Technology in Education - Essay Example

?Technology in Education Innovation vs. Use The world has changed at a real faster pace over the last one century. Evolutions of technology and scientific advancements have impacted each domain of human life. Education is one of those domains where technological advancements have played an important part to bring remarkable improvements. There are several factors in technology that have brought new ways in education, whether it is learning or teaching process. The ease and accessibility in acquiring education is the main factor that has been impacted by the technological innovations and that has brought changes note-worthy (Nickerson & Zodhiates, 1988, p.65). In old days, one of the basic requirements to acquire education was that the teacher and the student had to meet physically and in a time bound frame where the student had the limited opportunity to go about a topic and learn as much as he or she may in a specific time domain (Johnson & Maddux, 2003). Similarly, resource availability to the teachers was limited where they may ensure their continuous learning process in order to transfer the updated and up-to-mark knowledge to the students. This barrier differed from area to area, resources to resources and interest to interest whereby one may want to acquire specific knowledge but couldn’t get approach to the required resources (Pula, 1972, p.201). Major way-outs to this in old times were library, books and scholars where a person may approach and quench his or her thirst for specific information or knowledge. However, with the advent of computers followed by internet mania, the whole scenario has changed so rapidly, that there is hardly any effort needed in general to approach the knowledge ,open to the rest of the world if interest is prevailing. Few decades before, one had to go through the piles of pages and put up a great deal of effort in order to find the piece of specific information he or she wants to know, however it is totally in the reach of the common person due to technological advancements. Search engines, growing libraries on the internet and virtually accessible databases have now turned down the biggest hurdle in acquiring knowledge that is the accessibility issue. As the time has passed over past few decades, the importance of technological advancement has remarkable increased as well. This has caused new ways of learning in education process. After the times of educating by the physical academic material, electronic era began. Personal computers ruled over the market for quite some time and then laptops became famous due to numerous reasons. One of the most common reasons is the mobility. Laptops motivate students and help to simplify for the students any complicated information, especially, in the subjects like science and math. Students can study conveniently by accessing class education at home due to mobility feature. However, this technology is cost effective and sometimes it is hard to capture the attention of all students and also to make sure that all of them are using their laptops to achieve what they are told in class. Not only academic and basic education, but also professional education has been excessively impacted in positive terms by the technological advancements over the past few decades. Different fields including medical, engineering, economics, technology and business studies have prospered because up-to-date information about each subject and domain can be easily accessed via laptops through internet. Wi-Fi technology has attracted not only students, but also teachers to work with complete attention on their laptops as wires irritate the users and users like students and professionals like teachers need panic-free environment to concentrate as they are in to academic world. However, there are also many disadvantages of using laptops in classrooms. Certainly, if a student has internet and laptop with him in teen-age, he / she might tend to open social networking sites, chatting applications where anyone can message them upon finding them online. This creates distraction. Students can miss something important from the lecture. Technology is a blessing if is used in the right direction. Coming to the primary school system, children are not quite responsible as they logically do not understand the value of academic qualification. They come to school as their parents send them. To attract primary students, laptops can be useful. These days, schools are using various software and applications to educate kindergarten children with basic shapes, their uses and drag-and-drop exercises. Hangman and several similar programs are used to increase their interest. However, if programs are not attractive and interesting, children might close it or open something else of their choice without fearing. Little children normally do not get scared of teachers and study only if they want. So along with several other benefits, this can be an additional advantage. These days, not only senior technical classes are blessed with the advantages of laptops by mean of illustrating interactively and clearly, but also the primary class teachers can easily access all laptops on network from their systems and can demonstrate special primary programs and applications to student without going personally to each and every student. For example, teacher can ask the students to look at the system to learn a drag-and-drop application, etc. Therefore, it not only saves time, but it also saves efforts of students and teachers both. Scholars at different parts of the world do not need to re-invent the wheels as they know what is currently going up in the innovations. People around the world have almost same level of access to the information that was not previously available before internet. It would not be wrong to say that the advent of just internet in the technological world has totally shifted the way education was departed or acquired in the old days (Access Excellence, n.d). For instance, an engineering student who wants to study about the background of the Einstein’s relative theory, its advent, its impact, its influences in the modern world and any further works that have been carried out following this theory presented one century before, he or she might not be able to find all these answers easily if living just five decades before. He would have to go through a number of books, a number of research articles that might not be easily available or easily accessible in the locality. And even then, one might not get all the required answers that one may be interested in. Similarly, a medical student who wants to dig down the evolution of heart diseases for the past several years in human beings, recent studies conducted on pulmonary organs, future excepted advancements and the potential areas for exploration, one may not even touch upon most of the points if living in a non-technological world unless one put up a great deal of effort, time, money and probably consume major portion of his/her life to find out the answers he may be interested in. But, today with the widely accessible internet, tons and tons of information disseminated through it and piles of knowledge forums, one can easily dig down for the topics, subjects and questions he would be interested in (Goldin, 2008, pp.200-320). Not only students, but also from the teachers and professionals point of view, the technological advancement have provided a great deal of ease compared to the old ages which has boosted the overall learning process. A teacher who is now more updated and research oriented due to the availability and accessibility of the recent information, research studies and knowledge hubs, they can better impart the up-to-date knowledge to their students and may apply innovative ways devised today in their class lectures and class applications. It is evident from the day to day advancements that the rate of innovations developed with the passage of time is increasing and the use of this innovation for the advancement and improvement of education process has also followed hand in hand along with. Not only internet, but the new technological innovations including mobile phones, i-phones, virtual class rooms, e-dictionaries, e-libraries and a lot of technological buzz words constitute a whole array of advancements that are being used in the education process throughout the world in every class. The biggest advantage has evolved due to the fact that with the technological advancements and the advent of internet, regional and physical constraints are hardly an issue for a common person. One may access information from one part of the world while communicating the same information with someone at another part of the world (Kessler, 2010). Infect, recent advancements in technology and their use in education process suggest that there would be no physical classrooms at all in the future and students will be enrolled in the virtual class rooms termed as clout technology. Everyone enrolled would attend online lectures by mean of video conferencing or special designed applications like a few used by oDesk (largest online job platform) and would have the access to the academic literature (uploaded for review by their lecturer) and exams would also be conducted regardless of the physical location and presence of the student. Similarly, teachers even in today’s world have started to deliver their lectures virtually through the internet, (e.g. on Skype) from one part of the world and students attend them from another part of the world. This has remarkably improved the overall education process through the wider context knowledge dissemination, information accessibility and the current updates (Glasgow, 2011). References Access Excellence, n.d. Technology in Education. [Online] Available at: www.accessexcellence.org/LC/TE/ [Accessed 28 March 2012]. Glasgow, J, 2011. Technology in Education - Why? [Online] Available at: http://www.the21stcenturyteacher.com/member-articles/on-education/50-technology-in-education-why [Accessed 30 March 2012]. Goldin, C.D, 2008. The Race Between Education and Technology. USA: Congress. Johnson, D.L. & Maddux, C.D, 2003. Technology in education: a twenty-year retrospective. Haworth Press, USA. Kessler, S, 2010. 8 Ways Technology Is Improving Education. [Online] Available at: http://mashable.com/2010/11/22/technology-in-education/ [Accessed 26 March 2012]. Nickerson, R.S. & Zodhiates, P.P, 1988. Technology in Education: looking toward 2020. New Jersey: Lawrence. Pula, F.J, 1972. Technology in education: challenge and change. Charles A. Jones Pub. Read More