JOIN USNew frontiers in education
This age of technology integration into all spheres of human life can be termed the golden era of human civilisation. Today we are at a stage where the presence of technology and gadgets in all aspects of human social life is ubiquitous. One area where technology is making a big imprint is the area of education.
Education has been in a state of evolution for quite some time now. Even though traditional modes of learning, which held sway for the last several centuries, have begun to be replaced in classrooms over time, the noble industry is finding itself hardpressed to keep pace with technological innovations.
Earlier there were gurus and teachers involved. Education, especially higher education was entirely limited and restricted to royal and rich families. There used to be large gurukuls in India, as well as in Greece and other parts of Europe where pupils stayed on the teachers’ premises till they completed their education.
That system started changing only during the Renaissance and the time of scientific and industrial revolution, which was from the 14th to the 17th Century.
This was the time when the world saw geniuses such as Sir Isaac Newton, Galileo Galilei, Walter Warner, Leonardo da Vinci, Giovan Vettorio Soderini etc. There were numerous scientists and thinkers who changed the way people used to think.
Technological impact
Today, is the time when technology and gadgets are bearing a great impact on education. Today, education is not limited to a social class, or fraternity or group. We are living in a time where education and knowledge is known and regarded as one of the greatest powers.
Today, technology is playing a huge role in encouraging education and widening its reach to the most remote areas and most untouched people on the globe. Today a person who desires to learn can learn from any part of the world. Regardless of whether the thing he wants to learn is being taught in that region or not, he doesn’t even need to leave his room.
Earlier, education was a physical burden for students, heavy bags filled with books, lack of access to quality schools and libraries, and many such factors prevented all but the most curious of minds from gaining an education.
Today thanks to technology, principally mobile technology and education tablets, that weight of school bag got much lighter than ever.
The Internet has played a huge role in paving a new way in education worldwide. This innocuous technology has played the key role in the rise and current high impact of “online education” in the education sector.
Distance education
Online education is playing a very important role in imparting higher education to the people of distant areas of the world. Now you can get an advanced degree and be taught by the leading experts of your domain, without leaving your town. Technology not only enabled the wider reach of education, but also brought about better quality in education.
The whole paradigm of education (teaching and learning), today is not about books, today education is getting more activity based. Flipped classroom and interactive learning are two new phenomena in today’s education, delivering high results to educators and students worldwide.
Today more and more students are going online; there is plethora of learning resources out there on the worldwide web, students who had no choice either to understand whatever teacher is saying in the class or lose the whole topic can now go online, Google the topic and get the same or better knowledge on the same topic.
Technology has made the whole process of learning and teaching so easy for everyone that quality education for everyone, which was a very tough goal for whole human civilization, is now not so far and we can achieve it easily in near future.
(The author is co-founder, Classteacher Learning Systems)