Technology in Education

Technology in Education

Skills for life:

The changes in the technological world have meant that the ‘job market’ has vastly changed.  Jobs that were once very common may no longer exist, because they have been replaced by technology or the job has just changed beyond recognition.  This has seen the type of skills that people need to compete in the workplace have also changed.  With the development in technology have also come ‘new’ jobs, such as web designers, programmers etc.  Schools/Colleges/Universities have had to cater for these changes and provide a workforce with the necessary skills.  So for example just recently schools have been instructed by the Governments Minister for Education that there should be more focus on Computing and programming skills.

Use of  PC’s

Today many pupils have access to home computers where they use the internet to help them with work and produce nicely formatted electronic documents.  But they may also access a VLE which allows them to access school resources or homework tasks.  They may these systems to submit work to teachers electronically or even contact the teacher for advice.

Whilst this all sounds very good, there can be issues due to the digital divide.  Some pupils may not be able to access this type of learning due to not having access to the technology.

Use of computers for Research:

The Internet started to be used in schools in the late 90’s.  Prior to this time if a pupil needed to research a topic their only source of information would have been books or films.

Online Courses:

Some universities offer students the opportunity to study for a degree (or other qualification) online.  This allows the student to work remotely and virtually attend the course.  They may never meet the course leader face to face; instead they might have video conferences with them and attend virtual lectures.  Submitting all work electronically.

This is allowing more people to access courses that they would once never have been able to attend.  It offers them the flexibility to complete a course at times that suit them; maybe around their existing family commitments or around their existing job).

It also means that the colleges/universities have access to a global market of students, ensuring that course achieve the optimum take up.

Online courses allow for more ‘Personalised Learning’ which is tailored towards the individual to allow them to make progress.

BYOD - Bring Your Own Device.  A large number of schools are now allowing pupils to bring their own device into school.  It is recognised that many pupils have better technology than the schools can provide.  For example mobile phones can be used to take photos of projects for evidence, they can be used to record feedback and pupils can often access the Internet via their mobile phone

VLE's - Virtual Learning Environments.  Lots of educational establishments (schools/ colleges/ universities) make use of VLEs.  They are used as a means of setting work; submitting work; communicating with pupils and parents and providing feedback to pupils.  The VLE includes web-based access to class content.  This could mean that a pupils that is off school for whatever reason is able to continue some of the resources used in the classroom and continue with their education.

Features of a VLE:

• Access to timetables
• School 'news' items or notices for staff and students
• marking tools for teachers (like self marking quizzes)
• email and chat communications
• students, teachers and parents are able to track progress and data such as test marks
• personalisation for individual students (like adding an avatar)
• interactive polls and questionnaires
• facility for students to contribute to blogs

The Future:

New technology is emerging all the time and is being utilized in the classroom and education all the time.  Some examples of new technologies that could be utilized in the classroom are things such as:

Wikis - These allow pupils to work collaboratively on a project, this may involve pupils in the same classroom working 'on the cloud' or it could involve pupils at partnership schools in different countries.

A Wiki is and example of an online workspace.  Online workspaces provide a virtual space for people who work together to meet, share files and work collaboratively online.

Cloud Computing - Cloud computing can be used in education to enable collaborative working and other things such as:

• Providing additional software to those available on the network (like when we use Wix)
• Sharing data on things like a VLE
• Additional Storage (things like Dropbox)

The Digital Divide

It is important to note, while we are considering the impact that ICT can have on education, that there is a big issue in respect to the 'Digital Divide' (this will be discussed in more detail on the 'Issues' page).  Not everyone one has access to the technology; whether that is computers, the internet or have the finances available to buy the software.  This will have a big impact on the the person/establishment concerned and may leave them at a disadvantage.  For example a school in a developing country will not have access to anything like the same level of technology that a school in the UK has.  This will mean that their pupils will leave school less competent in ICT and this could impact on their future employability in a Global jobs market.