Is EdTech Really Transforming Education?

It’s no surprise that technology has changed the way we live in the world. It’s transformed everything from the way we form relationships, shop, do business and think about education. Whether we like it or not, technology and EdTech are altering the way teachers teach, and students learn. Whether it be the implementation of the latest devices into a classroom or the use of the internet for valuable learning tools, EdTech is here to stay.
Many students today may not see this transformation because they have grown up with rapidly evolving technology and the ability to have access to information at their fingertips. Teachers and parents, on the other hand, have gotten the chance to see the evolution of technology and education first hand. In just the past decade alone, the use of technology and mobile devices in the classroom has rapidly increased. No longer are the days of highlighting passages in textbooks and taking notes with a pencil. Read below for ways that EdTech is transforming education for the better.
Communication
It’s now easier than ever for teachers to communicate with parents and students, and vice versa. With the mobility of email and text messaging on smartphones, teachers can remind students and parents about homework, progress reports, and upcoming assignments in a matter of seconds. Parents can now stay more informed about their children’s progress in school and what they are learning. They don’t have to make the hike up to school for parent-teacher conferences that only happen once a quarter anymore. Technology has even transformed the way students can communicate with each other. It’s easier for them to collaborate and discuss assignments outside of the classroom.
Inclusion
Through the power of technology, more and more students with disabilities are now able to be included into the mainstream classroom. Technology like videos and games specifically designed with these students’ needs in mind can incorporate students into lessons and allow them to feel included with the rest of their peers. If a student has trouble writing on their own, technology can help them easily take notes or record lessons. Both teachers and students benefit from technology’s inclusive features that make learning accessible to everyone.
Interactive Lessons
Students these days get bored easily, they crave the immediate gratification that social media and video games give them. This is why outdated teaching tools like textbooks and lectures aren’t enough to keep students engaged anymore. With the help of technology, teachers are able to create interactive and engaging lessons for a wide variety of subjects. Technology like tablets, laptops, and computers are being incorporated into classrooms to make learning fun and creative. Some higher education classrooms are even beginning to use technology like robotics, 3D printing, and virtual reality to engage students and prepare them for the future.
Digital Media
Going back to the idea that students are easily bored in the classroom, digital media is bringing exciting new tools for teachers to engage them with. Things like videos, pictures, slideshows and gifs use a variety of media to capture students’ attention and make learning fun again. Any teacher can easily tell a student about a historic event, but having them watch it happen on video brings a sense of immersion to the learning process. With free tools like Youtube and TED Talks, along with countless other online resources, teachers have access to an infinite wealth of information and digital media to enhance students’ understanding of topics.
Resources for All
Textbooks and database subscriptions can be expensive, and many public-school districts do not have the funding to purchase these tools for students. With the internet, learning has become accessible and free to every student. With the introduction of electronic textbooks, mobile applications and other electronic resources, schools are able to purchase valuable tools at lower costs. They can also afford to purchase the latest tools and updates, as it’s much more cost-efficient to download the new version of a book than to order hundreds of new physical textbooks. Thanks to technology, students of all economic backgrounds now have access to the same information and opportunities.
Collaboration
Just like with communication, technology has changed the way both students and teachers can collaborate. With helpful applications and online tools, teachers can work together from the comfort of their own homes to share lesson plans, worksheets, and ideas with one another. This lightens the loads for teachers who are constantly having to come up new ideas and content for lesson plans, especially with the plethora of resources available on the internet and from teachers across the globe.
Bottom Line
There’s no doubt that EdTech is transforming education before our eyes. From the way teachers communicate with parents, to the way students are engaged in the classroom, EdTech has a large impact on the modern world of education.
Edtech has experienced tremendous growth over the years and the amount of impact it has had on te school fraternity is immeasurable.Thanks for taking your time to explain this very important topic. I appreciate the insights.
Technology has influenced the entire education landscape and the efficiency and effectiveness being experienced are due to the hard work put by education experts and futurists.
Thanks, Mathew.
Certainly you have pointed out ways the educational experience has changed. I’m curious what continuities hide among those changes.
My parents found keeping tabs on my grades a hassle. They set an expectation that we owned our learning and the consequences of poor grades. Only at report card time of grades were very poor did we earn walkthroughs of our learning.
My youngest child has been resistant to that approach. If it might be boring, he won’t bother, or he’ll slop through it. I, meanwhile, an Ed Tech professional and long-time educator, find the friction in getting to those convenient online grades and understanding what they mean nearly a hopeless waste of my time. It would be easier to go through his areas for improvement with him myself.
But I can’t get his attention. I don’t exist within a rectangle-bounded screen, and my “personalized” interactivity with him is less predictable and controllable than what he’s come to expect in the digital learning environments he experiences at school.
So as an educator, Ed Tech professional, and parent, I remain concerned about the distraction and hunger for digital stimulation my son seems to experience, coupled with my own distraction, and the distraction I know, from my work with customers using various Ed Tech products, instructors do at times feel.
I think it’s important to remind ourselves that it’s early days yet, and we’ve yet to master the pedagogy, let alone the technology – front end to back. Meanwhile the minds we’re working with are changing their manner of learning in real time, in partvbecause of these very interventions.
What excites me most that you’ve addressed here – though we’ve still miles to go before those promises are fully met all round, are 1) the opportunities to meet accessibility needs (please write more) and 2) the collaboration among instructors and ultimately students that the new platforms have opened and continue to open. There’s much more to come in these areas, and the real strength of the human mind – its capacity for creativity – could and I think will be unleashed in new and exciting ways there.
Additionally, as we increasingly reliably capture data about student engagement, relative competency, and preparatory activity, while ensuring student privacy is also safeguarded and honored, building that data in a real-time, visual at-a-glance manner for instructors using synchronous platforms in a distance or hybrid setting will empower those instructors to make quick, informed choices about how to spend classroom time, and perhaps help them and administrators make better decisions about what sort of targeted auxiliary resources – tutoring, enrichment, academic coaching, even career counseling – might best be brought to bear in any given classroom sequence.
That means more time – and more of the right time – your every student. And that’s where we want Ed Tech to take us.