Welcome to this post on technology and its impact on the education sector, via Afrokonnect. The rapid involvement of technology in all sectors have influenced our lives greatly but the education sector have witnessed a massive influence unlike others. It is important to note that technology hasn’t shown its positive attributes as a lot of negativity has been attached to its involvement in the education sector.
Positive impacts of technology in the education sector
Here are some of the ways by which technology has made a positive impact in the education sector:
1) Better teaching methods:
Let’s say, Jones attends a biology class at his small school (traditional learning) and the topic being taught is “Skeletons”; It will be very hard for jones to understand the concept and identify its parts if he isn’t provided with a skeleton replica for practical.
This particular scenario has caused a lot of teachers to go high & low in a bid to make their students understand without these specimen – but technology has a solution to that.
With the aid of simulations, tech-savvy teachers have an opportunity to expose their students to these specimen without leaving their classrooms. The introduction of tech to learning an also help students get acquainted to the modern world quicker.
2) Better interaction with students:
Some students may have some questions about a particular topic but are shy in class because they don’t want to get laughed at by their peers but with aid of technology, you can set up a platform which can help students ask their questions while remaining anonymous to their peers.
This can improve the level of interaction between students and teachers as it help the teacher to understand the type of students they have in their class. Online classes are also very fun to students as it is a whole new world of learning which leaves a lot of excitement.
3) Access to larger information with minimal stress:
Gone are those days when to get a particular information you have to search through piles of books. This causes a lot of stress and discourages most students not to research more because of the huge amount of stress attached to it.
With the invention of technology like search engines and Ai technologies, students can accumulate a lot of information within a short period of time, this also reduces stress and benefits a student immensely.
4) Enables the teachers to have better assessment of their wards:
Previously, teachers with huge number of students couldn’t possibly keep up to date with most of their students but that has changed drastically with the aid of technology.
Various Software have been developed which can aid teachers with keeping data of their wards, accessing them quickly and analyzing them. The invention of technology in analyzing students’ data enables their tutors to know where they are lacking behind and put more effort.
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5) Each student learns at his/her own pace:
In a classroom there are intelligent and dull students; this isn’t a problem as nature has to balance itself. The problem in this scenario is a situation when the dull students who are slower in learning are lagging behind and are not paid any special attention.
The invention of online courses has cushioned this dilemma as students can learn various topics at their own pace without being rushed; this improves their knowledge and is a win-win for all.
Others include:
- It helps parents connect and help their children
- It provides a lot of tools to aid teachers
- Cost-effective.
Negative impact of technology in the education sector
In the previous sub-heading, I have highlighted over 8 benefits of technology to the education sector but in this section I will discussing more on the negative impact of technology:
1) High cost of learning:
The inclusion of technology to the education sector isn’t an advantage to the poor masses as their limited access to funds makes them at a loss.
Learning through tech involves you getting some gadgets which are more expensive than your regular pen and paper, Gadgets such as laptops, iPads and mobile phones don’t come cheap and maintaining them is no small feat.
2) Insufficient teaching methods:
Even though online classes have become the new norm, it can’t eliminate the lack of interaction during classes. Most students taking classes now do it alone without any form of live interaction with the tutor which is very bad.
Various studies have shown that interaction between a student and teacher is the best way for students to learn; If this cycle is broken it will result in half-baked graduates which isn’t good for the development of our society.
3) A high amount of time wastage:
It is not a hidden fact that humans created technology; it is also not a hidden fact that humans are prone to make mistake.
Once these two (2) elements are attached together, it’ll show that technology that is created by humans can make an error. These error ranging from software failure to connectivity problems aren’t resolved quickly resulting to the student not learning anything within that period of time.
4) Flooding of wrong information:
I am a blogger and I can categorically tell you that most of co-mates in this profession aren’t interested in the value of their content but more on rankings.
This is very bad to the profession as it results in a lot of bad and false content being put out there just for rankings; Students are also greatly affected because they consume this content which can greatly hamper their educational development.
5) A major source of distraction:
According to research over 60% of schools around the world include laptops and tablets as part of their mode of teaching. This can be very distracting to students as they are easily carried away by social media and the tons of content on the internet.
Teachers may be confident that a student is researching using these gadgets but only to be proven wrong, Majority of these student use these gadgets foe the wrong purpose like being on social media 24/7 or consuming harmful content.
Others include:
- Creates multiple avenue for cheating
- Reduces the social lives of students
- Good handwriting becoming extinct.
Conclusion
It is evident from my above explanation that technology is making our lives much easier and is constantly changing life from the way we see it.
Technology comes with its advantages and disadvantages but this depends on how we use this new phenomena. Thanks for reading and I hope to see you another time on Afrokonnect.ng.
