Education technology just means the use of technology in education. The teachers incorporate apps, graphics, and other things in teaching. Just like any other aspect of life, the practice comes with its pros and cons.
Advantages of education technology
There are plenty of benefits that come with the use of technology in education. They include:
Independent learning of students: Since the students use individual laptops and tablets, they can easily find the information they are interested in from the internet and understand it on their own. The cool thing is that the textbooks, web-based content, and electronic books that the students use are updated in real time.
This allows the students to get the current information. With the knowledge that the students get in the classroom, they can apply it to the outside world so that they can become more knowledgeable even out of the class setting.
It prepares the students for the future: We can all agree that the future of the world is in technology. When the students are suing the computers and tablets in the classroom, they are not only getting the academic knowledge, but also learning how to use the technological gadgets.
This allows the students to communicate better with the gadgets, have no problems fitting in with the others, and also don’t have problems finding jobs once they are out of school.
Makes the lessons fun: Unlike listening to the teacher’s monotonous voice, watching educational videos and other descriptions is more fun. The lessons on the computers are more interactive, and this motivates the students to learn. The teachers can also change the style of the lessons using computers, tablets, and projectors.
Easy to manage students: This is important in schools with many students. The teachers can easily see the students who have completed their courses and quizzes. Since everything is electronically generated at the touch of a button, the teachers can easily monitor the progress of the students by simply checking what they have performed throughout a particular period.
New and better teaching methods: Unlike before when the only way that the teachers could teach was to stand in front of the class with chalk and dust board, now the professors can come up with better and exciting teaching methods. For example, they can use blogs, social media, and even podcasts to teach.
The different learning methods can incorporate all types of students including those suffering from disabilities. For example, the teachers can use voice-to-speech converters, volume controls, translators and many others to ensure that everyone is incorporated in the study.
Disadvantages of the technology
While the technology has its advantages, it also has its fair share of difficulties. Some of the most common disadvantages include:
Distractions: Many teachers have made complaints that the students are distracted when using the computers. In most cases, the students visit non-educational websites thus fail to complete the assignments that are given to them.
Loss of valuable skills: Some professionals argue since the students are on their computers all the time, they have problems building critical social and team building skills.