Did you know that many current careers didn’t exist only a decade ago? The world is moving fast, yet some of our sectors are struggling to catch up with it. One of those sectors is education – the foundation of career growth and development.
Unfortunately, our educational systems are still considered very old-school and traditional. Luckily, the advancement of educational technology can help schools and institutions prepare young adults for the ever-changing workplace market. The question is, are they going to implement it?
The Challenges with Technology and Education
Virtual classrooms, robots, virtual reality, and augmented reality make for some cool learning tools to increase student engagement and help improve information retention. However, there are several challenges in implementing technology in education on a larger scale.
Perhaps the main concern is the increased screen time that students would be dealing with in classrooms, besides their already exhaustive use of technologies outside of school. Besides, the expenses of implementing advanced technology might not be bearable for all schools, depending on location and budget. This could create a massive gap in education on a large scale.
The Benefits of Technology in Education
#1 Better Communication
Perhaps one of the most important benefits of using technology in education is improved communication, leading to better collaborative opportunities. Online learning tools allow students to share ideas and come together to work on projects and foster their knowledge.
This level of collaboration can hardly be achieved without digitalized tools used both in classrooms and from home. Speaking of working from home, online platforms allow students to communicate with teachers and instructors to complete assignments in time. Overall, these tools allow students to support each other and take their learning experience to the next level.
#2 Personalized Learning
Digital technology allows students to access educational resources at any time of the day and leverage hybrid learning models with in-person classroom experiences. The reason why digital learning tools are seen as an advantage in this field is that they make room for personalized learning and tutoring.
Think about the traditional teaching environment – a physical classroom with 25-30 students. The teacher has little to no time to speak to every student individually and cater to their personal learning needs. However, with an online system, they can assess each student separately and find ways to appeal to their learning preferences, thus resulting in better scores and higher satisfaction among the students.
#3 More Engaging Content
We can all agree that the traditional learning tools such as books and whiteboards are getting way too boring. At the same time, the human attention span is shortening, and it’s becoming more and more challenging to focus, which makes students prone to anger issues and depression caused by poor performance at school.
One way to battle this is to create more engaging educational content. What is a better way to do this than with the help of digital tools such as AR, videos, podcasts, or even robots? With the use of online technologies, students can interact with each other from across the globe and leverage gamified tools to increase engagement and interest.
#4 Higher Teacher Efficiency
Last but not least, digital technologies allow teachers to be more productive and way more efficient at their job. Every teacher’s goal is to help students get better results while enjoying their work and learning experiences. However, this is not very easy to achieve in a traditional setting.
Nowadays, teachers can leverage various exciting tools to increase productivity, personalize learning, and adjust their tutoring methods to fit their students’ needs. Besides, they can cut down actual expenses of physical materials by relying on online tools and platforms. It’s a win-win situation.
The Downside of Tech Implementation and Security Solutions
There is no doubt that technology has changed education for the better. However, there are certain downsides to implementing high-tech solutions in day-to-day learning. We’ve already mentioned the increased screen time being one of the concerns tied to this technological development. However, there’s another issue that deserves attention – cybersecurity.
Naturally, the higher use of digital tools in education will lead to more cybersecurity threats such as phishing and malware attacks. The problem with the high-scale adoption of these technologies is that students and teachers are not well-trained in handling security risk situations. This can lead to increased numbers of data breaches and stolen info, which results in financial loss.
Luckily, there are security tools that can reduce or eliminate these threats. One such tool is virtual private networks that allow users to hide their identity and appear private online. That way, hackers have limited information to work with and can barely make any moves.
Virtual private networks such as Nord VPN offer multiple other benefits on top of security, such as bypassing geo-restrictions and accessing blocked content in your region. Besides VPNs, schools should use advanced antivirus programs to strengthen security networks and prevent malware from breaching.
The Next Step in Technology Adaptation
Adopting advanced digital technology will make education better than it used to be. The benefits are endless, from improved communication and collaboration to higher student engagement. However, we must not neglect the importance of cybersecurity and preventing security threats resulting in financial and legal trouble. Schools and educational institutions expect to pay more attention to cybersecurity training for both students and teachers.
Raising awareness about the growing security threats is the only way to lead this battle. Since we know that many security breaches happen due to human error, it is clear that educating students and teachers on best security practices are unavoidable. This training will allow large institutions to adopt learning technology with lesser chances of creating a pool of easy targets for cybercriminals.
Produced in association with PR Consultancy
