Has Technology Transformed Education?

Different Methods

With enough time passing by almost everything can and will change. Such is the nature of life and society, but not a lot of people could have ever predicted the shift that the incredible technological advancements would create in such a short period. It’s kind of difficult to imagine now, but just about fifteen years ago not everyone had a phone with a camera in their pocket at all times. Occasionally we all get too used to things being the way they are. So much so, that if you actually told a person from three or four decades ago that most of the population would now have a camera at-the-ready to record anything and at any point, they would call you crazy. Not just phones have evolved though laptops have made it possible for students to integrate their student life with their daily lives as well. No matter if you’re hanging at a coffee shop or out in the park, there’s always an opportunity for you to finish an essay while also relaxing a bit.

There are many things that the quick evolution of technology has affected thoroughly. One thing however that can be confidently said has been indeed affected a lot is the education field. Technology has affected and transformed education quite a bit. It’s not necessarily black and white when deciding if that transformation has been for better or worse, all we can do is acknowledge the change and look deeper into it.

Technology and Education

When it comes to looking at education through a technological perspective, it can be said that technology not only has affected education a lot by changing it, but also that it has evolved it in good and not-so-good ways as well.

There are a few noteworthy ways that technology has changed education. One key way being through it’s through communication and the role that it plays whether it’s between students or between teachers and students. Aside from a direct phone call or visiting your professor in person, there wasn’t a good way to contact your teacher if you ever needed to communicate for whatever educative-related reason. Now some teachers even create group chats with students to share necessary information. This was unthinkable just a couple of decades ago. Moreover, students now communicate with each other differently as well. Again, this isn’t a matter of deciding whether the added pressures of social media is actually good for young people or not, but it is a fact that students can in fact use technology to their academic advantage.

Another way that technology has played a role in education is through the academic online world. You can always find countless of articles on whatever topic you are studying about, you can reference different sources in your work (just not Wikipedia because teachers don’t like that), and you can do most of your homework without even touching a physical notebook. As younger and younger generations come of age, the world before computers were essential to studying will be but a mere distant memory that a group of people reminisce about.

Collaboration is now enhanced though that’s not to say that it’s more or less likely to happen. The endless depth of the internet offer many opportunities for students to find new interests that perhaps previously just was not a possibility. Curiosity can also be magnified for certain students with the ability to look into any interests you might have just by googling it in a couple of seconds. This could also work the other way around though as having everything at your fingertips may make some people feel rather lazy in the long run (though this does come off as more like an out-of-touch concern). The teacher and the books in front of them not being the only sources that the students can absorb information from is also a key change. Although, it’s worth mentioning that this does in theory make teachers’ jobs slightly easier too as they also have more access to tools that they can use for teaching.

There’s no telling anymore how fast technology is evolving and just how much that will continue to affect education. Who knows, maybe in a couple of years we will have in-class holograms instead of zoom meetings, but as of now in comparison to the near-past life has taken a drastic shift in many regards and only time will tell if that was good or not.

Photos: Shutterstock.com

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Relentless Hero Nikhiya Shamsher: Only 16 and Has Entirely Transformed the Lives of More Than 12000 Children

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