Technology is supporting teachers to expand beyond the normal standard of teaching. Developing the linear, text-based learning helps students who tend to learn more in other ways to the typical lesson plan. Its role in schools has expanded from the usual ICT classes into a versatile learning tool that helps to change how teachers can present concepts in class, assign tests and projects and assess each students’ progress.
Digital simulations and models are a great way for teachers to explain concepts in their classes. Whether it’s a process that is too big or too small for the standard chalkboard, or processes that happen too quickly or too slowly to properly demonstrate for a class, technology can assist teachers in day-to-day lesson plans as well as monitoring student progression. For progression, something like the school report writer from Educater is an incredibly handy tool that will help any teacher with their workload.
One of the most extensive projects in the system at the moment is the Molecular Workbench. This program provides science teachers with detailed simulations on topics such as gas laws, chemical bonding and fluid mechanics. The teachers who are trained in this program can create activities with various models, text and interactive controls that present the information for their lesson in a much more interesting way for students, keeping them more engaged. There are other softwares developing giving students the chance to experiment with virtual greenhouses giving them a further understanding of evolution; a software that teaches the physics of energy and simulations of how electrons interact with matter.
Another positive of technology in the classroom is the opportunity for global learning. Students are able to set up language lessons with a native speaker who lives in a different country via a video link, letting them learn from a native speaker. Learning this way, through social interaction, and being exposed to another culture rather than just being taught the standard phrases give students a huge advantage that they would not have in a standard classroom without this technological advancement.
Software can offer teachers a much more reliable, clearer and more detailed image of how students are getting on and how they’re finding the classes. With programs developed to help teachers collect real-time assessments on data from their students, it allows teachers to see how long students are spending on each question during tests. It also allows them to mark them, and from there gives them the information they need to determine how each student is getting on and if they need any more support in certain areas.
Every day software and technology is redefining and developing the standards of education. Allowing this software into classrooms has helped to give students every chance to further their education, and with new technology being created every day there may be even more ways in which to perfect the education system.