Education Technology and Smart Classrooms

Education Technology (Ed Tech) and Smart Classrooms have been changing the traditional method of education, teaching and learning methods. Education technology refers to the integration and application of software, hardware and educational theories for facilitating learning in an interesting manner and enhancing the performances through creation, usage and management of suitable technical resources and processes.

The education technology (Ed Tech) covers several domains that include educational teaching and learning theories, online learning, computer based and smartphone based learning. This technology includes the practice of introducing the technical or information technology (IT) tools in the classroom for creating a more interesting, engaging, customized, individualized and inclusive experience of learning for the students.

In the modern world, dominated by artificial intelligence and smart technologies, the way of learning as well as teaching has been evolving quite rapidly. The classrooms are no longer the traditional rooms with desks and blackboards. The old desktop computers in the school and university classrooms have also given way for more advanced and smart devices like laptops, tablets, smartphones etc. and hence, the concept of classroom study has become highly dynamic.

To make the education techniques more interesting and effective, the IoT devices are extremely useful. These new techniques of study not only online Assignment help the students to learn though fun forms but also increases their learning convenience by creating a digital learning environment anywhere like in school bus, playground etc.

The new education technology is getting advanced quite rapidly. Numerous smartphone apps have been developed for the study curriculum of different classes and also for specialized subjects.

Hence, students from junior classes to the university students are able to get the benefits of specialized or customized apps for their subjects of study. The integration of internet has also increased the convenience of the students to do further research whenever requires without actually visiting the library.

Ed Tech has become quite effective for teachers also. It is an aid for the teachers to broaden the horizon of knowledge for themselves about the global education systems and the advancements happening worldwide to increase the practical knowledge of the students. The teachers are now being able to put grading for the tests more efficiently and keep tracks of the homework and progress of the students more effectively.

The new age education technology has the potential to develop and implement scaleable individualized learning process. It has been observed over the years that the learning capacity of each students is different. The way of understanding the subjects, application of the knowledge, classroom interactions, and enthusiasm for the same subjects are highly different and it is not a situation where one-size-fits-all.

Thus, every student has their own pace, style, interest and capacity of learning. Thus, through the modern education technology, it is possible to create customized and individualised learning plans, which would help in having an exclusive learning experience for all the students. For example, it has been noticed that the new apps and technologies create an interactive lesson plans foster the sense of inclusivity among the students and also help to enhance the learning abilities of all the students, irrespective of their age or learning capabilities.

Ed Tech includes various systems for efficient management of learning courses, subjects and curriculums. For example, it includes Learning Management Systems (LMS), Education Management Information Systems (EMIS), which all focus on the managing the tools for education curriculum. Similarly, there are Training Management Systems (TMS) for managing budget and logistics, Learning Record Store (LRS) for storing and analysing the learning data, which is beneficial for analysing and estimating the trend or pattern of learning of the students, effectiveness of the contents and their ability to accept and learn through new systems and develop content for future.

There are other systems also, such as, Learning Content Management Systems (LCMS), Student Response Systems (SRS), Learning Content Development Systems (LCDS), Assessment Systems, Classroom Management Systems, Document Management Systems (DMS) and Collaboration Systems.

Smart classrooms is an extension of the education technology. The advancement in technology has resulted in the rise of smart classrooms which are successfully replacing the conventional and traditional learning and teaching methods. These classrooms have installed new technologies like projectors, white boards, smart notebooks, tablets for class work, etc. The implementation of technologies in the classrooms brings improvement to the understanding and learning capabilities of students.

Unlike the conventional methods of teaching and learning, the smart classrooms are not limited by location, attendance and number of hours. It is defined as the system that combines the educational products or content, and applications and modes of learning. However, till now only the large educational institutions are adopting these smart classrooms and educational technologies as those are cost consuming, which the smaller institutions often cannot afford.

Thus, it can be said that the smart classrooms incorporate the latest and state-of-the-art technologies and the market is usually classified into technology, region, end user and hardware. The technological segment is based on educational analytics, educational gaming, educational dashboards, educational security and institutional resource planning.

The region wise segment includes North America, Western Europe, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Japan, Middle East and Africa (MEA) and Asia Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ). The third segmentation that is end users consists of the groups like kindergarten, junior and elementary school, high school, college, university, vocational training institutes, and professional training institutes for working professionals.

Lastly, the hardware segmentation is based on tools like, projectors, interactive displays, interactive whiteboards, printers, e-book readers like kindle, smart phones, tablets and mobile apps, audio equipment, etc.  

The growing number of mobile learning applications and increasing interest towards the digital learning process are fuelling the growth of Ed Tech and the smart classroom systems worldwide. These new systems of education are enabling the users achieving high quality education, which are not only complied with the regulations, but also contribute in the improvement of the quality and standard of the education.

The lack of awareness in the teaching and learning system is quite significant in the developing regions like Latin America, Asia Pacific, and Africa and that are creating obstacles in enjoying the benefits of the Ed Tech and smart classrooms. However, it has also been noticed that the developing regions often do not have enough resources to implement the smart technologies in the education sector, and these factors hinder the overall growth of the new technology across the world.

From the global surveys and studies, it has been found that the practice of smart classrooms is gaining much popularity across the world. Around 92% of the educators stated that education technology will be having a major impact on the method of teaching and learning in the future.

Hence, many major tech companies are entering the education technology market, such as, Blackboard Inc., Adobe Corporation, Cisco System Inc., Educomp Solutions, NIIT Ltd, Scholastic Corporation, etc. These players are focusing on introducing many advanced solutions for gaining the first mover advantage in this market. The Ed Tech and smart classroom market was worth of USD 43.27 billion in 2015 and by 2020, it is expected to grow to USD 93.76 billion.

Understanding the advantages of the Ed Tech and smart classrooms is extremely essential to implement the technology in the educational sector and countries should take measures to gather adequate resources to introduce the new and advanced technology in the education sector to improve the quality of teaching and learning and enhance the learning ability of the students. This way, the benefits of the new technology can be exploited and that can enhance the knowledge of the students in a more effective manner.