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EdTech is everywhere in today’s classrooms, with more teachers using technology than ever before. Let’s take a look at some of the ways EdTech benefits both teachers and students.
Today's world has revolutionized young people into digital citizens with the advent of technology that is readily accessible. Modern teaching techniques harness this potential to enhance individualized learning. For teachers, technology creates an immersive and engaging learning experience. It also automates administrative tasks to save the teacher's time while offering data on the performance of students.
EdTech refers to technology that helps facilitate collaboration in active learning environments. Through educational technology, educators create interactive textbooks, take students' attendance, gamify lessons, and hold tests or quizzes. Educational technology disrupted traditional teaching and educational methods by offering students and teachers the ability to learn in environments that use modern devices like tablets, laptops, and smartphones. EdTech is popular in today's classrooms as more teachers embrace technology. Here are some ways EdTech benefits both students and teachers.
Students are not the only group that benefits from EdTech. Teachers see educational technology as a way to develop learning practices that save time in classrooms. Below are the ways EdTech helps teachers get back to teaching.
Automated classroom procedures are instrumental to helping teachers involve learners and cope with busy days. Workflows and intelligent agents assist in guiding learners to desired results. For instance, through facilitating targeted communication that focuses on areas of concern or achievement without the teacher micromanaging each step. Apps like StudyForde and Edgenuity automate procedures, bring forward resources that drive home concepts, facilitate lesson planning, and enrich students' learning experience.
Before the rise of EdTech, teachers could spend long hours grading papers to create lesson plans. With the internet and technology, teachers can now easily find free materials and lesson plans online. Plus, the programs and apps designed to grade students' work save them more time.
Automated Grading
Artificially intelligent tools make grading a breeze. Through machine learning, the apps assess and analyze answers based on assignment specifications. Using the tools, mainly for objective assignments like false/true or fill–in–the–blanks, frees teachers' time that could otherwise be spent grading the assignments. Consequently, teachers have more time to attend to other students' needs.
Classroom Management Tools
It can be demanding, having to mobilize a group of students to carry out activities. Through educational technology, teachers can easily communicate with their students. Some apps send learners and parents reminders on homework assignments, projects, and tools that allow students to self-monitor their classroom noise levels. The classroom management tools introduce a less chaotic and more collaborative environment.
Paperless Classrooms
Going paperless is a way for schools to reduce costs and carbon footprint. Through more online materials and using technological devices, teachers cut back on paper copies they make.
Eliminating Guesswork
Teachers spend many hours assessing students' skills or areas of improvement. Through EdTech, there are numerous tools, apps, and data platforms to constantly evaluate the needs and abilities of students and relay the data to teachers. At times, teachers may not identify dangerous learning trends. Still, the tools with real-time data enable teachers to discover the weaknesses, strengths, and signs of disabilities in learning, setting in motion proactive plans to help.
Provide Additional Support to Students
Through technology, teachers can identify students that need additional support. The learners easily get overwhelmed by the education system or get lost in a busy classroom. For instance, through analytics in LMS, teachers quickly identify students who are struggling on the subject matter and promptly intervene with adequate help.
They can also use Google Cardboard or Google searches to take students on virtual field trips that engage virtual learners. Teachers can also use LMS workflows to help release content in sequential chunks, thereby ensuring that they are not overburdened.
Personalized Learning for Students
Through EdTech, teachers can differentiate learning as it allows students to work on different tasks from their devices and focus on their other areas of weakness.
Student Analytics
EdTech makes assessing students' progress much easier. Many programs automatically provide teachers with students' data, showing skills that learners have mastered and areas they need to improve.
Technological influx creates new learning avenues for students of all ages while promoting inclusive classroom collaboration. Here are ways EdTech is impacting students' learning.
Tablets and cloud-enabled tools are fostering classroom collaboration. Tablets with online lessons and learning games provide children with tools that help them solve problems together. Additionally, cloud-based apps allow students to upload their homework and digitally converse about their thought processes and seek assistance.
Through IoT devices, students easily access digital classroom environments. Whether at home or on the bus, the Wi-Fi-connected gadgets and cloud access allow them to complete tasks at their own pace without the restrictions of attending physical lessons. Different apps also enable teachers and students to communicate easily in case learners need to report emergencies or have questions.
EdTech tools are changing the traditional notion of education and classrooms. Conventionally, students learn in classrooms or listen to lectures and work projects at home. However, with video learning and lecture apps, learners attend classes at home and use class time to work on projects collaboratively as a group. The learning style fosters creativity, self-learning, and collaboration among students.
Through EdTech, educators create personalized learning plans for each student. The approach customizes the learning based on the skills, interests, and strengths of learners. Video content tools enable learners to rewind or pause lectures to grasp classes fully and at their own pace. Through analytics, the teachers identify students with challenges in certain subjects and offer help in those lessons.
Nowadays, in place of stress-inducing tests to gauge academic success, educators consistently use apps measuring overall aptitude. Through frequent performance measures, teachers craft specialized plans depending on the student's weaknesses or strengths.
With infinite outside influences and gadgets competing for students' attention, you must design lesson plans that are both educational and engaging. EdTech proponents recommend technology as the answer. Some innovative examples of increasing classroom participation include submitting assignments like podcasts or videos, gamifying problem-solving, and interacting with other students through video calls.
Most kids love playing online or video games. The information technology that makes the games engaging is employed in learning tools. Digital games make learning fun, communicate new learning resources, and simplify participation for students with special needs or disabilities. Through tapping students' competitiveness, these games encourage learners to work hard.
Examples of educational technologies with gaming principles include Classcraft, which offers tools and games to make classwork engaging, and Kahoot, where participants compete against classmates in answering questions.
Like watching great movies, educational videos are highly engaging for students. With a plethora of learning videos, teachers have ready resources for each subject. For instance, Dr. Karl Kruszelnicki, a science communicator from Australia, has numerous videos on YouTube. Moreover, most classic plays and novels in the English curriculum are available as movies.
Online exercises are a great option when teachers need to align activities to students' learning or to suit larger classrooms. In most cases, the activities are fun and programmed to monitor the response of students to adjust the difficulty accordingly. Also, they provide feedback to enable students to know their progress or get assistance on what they find challenging.
For students with physical or mobility impairments, the aspects of the physical world might be daunting. In the classroom, they might find it challenging to use EdTech interactive displays that might be difficult to achieve. Interactive whiteboards with easy-to-access browsers, video, and audio recording functions and apps offer ways for learners with special needs to adopt.
Also, wireless switches enable students to execute mouse clicks from a distance. Wireless keyboards allow remote text entry, and some features accommodate students that have visual impairments.
The way students learn, how they interact with their teachers and classmates, and their overall enthusiasm for subjects is not a one-size-fits-all state. Through EdTech tools, teachers can create personalized teaching experiences and lesson plans to boost learning and foster a sense of inclusivity.
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