You’d hardly find any area more important for our society than education. It is vital for the entire humanity. Without saving and improving knowledge, further civilization progress would fail. Thus, the common logic suggests that the educational field must be ahead of the technology curve. Unfortunately, last year proved that it was far from desired.
The COVID-19 pandemic crisis forced students of all levels to switch online. The trouble was, even in 2020, most schools weren't ready for this challenge at all. They had to spend months trying to adjust to the new reality and develop new teaching technologies. It was a valuable lesson that we all learned, and schools should not make mistakes of the year 2020 in 2021.
Accor ding to Tech Acrobat, education must use the latest technologies to survive and develop. Plenty of tech trends in education stepped forward. The priorities will be improving the overall accessibility of education and improving its quality.
Schools mostly referred to accessibility in terms of accommodations and their equipment. Mass switching to remote mode raised more questions. The gap between those having access to technologies and those lacking that access contradicted the equity principles. Hence, the primary demand is to ensure equal educational opportunities in online mode.
Investing in more advanced devices and better Internet connection and developing online behavior standards for all participants will be the top goals. An online lesson should not be a one-way lecture. A student should communicate with the teacher whether to ask for advice regarding a research job or participate in a hot discussion.
This initiative suggests using students' mobile devices in lessons. One of the painful problems that the crisis revealed was that lots of families could not grant appropriate learning processes online. Online classes required large screens, while many students, especially from underpaid families, could only work with smartphones.
A smartphone is a powerful tool. Besides, it is a technology that students already own and use actively. It should not be ignored. Integrating personal smartphones and tablets into learning processes has exciting potential. Smartphones serve for communication, for access to references, or as a means of performing different tasks.
When both teachers and students see these devices as helpful educational tools, they can use them most efficiently. It is equally suitable for collecting information online, making notes, or getting personal help from the instructor. Even a practical essay writing job benefits from using mobile devices both as libraries and notebooks.
Modern education has to be flexible and match the current living conditions. Students may need access to learning from different locations. Dedicated cloud resources are among the most evident tech trends in education. Every student can get a personal learning space in a cloud, with access to libraries, guidelines, computing, personal advice, etc.
eLearning process more individual is the most efficient approach. Computing options will help with calculations. Getting any will be a matter of seconds report checking the structures and formatting.
Augmented reality is one of the examples of emerging technologies with overwhelming prospects in education. Modern education reflects the complexity of the world, and all subjects are intertwined. For instance, any research job targets several goals. Students have to apply them to different spheres of knowledge they possess. Here, Augmented Reality involves many channels during the learning process.
This technology helps to understand cause-and-effect connections and intertwining between different subjects. Getting related information for any event or object in the same interface, without referring to external systems, makes the overall process smoother. It improves absorbing and analyzing information because it provides a much better context for any topic and illustrates all statements.
It would be an example of the integrated approach to education covering all disciplines and encouraging students’ independent reflection on the subjects.
The global Web is an integral part of our life, and we all are used to working and living in it. The advantages it brings to education are indisputable. People only need an intermediary device to get connected. 5G is the latest wireless technology generation ensuring the fastest speed of connection to the Web.
A combination of a smartphone or tablet with a 5G connection becomes a research center of your own. It allows surfing the Web and collecting data in all formats. Such valuable sources of information as online lectures, podcasts, and videos will be much more accessible. Standard tasks like downloading and uploading files will advance too.
Many students who forcefully switched to remote learning due to the lockdown restrictions suffered because of the slow Internet connection at home. It limited their access to the information and complicated all processes.
Many courses involve experiments, and schools provide lab premises and equipment for them. Virtual laboratories would not substitute for practical experience. Still, such simulations allow students to gain more results than theoretical research.
Besides, it is much more convenient, as access to a virtual lab is possible from any location. Less pressure and more options to experiment make simulations a reliable method that will become more popular further.
When COVID-19 made schools all over the world change all their traditional patterns, it was a shock. Teachers complained that online education had too many drawbacks. Even those schools running online courses and programs faced lots of difficulties when all students and all courses had to switch. Still, it accelerated the implementation of new teaching technologies. The crisis made us experiment and learn new ways of work.