The IT-powered education system has opened new opportunities for students and provided new resources for teachers. Innovative tools and services that we use today significantly facilitate the studying process and boost educational effectiveness.
If you wonder why information technologies are considered as an essential component of the modern education system, keep reading.
Education Accessible to Everyone
In 2019, education must be accessible to children and adults from all over the world. No matter where students live, what level of income they have, or what culture they belong to – they should have equal opportunities to study.
Thanks to information technologies today, it’s possible to make the dream about equal educational opportunities come true. If a student can access the internet, it means he can get free books from public libraries, use online educational tools, and take advantage of other useful websites.
Access to the Most Relevant Learning Materials
The world of education is changing faster and more comprehensively than ever before. Every day, researchers publish countless new studies and announce just as many discoveries. It’s impossible to keep up with all the changes without technology because the information might become outdated by the time it will be published in a traditional format.
For this reason, students and teachers who want to keep their knowledge up to date can’t rely on printed sources only. They should surf the web to learn about the current trends that are shaping the industry.
“The best thing about IT technologies is that it provides learners with the most relevant information. And that helps to connect classrooms to the real world,” says Amelia Brooks, an academic assistant and writer at Studicus.
Improved Student Engagement
Low student engagement is another issue that technology can solve. With the help of innovative tools and interactive content, educators can make students more interested in studying. Educational videos, interactive graphs and maps, engaging quizzes and games, as well as other online tools, help to grab and retain the learners’ attention.
Also, there are lots of apps that can improve and strengthen the length of the attention span. As you know, social media and messengers distract students a lot -- sometimes it’s necessary to block distracting domains so learners can focus on studying. Apps like Freedom, FocusMe, and RescueTime allows teachers to blacklist particular domains, so even if some student restarts the computer, the access won’t be possible.
Increased Digital Literacy
In the information age, digital literacy is a must. No matter what subject students study today, and what career path they choose later in life, they should improve their digital literacy skills to succeed. They should get a deeper understanding of digital technology and acquire both user and technical computing skills.
By using advanced technologies in the classroom, learners can develop the ability to locate, identify, retrieve, process, and use digital information fast and easily. They can learn how to respond flexibly to complex problems, communicate effectively, manage data, and produce new knowledge.
Students who have no opportunity to acquire necessary digital literacy skills at school face lots of issues after graduation. As a rule, it takes them more time to adapt to the new working environment and to figure out how to use new software.
Bottom Line
The impact and importance of new technologies in the modern education system are hard to overestimate. Information technologies help make education accessible for everyone, boost engagement, provide access for the most relevant information, and close the gap in digital literacy -- and we should expect that dependence of the education system on new technologies will only increase in the coming years.