Cultus
No one would have ever imagined in the past that technological advancements in education will bring such a major paradigm shift that we will transit from whiteboard to integrated classrooms, while textbooks will be replaced by the tablets.
The twenty-first-century is blessed with the best classroom technology. Schools are equipped with hi-tech interactive gadgets and devices to educate the future leaders.
We are somehow now convinced with the fact that new tech will likely transform the teaching and learning methodologies in the classrooms. The developed countries are progressing towards a more advanced form of education, while education technology is still an enigma for the third world countries as they are still striving to set their feet in the education sector.
This has led many people in the developing countries to form an opinion about education technology which is not true. We call them myths and some of them deserve to be mentioned here:
1. Technology fixes all the students and teachers’ problems
Hi-tech gadgets or devices are just tools. You can repair what is broken, but you cannot make it look new. Classroom technology is not appropriate for every educational task at all. You need to keep it low at times and go back to basics to teach.
If we talk about students first, the smarter ones will make the most of the technology and the dull ones will have a hard time grasping the knowledge. This is a simple phenomenon-the smarter ones are using their brains the same way they would use in traditional learning. Whereas, the dull students would not care whether it is a blackboard or an interactive board but, it might create a positive interest in them.
Now regarding the teachers, it doesn’t matter how good the gadgets are, if you are good teacher your effective teaching methods will give out best results when integrated with technology, otherwise, if you are a bad one, there is no guarantee that you will get better at it.
2. Technology is dangerous, keep it limited
If we walk on the path that everything is dangerous, we will never succeed. It is a fact that technology is indeed dangerous, but danger only comes from misuse and poor choices – these things can always be kept monitored.
Limiting access to the educational tools is not the solution but giving the proper knowledge about the systems would help students and teachers simultaneously. Keeping everything in check will help to create a meaningful educational experience.
3. Technology leads to student success
Well, says who?
I mean, all those people who invented things for us didn’t have hi-tech gadgets, but books, knowledge, and brains. The recent concept is that the use of technology leads to the collection of a lot of data, hence, this leads to believe that students are getting better at it. With the hi-tech teaching and learning method, you are educating the students but you need to involve the creative learning as well.
4. Educational gaming improves student achievement
Still, the crosswords section in the newspaper is more meaningful than educational game apps. Guess-the-answer or point-and-click kind of games do not engage students in creative learning. We all love playing such games, but most of the time we are simply guessing things and not learning anything out of it. These games are just easy to implement and do not require much professional development.
5. Technology is less meaningful than traditional learning
No, no, no!
This is not how it is if you make an environment in a classroom by demonstrating best practices of the technology, students would like to collaborate and share rather than drooling and staring like zombies. Traditional learning does not give much space to explore, but through technology, you can step out of the classroom and do many great things.
Apart from these myths, it is said that it more students can be educated through online teaching than the traditional face-to-face learning techniques. Teaching online would cost less than regular classroom teaching, so there would be fewer courses and fewer buildings.
There are chances that all the teachers and faculties will abandon the traditional face-to-face teaching methodology for the sake of online teaching. This is why Google Certified Teachers and Educators are now getting more popular than regular teachers. But, nothing to be worried because traditional things have their own charm and such things are there to stay. It is also said that purchasing networks and computers is the most expensive part when providing technology for the teaching and learning process.
I think we all agree with the fact that everything has its merits and demerits and it depends on the user that how they would like to use it. Educational technology is an indeed a game-changing shift from the traditional education system. This is giving out the best learning experiences for students at all levels which involve students in creating, exploring and share their knowledge and abilities. New apps and devices in the market are being made just to reward the students with better learning.
Myths can be interpreted in several ways, some are in favor of the hi-tech advancement in the educational system and some are not. We have to somewhat agree with the fact that students on the higher-level feel more comfortable with the technology rather than traditional learning. The BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) has become a trend and everyone prefers to get educated in their own comfort zone.
But, before getting into anything you need to assess things yourself, work upon the underlying costs, how would you and your children feel regarding the shift from traditional to educational technology. We hope that the new-age children bring out the positive out of the advanced technologies and make the most of it by learning today and implementing tomorrow.
Author :
Rayanne Dany is working as a Google Certified Teacher for ATH. She is extremely passionate about helping students and provides them true assignment service round the clock. Furthermore, she is an important part of many student forums which is one of the most followed academic consultancies.