Technology. This single term can change lives. The latest being 3D printing offering a new way to live lives for amputated personals. With technology changing people's life, it also has the capacity to make schooling much better. The adoption of technology depends on many factors and there are many advanced countries that are making the transition much faster than any other countries around.
Today, we will discuss the opportunities and challenges that come with school's technology adoption. There are many shortcomings and other reasons why technology is not being adopted in the schools and we will discuss those too. It is necessary for schools to embrace school ERP system for more advanced management and automation.
But, first let us get started with opportunities that schools should leverage with technology usage in class.
Opportunities that must be leveraged by current-generation schools
There are tons of opportunities that should be leveraged by schools. The right way to integrate the technology in the classroom is to get teachers ready for the change. The change from text-based learning to more advanced learning can make students more engaged with optimal learning.
So, how does learning really takes place? and what opportunities does technology provides to the schools?
Let's discuss them one by one.
• Cloud-based learning is the future. Using text-based learning and tools are outdated. With tools/software such as Google drive for storage, Google docs, and other software, students can focus more on the content. Ready-made tools can easily help the students and save the paper/trees in the process.
• With the help of voice conferencing, students can easily learn from a distance. This can help rural areas. For modern schools, video conferencing can easily be used to communicate with foreign students to learn new languages, share the ideas, and collaborate on the fly. Video conferencing easily beats the traditional way as it cuts costs in the form of traveling and saves vital time.
• Virtual Reality has been the latest trend in technology. Virtual reality has tons of excellent implications. One of them is its usage in the classroom. With virtual reality, students can easily have real world experience and enhance their learning exponentially. The virtual reality can be used by any age group and is mainly useful for kids who can easily experience the world around us.
• Using a paperless or minimum paper environment is one of the important aspects of using technology. The substitutes are good. E-books, for example, provides students the medium to read new content on the go. The cost of e-books are also substantially low and is great for a sustainable environment in the school.
With so many opportunities, you might be thinking, why not get started with the technology? But, the path is not that easy. There are many hurdles and we discuss the important ones below.
• The hurdle of acceptance. Everyone resist changes to their daily routine and this can easily lead to problems. There can be many different people who are inclined not to use technology in the classroom. They can be teachers, parents, administration and other people who are directly or indirectly connected with the institutions. Also, teachers are less likely to experiment with the technology as it is not described in their job description.
• Technology comes at a cost. School technology is not cheap and the equipment for video conferencing, laptops, and virtual reality equipment are costly. The main hurdle is the K-12 schools who just cannot think about technology in the classroom until a cheaper alternatives appears in the near future.
• Distance courses are tough to implement and schools are also hesitant to implement it because of other constraints. On line education or MOOC is been booming recently and schools still need time to accept the online brigade.
Education is changing and it is high time for schools to start expecting technology. Technology is the future and it is necessary to accept that reject it for consistency and familiarity.
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