Technological innovations have changed all industry landscapes, making processes easier and all around more efficient. Therefore, it shouldn’t be surprising to consider how technological innovations have also ushered in a new era in education, changing how children, adolescents and adults improve their knowledge, develop their skills and receive the training they need.
Here are some of the tech tools currently used to improve the teaching process and facilitate communication between teachers and their students to ensure everyone is getting the best results out of the entire process.
Table of Contents
Online learning
In the aftermath of the pandemic, the world has become significantly more appreciative of the help of online tools in assisting students to continue their training. With schools and universities closed, people would have lost many hours of schooling, which is detrimental to the overall education process. However, e-learning came in to save the day, and everyone could continue studying from the comfort of their home. While not always perfect, since poor signal and lack of motivation remain some of the most pressing challenges, it’s essential to recognize the positive impact of online learning and the way it has helped students.
Since then, online classes have become more adept at meeting the challenges associated with studying from home and will surely perform better as time passes. Nowadays, students don’t only have to interact solely with the classes they have to take in school but can choose additional tutoring if they’re struggling with a particular subject or want to perform better. For example, suppose you’ve been thinking about learning more when it comes to compositions, structures and the properties of elements and compounds. In that case, you can join a Chemistry tuition class where you’ll cover everything you might not have understood in class. This way, you’re sure that you’ll ace your next exam and finish the school year with top marks.
Forums
Communication is arguably the most crucial aspect of any activity that is performed by a group of people. Although teaching was traditionally understood as an educator coming in and instructing a classroom of pupils, who then have to memorize the information they receive without question, the class of the future is based on collaboration and discussions in order to enhance productivity. As such, forums have appeared that facilitate communication between students, their peers, and professors.
Online debates help improve the learning process and make being part of a class a more engaging and creative pursuit. The opportunity to have flexible conversations is significant, as the exchange of ideas can potentially change mentalities or enable those belonging to different points of view to find common ground. It can also provide a platform for students who are reluctant to share their ideas in class verbally but feel more comfortable doing so from an application and by sharing their thoughts in writing.
Creative solutions
While there’s undoubtedly a significant amount of information students want to acquire to become experts in a particular subject, creativity is also essential for its potential to promote innovation and enhance the area where it is used. Apps promoting creativity that support students studying online and those enrolled in a virtual education program to collaborate and develop new ideas are essential for teachers who want to come every morning to a vibrant and enthusiastic class passionate about learning.
Video dialogue apps are particularly important in this regard, as it helps to have discussions in real time. The visual participation makes the students find the learning experience more rewarding, as many feel like they can develop a better grasp on the subject matter this way. You can even invite an expert in the field to come to one of your classes and offer valuable insight that your students can incorporate into their learning process or even their future careers as experts in the field they’ll operate in.
Webinars
Web-conferencing is perhaps the most effective way of sharing knowledge and applying it pragmatically through cooperative studying. While some have questioned its ability to completely replace real-life interactions in the classroom, you can also adopt this tool into your teaching experience as an augmentative tool that can get the best out of student discussions and idea-sharing prospects.
Many of the webinar tools have become common during the pandemic, including Zoom and Microsoft Teams, which offer features such as partial or complete screen-sharing, whiteboards, breakout rooms and even voting polls. All these tools were designed to provide a more interactive and immersive experience for both students and teachers.
To be effective, students need to remain motivated and complete their activities before logging in. Otherwise, the learning session will seem incredibly bland. The professors have to work overtime to make up for the lack of student engagement, and the message of the class will otherwise fall flat. To mitigate these concerns, learners can prepare presentations to share with their peers or engage in debates. The visual framework is constructive for students who might feel reluctant to share their ideas, and some might even feel anxious about talking in front of the class. Having a presentation to ground their ideas can be just what many of them need to speak freely and interact with the other people in the class.
The bottom line
Online tools are here to stay, and all the classes that haven’t incorporated them yet need to catch up. However, you can’t just start using tools haphazardly and hope you’ll achieve perfect results. It’s important to establish a learning strategy and pedagogic approach before choosing the online tools to incorporate into the class.
It’s vital to consider that all students experience several different phases of learning, beginning with the acquisition of the most basic knowledge all the way to the production of new ideas and even establishing their own theories and launching new discoveries.
As such, it’s important that pupils are supported throughout all stages of the learning process and that they are encouraged to remain engaged and acquire information both on their own and by interacting with everyone else in the class.
