
for learning using smartphone apps. This approach intends to put
students at the forefront of molding their learning experience,
resulting in stronger student engagement and therefore better
outcomes. The Nellie Mae Education Foundation notes that a
student-centered approach can “only be successful if [it occurs]
within a cultural context that demands continuous improvement
and engages collective processes that foster understanding and
broad ownership of decisions. This should be driven by vigilant
consideration of assessment results that help illuminate the extent
to which particular interventions are working, and who is benefiting
from the changes in what ways.”
THE HOW
Mobile and Digital Learning
Digital learning made a slow entrance into mainstream
education, but with the use of tablets and mobile devices, the
number of teachers using game-based learning in the classroom has
doubled in the past six years. “The explosion in teacher interest and
usage of videos and game-based learning could be a harbinger of a
new awakening for digital learning,” Julie Evans, the CEO of Project
Tomorrow, says. In a 2015 survey conducted by Project Tomorrow,
48 percent of K-12 teachers and nearly two-thirds of K-5 teachers
reported adopting the use of games in their weekly lessons.
According to Education Week, 23 million devices were purchased
in 2013 and 2014 alone. More recently, tablets are taking over as
an affordable option for bringing technology to each individual
student. One-to-one computing hopes to provide teachers with the
time to give each student more personalized attention and time to
work at his/her own pace.
New Learning Spaces
Gone are the days of sitting head-behind-head, avoiding eye
contact with your teacher, hoping she won’t call on you for the
answer to her question. Student-centered environments in colleges
and schools breed creativity and innovation through small-group
learning and instruction. “In a personalized learning classroom,
technology frees up time for teachers to do what they do best: teach
students in small groups and customize instruction,” Facebook
founder Mark Zuckerberg says. Zuckerberg along with the Bill and
Melinda Gates Foundation and many others are seeing the positive
outcomes of personalized learning. Reinventing learning spaces is a
subtle approach that will make sure the student population is served
Technology is finding its way into every aspect of our lives… from the alarm
clock on your phone to the fitness app that tracks your workouts and counts your
calories, to the DVR that records all of your favorite shows to watch at a later time.
Technology is all around us, and there is no escaping it. It has even made its way into
mainstream education through rather unexpected avenues.
The U.S. Department of Education’s 2016 National Education Technology Plan
“outlines a vision of equity, active use, and collaborative leadership to make
everywhere, all-the-time learning possible. While acknowledging the continuing
need to provide greater equity of access to technology itself, the plan goes further
to call upon all involved in American education to ensure equity of access to
transformational learning experiences enabled by technology.” EdTech Magazine
outlined the benefits of effective, interactive technology that is being used to
amplify classroom learning in colleges and universities as well as schools.
THINGS TO KNOW:
Internet of Things (IoT) is becoming a thing in education. If you are
unfamiliar with IoT, it is defined as the development of the Internet in which
everyday objects have network connectivity, allowing data to be shared. According
to International Data Corp., IoT spending will increase from $655.8 billion in 2014 to
$1.7 trillion in 2020. IoT is very new in the classroom setting, but is predicted to stick
around.
Wearables aren’t just for counting steps for students, although teachers are
finding ways to make each step count. Pedometers are allowing gym teachers to
keep track of their students’ steps and heart rates and to ensure safe and healthy
workouts. Wearable cameras are making projects both in and out of the classroom
more exciting for students. From wearable fundraisers to pinging students’
whereabouts on field trips, wearables are making their way into schools and onto
the wrists of students across America.
3D printing has surely made a splash with the story of a teacher and his
students creating new feet for a duck to walk again. 3D printing allows students
to bring their ideas to life, and with the cost quickly becoming more affordable,
students and teachers are able to embrace the technology. “There is an inflection
point that people get when they start to print because people go out onto
Thingiverse, a repository of 3D files, and they print and they print and they print, but
there is a certain moment when they realize, ‘I don’t need something that exists, I
want something that doesn’t yet exist.’ It’s just a complete paradigm shift,” Jordan
Brehove, MakerBot’s vice president of solutions, says.
Interactive tech is becoming better, more advanced, and more sophisticated.
From robots to research methods, interactive tech is helping special education
students have effective learning experiences in the classroom unlike ever before.
Intelligent toys, or robotic toys, are allowing for extremely positive interactions with
withdrawn autism spectrum disorder (ASD) kids, again allowing for a more inclusive
classroom environment, where each student can learn to the best of his/her ability.
“Technology has the potential to bring remarkable new possibilities to teaching
and learning by providing teachers with opportunities to share best practices, and
offer parents platforms for engaging more deeply and immediately in their children’s
learning,” U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan says.
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