How Education is Using Digital Tools to Meet Students Needs

In the contemporary world, technology has become a central part of our daily lives and makes complex tasks easy. Whether you want to pay utility bills, or transfer money or order food or even hire a tutor, technology has made everything easy as it was never before.

Ongoing technological advancements have transformed business dynamics and left major impacts on every sector, and education is not an exception.

Modern technology tools have changed the education sector drastically and have been making it more interactive. 

Further, the corona pandemic has added fuel and enforced teachers to adopt digital transformation in learning. It would not be wrong to admit that today not blackboard, but smart apps have become a reality.

These smart tools enrich the students and make learning more engaging and interactive. 

Source: eLearning Industry 

Digitization and technology have changed education from its roots and thanks to online learning apps and cloud-based technology that improves the quality of education and engages students in a most personalized way.

Not only learning apps but the environment also affect the education industry most. Today, most students are willing to study from their home as compared to classrooms. 

As the education fraternity keeps changing with time and technology, teachers and educational institutions have also been forced to adapt to those changes to deliver learning outcomes. 

 

Beyond the Classroom: Technology Changing Education

Earlier, education was limited to classroom teaching, where students attend classes, give exams, and teachers give grades. But now, technology has changed the entire education system, and it has become more digital.

Students can no longer need to learn new things inside a school or college wall; they can leverage technology to learn and explore new things.

The modern education system is constantly disseminated to conventional education, so it is time to understand how tech solutions improve the system and meet the rising needs of modern students.

Along with learning patterns, technology is also changing the relationship between students and teachers. Wide access to the internet has contributed a significant part in the transformation of education in several ways, such as:

• Books have been replaced with PDFs and eBook
• Classes have become virtual and online
• The blackboard has been replaced with a smart screen

 

A recent survey has claimed that the future of education will be centered around virtual classes and personalized learning.

Technology has influenced education, and many educators contribute their best and make education more advanced. Whereas many institutions still refuse to adapt to changes. 

As Vasy Kafidoff, CEO at Writing Metier, says: "Agree or not, we must embrace modern technology because the world is heading towards digitization, and it brings many benefits to the education sector. Imagine a scene where a student from another country is attending classes online from the most renowned university across the globe. Isn't it wonderful? Online learning is not our future, it is our today's being, and it broadens our academic horizons."

Well, now we know the fundamental role of technology in the education sector and how it is evolving the entire learning landscape. No doubt, limited access to the internet and awareness regarding technological issues are two issues to combat.

Here are several digital tools that facilitate communication, increase the level of participation with your students and improve the quality of education. 

 

Top Digital Tools that Simplifies Learning 

 

Source: MarketsandMarkets

 

The education sector is being transformed radically; new digital platforms, learning apps, smartboards, etc., have made learning more accessible than it was a few years ago.

From laptops to learning apps like Udemy and Cuemath to Google forms and Google Classrooms, technology has undeniably changed the face of education.

Here we are going to discuss several digital tools that have contributed a significant portion in making learning fun rather than tedious tasks. 

The corona pandemic has acted as a catalyst as students are confined inside their homes, and technology is the only medium that links students and teachers.

So education is no more dominated by blackboards and chalks. Let's have a quick look at digital tools that can go a long way in enhancing the learning experience. 

Classrooms 2.0 

As said earlier, most educators believe that classrooms of the future will be handled by the most advanced technologies where students will be taught in a most personalized way. It means education will slowly become student-centric, where students are allowed to choose their own place based on their preferences. 

Online Learning Apps 

The race towards digitization has already begun, and the education sector is an important part of this global race. It can be expected that the growing usage of eLearning apps across the education sector is pushing the development of various aspects such as teacher training, technical support, student learning at a speedier pace. 

With the help of eLearning apps such as Udemy, BYJU'S, TED, and many more, students are able to attend classes from anywhere and empower themselves for further learning.

They can also book classes and ask for assistance at their convenience. Therefore, students, teachers, and parents use the online learning apps to easily collaborate with each other and measure students' performance in real-time.

And not only students but developers also use these apps to enhance their programming knowledge. In fact, Udemy recently introduced a free course where new programmers can  develop a clone app for taxi booking for both Android and iOS platforms in less than four hours.

These apps are really handy for teachers also as they can manage their schedule with ease and earn a decent income by uploading lectures on these apps.

They can also add and update the study material so that students can start working on it.

eLearning apps also offer some advantages such as: 

• It makes remote learning more accessible 
• Easy access to information when needed
• Students can book sessions on the go 
• Instant feedback 
• Improve classroom performance 

Indeed, advanced digital tools such as mobile learning apps have made students' lives easy and enable teachers to impart quality education without any geolocation barrier. 

Classroom Boards to AR/VR 

Not only business but the education sector is typically embracing modern technology tools like Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality to remain connected and deliver amazing learning experiences to students.

These technologies establish an immersive and interactive learning ecosystem without the utilization of textbooks. It also empowers learners to discover and learn at their own pace.

This technology has been incorporated into the classroom today that helps teachers to provide a better learning experience to their students.

Students can learn subjects like maths, history, and geography more interactively.

For instance, while studying about the ancient Roman empire, students can take a virtual tour of the empire, making overall learning easy and enabling students to digest facts more quickly. 

Here are some exciting benefits of using AR/VR in education and learning:

• It makes learning more interesting through gamification 
• Keeps students engaged while learning complex topics
• Enhance learning
• Foster collaboration
• It makes practical training easy

Augmented reality and virtual reality in education have become inquisitive and let students know more about their subjects. 

Google Classroom Makes Collaboration Easy 

Google Classroom is a management tool that helps students and teachers to communicate and collaborate in real-time on tasks and projects.

Teachers no longer bother about emailing and documents; all they need to set some parameters that make collaboration easy and encourage participation with students. 

It also takes students' attendance in real-time; teachers can now pass on important information at the click of a button and make it easy for students to remember important information and dates.

Let's examine what kind of benefits Google Classroom offers to students and teachers for delivering a better learning experience. 

• Easy to use
• It makes the communication process fast and efficient 
• Cost-effective system 
• Less paper
• Autosave facility so no lost work
• Better engagement 

In short, Google Classroom is one of the best tools that can develop student's technological skills, save you a lot of time and help you better prepare your students for the highly volatile job market. 

Artificial Intelligence 

No, Artificial Intelligence and its algorithms are not only used in the eCommerce business, but AI makes education more personal and allows teachers to develop a personalized curriculum for each student and anticipate their needs based on their past performance. 

You might have heard about the AI-powered language learning app Duolingo; it is the most installed education app across the globe with 50 million downloads in 2019.

Do you know the reason behind this impressive response?

Yes, Duolingo uses the AI technique to improve the effectiveness of its notifications. Notifications daily remind its users to "practice." It also adjusts questions based on the learner's previous grades and practice sessions. 

AI-powered applications in the education sector are still in their infant stage, but after witnessing the success of Duolingo, many entrepreneurs have realized that there is much room for improvement.

The market for AI in education is increasing gradually and will soon reach $6 billion before the end of 2025. 

 

Technology Has Turned Magic Cloak in the Education Sector 

The world of work is evolving, ways of communication changing, ways of marketing changing, so how can the education sector be immune from the changes? The education sector is changing at a rapid pace.

Various surveys also have stated that students are now choosing online learning over conventional classroom pedagogy because technology has made learning more fun and interactive.

Further, increasing penetration of smartphones and 4G internet have revolutionized the learning scenario.