Digital tools in the education sector has transformed the basic nature of how the education space functions. There has been a huge influx of tools that aim at improving the quality of education. Understanding their influence in the teaching and learning process will help us to figure out their importance and their usefulness.
Technology Is Changing How People Learn and Teach
Implementing these digital tools in your work flow can improve the way you teach and learn tremendously.
1) Collaboration Tools:
Social media has changed the popular definitions of community and socializing forever. similarly, digital tools are changing the very definition of collaboration between students and teachers.
There are various digital platforms focusing on discussion threads, course creation and class wikis that are changing how students are able to engage with project-based writing assignments. Collaboration has become much easier without requiring physical presence all the time.
A basic student assignment can become a substantial document when it becomes the basis for a gradual, over the time exchange of thoughts, ideas and questions among collaborators including teachers, peers, authors and mentors.
Digital tools have to be integrated into the pedagogy carefully to get the best out of them. When done right, they’ll be able to cultivate, promote and augment some of the essential soft skill sets, such as problem solving, communication, critical thinking, problem solving and entrepreneurship.
2) Assessment Tools:
For the new age student, old formats of assignments are outdated. The contexts have changed over the time and hence assessment methods should have to be updated to be cutting edge. The inventiveness of online digital tools and the integration of new ideas such as gamification help teachers to shape a wide array of assessments.
It especially helps with formative assessment, which can help a teacher measure the progress made with learning and not just the endpoints in an assessment period.
3) Research Tools:
Research projects in university level always comes with a lot of substantive research, synthesis of ideas from the research done based on an audience-oriented and project-relevant approach. Different stages of the research process requires different research tools to make it effective.
We live in an information-saturated world that has so much content that, students are using tools that help them not only with aggregation of information but also analysis and understanding multiple representations from a different media which includes texts, raw data and photographs.
4) Non linear learning tools:
Due to the very nature of digital tools it is possible to provide an asynchronous learning environment for response and inquiry which is not possible in traditional learning environments. Written transcripts and web based video discussions provide opportunities for the remote exchange of diverse ideas, views and thought processes, thus creating new opportunities for collaboration.
They also change the instantaneous nature of physical classrooms thus giving students time to think before responding to the content learned. Digital tools are not exclusively for online classrooms. They can also be integrated into a traditional learning setting as well.
5) Teaching Tools:
Teachers should make use of the latest digital tools like Slidecamp to improve the way in which they convey subject ideas effectively to students. If the conversion of complex ideas into simple digestible bits isn’t done properly, then students might lose the initial enthusiasm to investigate further on the topic.
6) Incentivize the ownership of learning:
John Dewey in his phenomenal work Democracy and Education, claims that the types of activities that bring in real involvement among students “give pupils something to do, not something to learn; and the doing is of such a nature as to demand thinking, or the intentional noting of connections; learning naturally results.”
There are loads of free digital tools that cultivate the art of doing. Students can use these tools to create something out of the knowledge learned in class that demonstrates their mastery and understanding of the concepts, as well as their ability to apply certain essential skill sets. This process of actually doing stuff improves their ownership and thus improving education for students in general.
People in the education space should make use of the advancements in the field to provide better learning experiences using a dynamic combination of mindset, behaviors and skills.
This will ensure that schools are places where social media and the latest digital tools are integral parts of a beneficial pedagogy. We hope that the article was useful. Let us know if you have any doubts and we’ll be glad to help you out. 🙂
