For years, digital education has been a taboo subject in the public eye. Even though there was an immediate acceptance of new technologies by schools all over the world, still it is considered as a threat by most of the teachers and professors.
Technology is the future however there are good reasons why people are cautious about the effects it can have on the education system and human behavior in general. Teachers can use technology to share e-books or to build a community for students with a free blog builder. Technology can be seen as a burden or it could improve engagement and effectiveness.
In the last couple of years, there is a rapid growth of usage of technology in education. Especially with the new and improved storage solutions, children and teachers can easily share information from just only one device. Cloud technologies completely revolutionized the ways teachers and children communicate and share information.
With a decreased number of hardware, teachers are now able to share valuable data with just one click of a button.
There are pros and cons of using technology in the classroom. This is how cloud solutions and new technology will affect schools all over the world.
The pros:
1. Dynamic content gets better engagement
Engagement will increase with the use of visual content in classes. With the new cloud technology, the limitations of hardware are gone, now teachers will be able to share large data (videos and images) with many people at the same time.
Explaining a lesson with a video or an image is always a good idea. Nowadays, you can even create polls and ask quiz questions during lectures and get instant results. Real-time feedback will help teachers learn more about the preferences of the students and improve and customize the experience for each classroom.
2. Full participation by all students
Introverts will benefit greatly through cloud technology. Being able to communicate in real time and share your answers without raising a hand or discussing a topic in front of a full classroom will provide freedom for shy students.
Teachers can have an overview of each class and their teaching abilities all the time. By preparing mini quizzes and polls each day, they will be able to see how students are perceiving the lessons and what parts can be improved.
3. Automation of tasks will save time
With new cloud technologies, tasks such as attendance and performance can be tracked automatically. All the data about a student will be sorted in one place, and teachers can have a performance overview all the time, and every time of the day. The new solution will give teachers time to analyze, improve their classes and dedicate more time on their students.
The cons:
1. Technology can be a distraction
Holding a device in hands during classes can be a distraction for many students. Most of the time, students use social media for entertainment and communication during classes. Because of this, many teachers find it difficult to get attention from their students even if they use dynamic and interactive content.
2. Technology can decrease social interactions
If cloud technology is not used in the right way and everything is done online, then there is a risk that it will have a bad impact on social interactions among students. A balance between the online and the offline world is the key for a healthy classroom environment and good academic development of students.
3. Cheating in class will get easier
The ease of sharing data will also increase cheating in class. Numerous, smart devices can be used for cheating, it’s not just smartphones also a smartwatch can be used for this purpose. However, it’s always possible to structure the exams in a way that is hard to cheat. Some schools even allow open book during the exams and focus on problem-solving and mastering rather than retention. There are countless solutions available for this problem.
It’s obvious that the pros outweigh the cons, however, the key element will always be the teacher-student relationship, nothing in the world can replace that.
