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The Impact of Modern Technology on Education

Modern Technology and its Impact on Education

This article elucidates the impact of modern technology on education. Technology is driving greater change in education than any other invention ever. Teachers are ever so aware of the worth of the latest technology and devices and their purpose in work efficiency. Technology can help plan lessons and mark tests and exams, as well as make communication with parents, students, and other teachers more efficient. More teachers are therefore integrating new technologies and devices into their study materials and there is a clear evolution taking place in which traditional learning is ushering in online learning. More and more, courses are free for everyone and can be attended anywhere in the world.

Technological developments in recent years have had a major influence on our society and education. The possibilities to communicate and the amount of information available have expanded significantly in a short time.

Impacts of technology on education

A good way to start is the virtual classroom, with automated functions that can be said to be a basic element for applying network technology to teaching. Learners can receive information about teachers and teaching materials through the Internet. This kind of one-way broadcast electronic classroom, if it cooperates with the network infrastructure, and the distance from the relevant remote teaching point, the technical side remains easy. Although this item can be said to be a basic function in terms of the environment of the “e-classroom”, and if the teacher’s role is played and the teaching materials are carefully designed, considerable learning effects will be exerted.

  • Information gathering method

In the traditional school setting, the way teachers and students gather information mainly rely on books, papers, radio, and television. In the new technological age, computers have changed the old way of obtaining information to a large extent, thereby, providing them with more convenient and in-depth information retrieval and extracurricular reading space, which has greatly enriched the theoretical knowledge of teachers and students alike. With the emergence of new technology, data gathering and interactive communication, students’ ability to independently acquire information is put to maximal use and their initiative to partake in learning is constantly being boosted.

  • Improved teacher-student communication

With the old teaching method, student-teacher exchange is limited to the short time they spend in the classroom, and teacher to student communication was basically one-way based. Due to the limitations of classroom teaching time and space, teachers could not fully grasp the students’ understanding and knowledge of what was taught. This communication gap not only existed between student and teacher but also student to student. But with the advent of new technology has provided unequalled convenience for the communication and connection between teachers and students and student to student interaction. Teachers and students can communicate at will and from any location through the internet, while students can also initiate interactions from their own end. The teaching process is gradually moving towards the process in which students discover and acquire knowledge, discover, and solve problems on their own and gradually mastering the initiative and becoming the body of knowledge.

Learners can use electronic classrooms for discussion and highly interactive learning. And in addition to obtaining relevant knowledge from teachers and textbooks, learners also hope to use basic knowledge to develop learners’ unique experiences and insights. The functional practice at this stage can be discussed between peers yet putting forward their own views on the understanding of knowledge, to assemble a deep understanding and knowledge structure within the scope of learning. At the same time, the theory is verified by real-world issues. Therefore, the electronic classroom environment at this stage can include software and hardware that support group work, as well as simulation or virtual reality software and hardware.

  • Change in the means of distributing educational and teaching materials

During the time of traditional education and teaching, there were relatively few academic journals dedicated to school education and teaching research, making it difficult to write and publish educational journals, as well as difficult to acquire for reading or publishing, if you write one. Conventional bookstores and newsstands rarely sell such professional publications, and readers are not easy to access these specialized academic journals. One had to subscribe through the post office or find them in the library to lay hands on them. However, in the technology age, educational materials have gradually begun to spread in the form of electronic information. This form of dissemination has the advantages of a short publication period, a large coverage, and a large influence on society. Now, it is easier to research, read, store, and retrieve materials and more convenient to reference and copy, which in turn promotes the number of authors and readers of professional papers and thesis exponentially.

Teacher’s collection of the students learning status- the interaction between teachers and students also has a considerable impact on learning. Therefore, teachers should grasp the status of learners to adjust the teaching content, progress, depth, and direction in time. As with the help of electronic classrooms which provide functions such as E-mail, remote classroom video equipment (which can form a video conference communication), or uploading homework, teachers can grasp the learner’s response and ability. Also, technology has brought with its the packaging of the teaching methods and teaching experiences of good teachers, in video or audio format to be disseminated to as many as possible audiences.

  • Technology has improved the teacher-student role in the learning process

In the traditional education system, students were in passive acceptance status of knowledge. The limited content of teaching materials and the teachers’ knowledge level unavoidably limit the students. With the advancement of information technology, more students now have the advantage over their teachers in the use of the internet.

Students can obtain more information from the web, search for updated and more complete data online, gather knowledge points related to teaching tasks under the guidance of teachers, prepare lessons together with teachers and fellow students which in turn enrich the form and content of the classroom teaching to a large extent.

Furthermore, this improves the efficiency of classroom teaching, enhances the thinking capacity of students in learning, and encourages them to be masters of learning. Despite the improvement in students’ main body of learning status in school teaching activities and the extensive use of information technology in teaching, the status of the teachers in the process of learning will never be changed. Rather, their role would gradually become more of organizers and learning guides to educational activities.

The information age will provide teachers and students with a broader display platform and space simultaneously. It will make teachers more important and put higher requirements on them. Because it would be discovered that in the tech age, teachers not only need to be proficient in the professional knowledge-base of teaching subject but also need to have a broad vision, a vast knowledge-reserve, a certain amount of computer skills and be able to adapt to the large teaching environment as well as guide students in making proper use of the abundant resources, choose the learning and thinking style that suits them, prompt them to complete the self-cognitive structure and the formation of the correct learning attitude and reasonable learning motivation.