Does Technology Enhance Learning or Impact it Negatively?

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Today, technology is everywhere; intertwined in your daily lives, as it affects how you live, play, work, and learn. You can’t overlook the significant effects that technology has made in the recent years. Today, tech gadgets, like phones and computers, have become an essential part of business. 

With smartphones and other tech devices becoming essential across every industry, many educational institutes are deploying the latest technology in their schools, as an effective strategy to improve learning.

The Role of Technology in Education

Although technology was integrated in the education sector later than other sectors, its influence is undeniably immense. In the early part of the 2000s, computers became a significant feature in several schools in developed countries. However, some parts of the world, especially the underdeveloped and developing countries are still not up to par when it comes to incorporating advanced technological methods in education. Yet, a larger part of the world is now leveraging and enjoying the benefits of technology.

Although technology has been implemented in the education sector, its use for learning and teaching is still a big challenge. Regardless of the fact that many institutes are privileged to have instant access to technology, the use of technology in the teaching process is still low. We need a constructive policy environment, and well-trained teachers.

However, the potential of technology to improve learning can never be understated. Research has revealed that many teachers and educators have experienced great difficulty in integrating technology in education.

This is probably because many of them have yet to discover the relationship between technology and teaching. However, exploring the potentials of technology for education can play a large part in encouraging critical thinking.

When it comes to the reason for incorporating technology into schools, many educationalists believe that technology can significantly improve the teacher-student relationship, and make accessing, analyzing, and transmitting information much easier.

Advantages of Technology

Over the past decade, technology has significantly transformed the way people live their lives. With technology, like the internet and gadgets, everything is available at your fingertips. Parents can check out and even apply to schools for their children, without taking a day off to visit a large number of schools.

Moreover, they can check on their kid’s progress and performance reports. In fact, they can pay tuition fees online. Also, students can make up for their missed classes just by asking for notes online. Well, there is no doubt that deploying technology in educational centers provides you with plenty of benefits. Read on to explore more!

·        Enhanced Teaching and Learning

Incorporating technology in schools serves as a smart strategy. It enhances teaching methods and improves learning processes. Resources, like projectors, mobile and portable devices, and the internet have constructed a path for new teaching and learning methodologies.

With that said, there is a wide variety of online tools for teacher and educators, which help them improve their teaching methods. Try to use the plagiarism checker for teachers to make sure. These effective tools provide ideas that encourage teachers to opt for creative teaching methods.

M-learning and E-learning are increasingly becoming popular; leveraging them can help your students enjoying learning.

·        Teaching Concepts

While millions of multimedia platforms are there to create breathtaking and stunning class videos, you can adapt and create new teaching concepts through multimedia platforms. Not to mention, these platforms offer you several ways and ideas to create an outstanding teaching concept that can be taught and delivered in the simplest way.

Here, it’s important to mention that presentation videos work best when it comes to providing your students with valuable information about complex topics with complex structures, infographics, and a lot of text.

You can find a number of video making software on the internet that makes creating videos an easy process for you. Besides, you can create e-Books and audiobooks that your students can access easily.

Nevertheless, technologies like augmented reality and virtual reality are creating profound concepts for students in a more active and engaging way. Hence, using these technologies can change the phase of teaching or learning, making it more exciting and engaging.

·        Student-Teacher Interaction

As mentioned earlier, you can use a variety of online tools, like Google Drive and Dropbox, to share study material with your students. In fact, you can use email support to interact with your students, no matter where they’re.

Moreover, various online channels have been developed for students and teachers to create a better environment for mentoring. Also, you can approach your students from anywhere remotely, using software, like Skype; it will certainly improve student-teacher interaction.

·        Real-Time Assessment

Also known as Formative Assessment, real-time assessment can allow you to track the activities of your students in real-time. This eventually helps with discipline monitoring, counting attendance, and understanding the students. Not to mention, Real-Time Assessment can serve as the best tool for setting up schools in remote areas.

In addition, the Formative Assessment will help you make effective decisions and optimize teaching resources. New technology like the Internet of Things (IoT) is one the best way to install Real-Time assessment tools.

·        Quick Access to Information

You will agree that one of the things we praise the technology for is the quickness. No doubt, internet technology offers a vast array of tools and platforms to access the information in a jiffy. Moreover, internet stores a large amount of useful data and information, which makes it easy for students and also teachers to understand complex topics and develop their own perspective.

Although there are many search engines available on the internet, Google is one of the most popular resources for instant access to information. Similarly, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, and Bing are some other search engines that provide quick access to information.

Distracting Impact of Technology

There is no denying that technology can be a distraction for many students, educators, and parents alike. It’s not unusual to see a teacher taking a glance at their personal messages or social media while in class. Such kind of distraction not only interrupts the class, but also diverts your students’ concentration.

When it comes to students, it’s no secret that they are majorly distracted by their tech gadgets or devices. Whether they are studying at home or taking a class, students are often engrossed in their social media, messages, and even taking pictures when they pick up the device to research something related to their assignment.

The Bottom Line

From checking school rankings to applying for admission, technology has made several things just a single click away. While it is likely that technology can be distracting and can be misused, the advantages it provides in improving teaching and learning methodologies shouldn’t be overlooked.