Last Updated on March 5, 2024
Technology is a wave that has hit virtually every sector of life and education is no exception. Varied innovations help educators and learners be effective in ways that would have been impossible a few decades back.
For these tools to work both students and educators must not only embrace them but also the training necessary to utilise them. Here is a look at several technology trends that will revolutionise the education sector in 2019.
1. Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become a technological mainstay sweeping across many industries. The qualities and advantages that AI brings provide a unique opportunity for educators to scale individualised tutor services sustainably.
One example of this is a US Navy project titled Education Dominance that deployed AI to an entry-level IT school in Pensacola. The program emulated a human tutor’s strategies in delivering personalised lessons per student, analysing their progress and creating relevant assessments for each one of them.
The students who underwent the AI-based tutor program performed much better than those who did not. Such granular personalised learning would be near impossible to deploy at scale using human tutors. As this technology develops AI in the classroom will only grow in appeal.
2. Database Management
Databases have been in use for decades and as their usefulness expanded the more use cases developed leading to their crossing over to other sectors. Education institutions now deploy databases to send reports to parents remotely for example.
As database utilisation moves to the classroom teachers will increasingly need to undertake database administration and development courses to possess real-world skills that students can benefit from.
If for example, a class calls for the development of an interdisciplinary segment to centralise data that will help identify insights critical to better learning an unqualified teacher will be a liability. The necessity of educators to possess this technology skill will only intensify.
3. Cloud Computing
The advent of the cloud has led to marked changes in and out of the classroom. For school managers, it has become cheaper and more convenient to adopt cloud-based software that eases the operational load. Payroll and accounting, for example, are now mostly handled via cloud-based services for efficiency.
The classroom is where the most visible change is taking place. Instead of using notebooks and pens during class many students are now moving to mobile devices for input and study purposes. Teachers are now relying on on-demand services that leverage the cloud to deliver assignments and lessons out of class.
They are also utilising cloud-based services to test their students in a more efficient manner that provides more significant insights into their progress. Cloud-based services will only increase in importance in the classroom as students and teachers figure out new ways to gain more convenience and value.
4. Collaboration
In higher education, students often work in teams, and by necessity, cooperation is needed to bring the project home. Traditionally coordinating a project involved phone calls to plan meetings and maybe emails.
In the current technological environment, there are more advanced collaboration tools that technology avails students to get the job done. Applications like Slack proved harmonised team communication that ensures no participant misses out on crucial information they need.
Project management tools like Asana and MeisterTask have made it much easier to adopt project management techniques used by corporations to work through a team assignment. While these tools may not be new, their prominence in higher institutions will only deepen as students make them a part of their daily educational toolkit.
Technology is conferring its benefits upon the education sector as it has other industries. Adoption of innovation in and out of the classroom calls for learning new skills as well as adaptive workflows.