If the past couple of years has taught us anything, it’s how much technology has shaped our everyday life. Remote working is so commonplace nowadays thanks to the revolutionized ways that technology allows us to communicate and interact with people and even machines remotely. The education field also has its fair share of improvements and technology has a lot to offer students and teachers to make the learning process more productive and rewarding.
It’s all thanks to that revolution in communication that our lives have become a lot easier. But it’s not just entertainment and communication, technology and the internet have changed the way you do business for the better. If you want to build a website and you want to find a talented web developer in Belfast, for example, then searching online would help you find exactly what you’re looking for quickly and efficiently. Which brings us back to how technology is impacting education and helping students learn faster and be more productive.
Personalized Learning
As the student population gets more diverse, the traditional one size fits all approach is no longer feasible. Each student has a different pace with which they learn new material. Forcing a student to speed up their learning process when they’re not ready for it, can have adverse effects. But thanks to the new technologies and devices at each student’s disposal, the learning experience can be tailored to the students needs and customized to match the student’s capabilities as well.
Personalized learning is a new concept that’s taking the education field by a storm. It mainly focuses on creating a learner profile for each student. The profile tells everything about the student’s strengths and weaknesses. It also states clearly what the goals of each student are and whether they have specific needs or preferences when it comes to learning. By adopting this approach, the education authorities acknowledge that every student has a different learning path. It also encourages the student to find their specific goals and pursue them by customizing the learning methodology to match those goals.
Personalized learning also takes into account the real progress the student is making rather than focus on their attendance or the hours they spend at school. This new way of evaluating the learning process puts the student at the heart of it. It also changes the way teachers create the learning environment itself. Students can enjoy a more flexible environment that is structured around their specific goals rather than some generalized goals that benefit no one in particular.
Simulated Experiences and Better Communication
Technology has also changed the way textbooks are designed and how the material is introduced to students. Traditional textbooks lack the creativity and innovation that other digital devices are famous for. Students love researching and interacting with their computers, tablets, and phones to get access to information quickly. And when you compare textbooks with their limited and static content to the vast ocean of information available online, it becomes clear why our perception of the textbook has to change.
These days, the textbook is an umbrella term as far as educators are concerned. It implies every source of information that the student has access to. It can be a book, a digital device, or a tutor. Which is why simulated experiences are also considered a legitimate way to pass information to students and teach them valuable skills that a traditional book cannot deliver. Through these simulated experiences, the teacher can guide the students on a virtual tour that takes them to the far corners of the universe and back without leaving their seats.
Technology has also facilitated the way the educator can communicate with the students. The learning process is not a one way street with the student at the receiving end. With better communication comes new ways to learn, experience, and assimilate knowledge. The student no longer has to rely solely on the teacher and textbook to learn. They also interact with applications designed specifically for their educational needs. Students also have better access to information and can get that information from more than one source.
Every time a student interacts with technology, they evolve and change even a little. That’s because although technology is impersonal, the way the student uses it is very much personal. That personal angle is what sets modern educational methodology apart from the traditional ways that previous generations got their education. That’s because education is more than delivering information to students. It’s more about teaching them social skills, introducing them to new experiences, and preparing them for life as adults.
Technology has had an impact on almost every aspect of our lives. But the education system has benefited more from the applications that technology has made possible both for the educators and the students alike. With the introduction of the concept of personalized learning, the student is now the main focus of every learning environment. The goal is to tailor that environment and adjust the goals of the educational process to match those of each individual student. Rather than measure the student’s progress by the amount of hours they spend in class, the new standard is to test the skills they have learned instead. Only then will education truly become an experience for the students and about the students.