Technologies have become an integral part of our lives, and the pace of their development is growing every day. They affected all spheres of human activity, including education. It is rare to find a school or any other educational institution in which the learning process would take place without the use of, for example, a computer.
The transition to the use of new technologies not only on a large scale but also in everyday life is becoming more noticeable. Students and schoolchildren are already using bots to get a quick response in their smartphone. Tools like Google Home, Amazon Echo (Alexa), and Siri help students find the information they need faster in a question-and-answer format. Students are already using not only Google and Wikipedia to do their homework.
It would seem that all this can negatively affect development of education, as students no longer have to sit for a long time on complex tasks, just find the right answer on the Internet. And all these modern gadgets only take time, because their main goal – entertainment. In fact, there is another point of view on this situation.
Next, let’s look at examples, which show that technologies have a positive impact on the development of education.
Access to information
With the advent of the global network, it became possible to access any information you are interested in. Now writing essays, report, term papers, research papers, etc. is not difficult. Students no longer have to spend hours in the library looking for the right material. It is enough just to have a computer with an Internet connection.
Today’s Internet space gives a huge amount of information incomprehensible for human processing. More than a thousand books and millions of articles are published every year. We need to extract useful information from all this variety. The problem of lack of knowledge is no longer there.
In addition, if there are any difficulties in the learning process there is always an opportunity to apply to the support service. Many students in an attempt to combine study and work often do not count on their strength. In the end, the study time is too little. Especially for them were created various services, such as amblesideprimary.com, which will help to perform the work in a short time.
Some believe that there is a problem of an overabundance of information that will affect the quality of knowledge. But it is worth noting that now, with the help of Big Data and machine learning technologies, it is possible to take out only the most necessary things from the continuous flow of information.
Distant (online) learning
This type of training is gaining more and more popularity. Distance learning has replaced personal learning for the majority of students who are now engaged in decentralized, interactive and virtual classrooms. In most cases, this is an advantage of technology, as it provides an opportunity to get an education without leaving home. It saves a lot of time. The convenience of connection allows young people with common interests and talents to learn together and optimally approach each other by personality type. Full immersion in virtual reality allows modern “schools” to exist as a purely remote online institution with a virtually unlimited variety of lessons and subjects.
Technologies have also helped to solve the problem of education in the third world. This was done thanks to free software and cheap computers. The literacy rate in these countries has increased several times. The lack of physical infrastructure and lower costs for teachers have provided the poorest areas with access to scientific knowledge that was previously completely inaccessible.
Integration
The advantage of modern gadgets is the possibility of the so-called “integration” of the working process in education. A good example of this can be educational videos shot directly at the workplace, and when viewing which students will have a clear idea about a particular subject or process.
As already developed special applications, such as Sky Map, which allows you to explore the night sky in search of constellations.
This format of information will be much more interesting than a simple theory on pages of a textbook.
Modern technologies accelerate the learning process and also help ready-made professionals in their work. And this applies not only to the introduction of artificial intellect. In the near future, virtual reality technology will help medical students to perform practical operations without harm to a patient.
Educational games
Since there is a widespread debate about the benefits of using technological tools in a learning process, opponents of this position firmly believe that gadgets are more designed to entertain children, and just distract them from learning. In fact, there are many games that are designed to involve a child in the learning process, but only in a playful way. A tablet or another device will attract more attention to a child, than boring textbooks.
Games are able to bring joy, and therefore immersed in the optimal state for learning. They can teach problem-solving, mathematics, physics, history, languages and other humanities.
Conclusion
Life accelerated its pace very much, which is why you should pay attention to the fact that education is gained in the shortest possible time and with minimal effort, but the quality and amount of knowledge should only increase. Therefore, the role of new technologies in education cannot be underestimated in the modern world.
It is possible that in the future, under the influence of rapidly developing technologies, ordinary schools will be entirely replaced by virtual ones.
Education is moving towards openness and accessibility. We can assume that very soon any person will be able to master remotely even the most difficult disciplines. If you look far into the future, the fact of getting a global education will become an ordinary thing.