Edtech is a compound word of the words "educational technology". It is a combination of IT tools and educational practice, aiming to facilitate and enhance learning. Our guide will walk you through the current state of edtech and its bright future in the classroom.
What is educational technology?
Edtech is the practice of introducing IT tools into the classroom to create a more attractive, inclusive, and personalized learning experience.
Today’s classrooms have surpassed the cumbersome desktop computers that were once the norm, and are now tech-infused with tablets, interactive online courses, and even robots that can take notes and record lectures for sick students.
The influx of educational technology tools is changing the classroom in many ways: educational technology robots allow students to easily stay engaged through interesting forms of learning; IoT devices are widely praised for their ability to create digital classrooms for students, whether they are in school, on the bus or are still at home; even machine learning and blockchain tools are helping teachers to conduct grading tests and holding students accountable for homework.
The potential for scalable, personalized learning has played an important role in the rise of edtech. The way we learn, the way we interact with classmates and teachers, and our overall enthusiasm for the same subject are not one size fits all. Everyone learns at their own pace and style. Edtech tools make it easier for teachers to create personalized lesson plans and learning experiences, thereby fostering inclusiveness and improving the learning capabilities of all students, regardless of their age or learning ability.
It seems that technology in the classroom will continue to exist - 92% of teachers believe that technology will have a significant impact on their way of education in the near future. For this reason, it is important to understand the benefits of edtech in the form of increased communication, collaboration, and overall educational quality.
How does edtech help students and teachers?
Students
The influx of technology has opened up new learning avenues for students of all ages, while also promoting collaboration and inclusiveness in the classroom. The following are five main ways that educational technology directly affects the way students learn.
1. Strengthen Collaboration
Cloud-enabled tools and tablets are promoting classroom collaboration. Tablets equipped with learning games and online courses provide children with tools to solve problems together. At the same time, cloud-based applications allow students to upload their homework and communicate their thought processes with each other digitally and ask for any help they may need.
2. 24/7 Learning
IoT devices make it easier for students to fully enter the classroom in a digital environment. Whether at school, on the bus, or at home, connected devices provide students with Wi-Fi and cloud access, allowing them to complete work at their own pace (and their own schedule) without interference by restriction of needing to be present in a physical classroom.
Plenty of apps also help students and teachers stay in communication in case students have queries or need to alert teachers to an emergency.
3. "Flip” the Classroom
Educational technology tools are subverting traditional classroom and education concepts. Traditionally, students must listen to lectures or read in class, and then do projects and homework at home. Through video lectures and learning apps, students can now watch lessons at home at their own pace and use class time to collaborate on projects as a team. This way of learning helps cultivate students' autonomous learning, creativity, and sense of cooperation.
4. Individualized Educational Experiences
Edtech provides educators with the opportunity to develop a personalized learning plan for each student. This method is designed to tailor learning based on students' strengths, skills and interests.
Video content tools help students learn at their own pace, and because students can pause and replay lectures, these videos can help students fully master the course. Through analysis, teachers can see which students have encountered problems in certain courses and provide further help on the topic.
Educators no longer rely on stress-induced tests to measure academic success but instead turn to apps that consistently measure overall ability. Continuous measurement shows learning trends. Teachers can use these trends to develop special learning plans based on each student’s strengths and weaknesses, or more importantly, discover negative trends that can be actively prevented through intervention.
5. Eye-Catching Lessons
Do you remember sitting in class, listening for a long time and dreaming? Now, it seems that there are countless gadgets and external influences competing for the attention of students, so it is imperative to develop a lesson plan that is both fascinating and educational. Edtech supporters say that technology is the answer. Some of the more innovative examples of students using technology to increase classroom participation include interacting with other classrooms around the world through video, allowing students to submit homework in the form of videos or podcasts, and even gamification of problem-solving.
Teachers
Students are not the only group benefiting from educational technology. Teachers see educational technology as a means to develop efficient learning practices and save classroom time. Here are four ways edtech helps teachers re-do what they do - teaching.
1. Automatic Scoring
Artificial intelligence tools make scoring a breeze. These applications use machine learning to analyze and evaluate answers based on the specifications of the task. Using these tools, especially for objective assignments such as true/false or fill-in-the-blank tasks, can free up the time teachers usually spend on grading assignments. The extra free time for teachers provides more flexibility, reduces preparation time and communicates one-on-one with difficult and gifted students.
2. Classroom Management Tools
Let's face it, trying to get a large group of children to do anything is challenging. Educational technology has the potential to create everything - from the way teachers and students communicate to the way students behave - easier. There are now apps that help send reminders to parents and students about projects or homework, as well as tools that allow students to self-monitor the noise levels in the classroom. Adding management tools to the classroom has brought a less chaotic and more collaborative environment.
3. Paperless Classroom
Thanks to edtech, printing budgets, wasted paper, and countless hours spent on copiers are all a thing of the past. The digital classroom brings a simpler way of grading homework, reduces the burden of having to protect hundreds of homework files, and promotes an overall greener policy in the classroom.
4. Eliminate Guesswork
Teachers spend countless hours trying to evaluate students’ skills or areas for improvement. Edtech can change all of this. At present, there are countless tools, data platforms and applications that can continuously evaluate students’ skills and needs and pass the data to teachers.
Sometimes, teachers will not find harmful learning trends for several months, but some tools that use real-time data can help teachers discover students' strengths, weaknesses, and even signs of learning disabilities, so as to develop active help plans.
If you want to discover more about EPAM educational technology solutions take alook at our Edtech category.
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