Education technology or edtech offers unique opportunities for student development. The roots of edtech in whiteboards, projectors and tablets have given rise to popular learning platforms. Now, students can access on-demand courses, and learn whatever they want thanks to technological advances in the field. Companies can provide classes to their workers the same way, allowing them to leverage industrial edtech for their own business needs and purposes.
The development of edtech isn’t expected to slow down any time soon. No traditional teaching methods can compete with the levels of student attentiveness, availability and convenience that edtech currently offers. Professionals from Forbes Technology Council look at the most compelling recent advances in edtech, and why they’re such a big deal to education in the 21st century.
1. Online Learning Platforms
Digital transformations are now letting students ditch the physical classroom. You can learn everything from coding skills to personal finance basics from resources like Coursera. These programs are taught by industry leaders who are aligned with current trends and needs in the job market. You learn more valuable and relevant skills in a shorter amount of time compared to traditional education. – Marc Fischer, Dogtown Media LLC
2. Live Online Tutoring
Live online tutoring used to be relegated to English-language teachers who had to wake up at odd hours to meet their pupils online. As a more accessible option, the schedules of parents and kids no longer need to coordinate, reducing traffic on the roads and carbon emissions. It also allows parents to be more selective in their tutors instead of going with whoever can accommodate their schedule. – Arnie Gordon, Arlyn Scales
3. Educational Phone Apps
Instead of fighting with students to keep them away from their beloved phones, how about using smartphones to help them learn? We need more simple, high-quality apps like Grasshopper. Apps need to have bite-sized chapters that are small but super focused. The interface should also be simple and intuitive. The more interactive the content is, the higher the learning will be. Edtech is fun with these apps. – Vikram Joshi, pulsd
4. Virtual, Augmented And Contextual Tools
Virtual and federated tools have lowered the barrier of entry, making knowledge more accessible and learning experiences more global. Augmented reality, along with contextually relevant, on-the-job learning systems, have brought an exponentially differentiated experience to students. They have also demonstrated a greater ability for students to commit new concepts to memory and recall concepts faster when the knowledge and skill is required. – Florian Quarré, Exponential AI
5. Extended Reality Technology
Extended reality (XR) moves students away from traditional lectures toward more engaging, immersive learning experiences within a simulated real-world space. Other benefits include increased comprehension levels and long-term memory retention among students. Best of all, as the technology enters the mainstream market, XR will be an affordable teaching option for many educational institutions. – Christopher Yang, Corporate Travel Management
6. Faculty Tech
Classroom edtech isn’t the only thing that’s been booming. There’s a huge trend in primary and higher education systems using new technology to track and monitor their strategic and operational plans. It’s really interesting to see the difference in the past few years as universities in particular have shifted from tracking plans in spreadsheets to using integrated plan management tools. – Christy Johnson, AchieveIt
7. Screencasting
Screencasting has changed the dynamics of the classroom as it offers both teachers and students the freedom to actively engage with the lessons. It has helped teachers untether from the front of the classroom and empowered students to share their work. This results in overall higher engagement amongst the students, but in a fun and interesting manner more importantly! – Mihir Shinde, B&H Photo Video Pro Audio
8. Gamification
One of my favorite edtech advancements has been gamification in the classroom. Gamification is being applied to educational environments through different pieces of software in the marketplace. This enables greater student interaction in the classroom and in place of traditional homework. I am a big fan of gamification in education as it gets students more excited about learning. – Marcus Turner, Enola Labs
9. Professional-Grade Tools
Giving students professional-grade tools means they have the ability to produce amazing things. Google’s G Suite and Chromebooks give students professional tools at budget prices without any of the fluff or bloatware of other solutions. Schools that deploy these tools are more likely to have students that enter the workforce with experience and familiarity with enterprise offerings. – Tom Roberto, Core Technology Solutions
10. Collaboration
I’ve seen some great edtech tools come and go, but one tool that has stuck out is Flipgrid. It effectively combines the preferred way students like to share with the way educators set instructional goals. By coupling these two, students and teachers can collaborate, share and connect. It’s one of the tools that is enabling engagement beyond traditional instruction. – Tyler Shaddix, GoGuardian
[“source=forbes”]