Over the past few decades, learning environments have changed significantly – sticking to the traditional curriculum and methods is no longer optional. A significant challenge in the present education system is that the students are not motivated to be lifelong learners or be innovative in learning nor do they graduate from the school system with skills, mindset or the curiosity to survive the world of accelerating change. In the era of tech disruption, institutions will need to go beyond merely emphasizing on individual academic achievements and short-term grades.
This leads to the question: What is the most effective way to educate students and equip them to tackle the increasingly complex challenges of tomorrow? Incorporating or adapting emerging educational technologies and their changing environments will not only make small incremental changes but also change the face of mainstream education entirely.
Ed Tech is more than just gadgets, AI and immersive tech is already changing the ways in which we teach and learn. For example, interactive textbooks help in visualizing concepts or theories. Introducing animations, videos, assessments, and additional materials to support learning, technology is paving promising new paths.
The introduction of voice recognition software and AI has made classroom teaching to become more informative and communicative. Also, teaching children with special needs or with language barriers has now become relatively easy. Numerous educative apps, innovative technologies, and smart devices such as tablets/iPads have advanced the teaching process in schools and colleges. They have emerged as one of the powerful and adaptive tools for teaching and learning. Apart from that, extended classroom communities like Edmodo is being utilized by students and teachers to discuss homework, assignments and interact with peers.
While the idea of a library may never go obsolete, but a lot of research and learning is now gradually shifting to the cloud as it is quick and easy-to-access. What takes hours to find amongst the books in a library, can now be found instantaneously on the web. Virtual and Augmented Reality (VR/AR) are transforming learning experiences. They allow students to take a trip into history, travel across the universe, and visit museums in different countries, all from inside a classroom, making learning more engaging. For instance, the Google Expeditions Pioneer Program allows teachers to take their students on a trip anywhere in the world. Whether it’s “exploring coral reefs or the surface of Mars,” teachers can take their students on educational, virtual field trips.
Immersive experiences contribute to better learning, retention, decision making, and is not limited to something that students must do at a particular institution for a specific period of time for a certification at the end.
Taking a new approach, education should be a lifelong journey of exploration and self-discovery. Atlab, world’s leading education training and learning solutions provider, is working towards this goal in creating such immersive curricula and with that objective, has partnered with some of the pioneers in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) solutions to engineer a curriculum that caters to the needs of an innovative curriculum. Every student’s unique learning style is accommodated within the curriculum, whether a student is a kinesthetic or visual learner, or a non-reader. Atlab-based schools have displayed marked improvement in student motivation, resulting in students grasping subject matters with increased ease and excelling in handling systems and equipment in shorter time frames. The idea of virtual classrooms is highly intriguing. Students can do a lot through virtual classrooms like access their coursework 24/7 from anywhere, discuss projects, go on virtual field trips, understand concepts in a virtual setup, and so much more.
Neuroeducation is an emerging field of educational neuroscience, where scientists are trying to get a better understanding of the brain and an individual’s learning process. Understanding the underlying processes of learning would have powerful implications on the learning capabilities. Some experts even expect for a complete mapping of human synapses to determine how learning occurs and thereby develop biological strategies for improvement in learning. If they are successful in determining the underlying processes, it may also pave way for cognitive enhancement drugs, genetically-enhanced intelligence, and integration with AI devices through brain-machine interfaces. But that, of course, is a bit far-fetched for now.
Having the best in technology is not enough. Applying it to education to make it better is important and what’s more important is devising ways to improve universal access to technology-based education. Various political bodies will see these new educational capacities as a threat to their power. In fact, some of these techniques might even be outlawed to prolong existing ideologies and belief structures in various places across the world. Therefore, the challenge is not only to apply technology in improving learning process but also to make it available for all.
Technology is changing the Way Our Children Learn
