The Role Technology Plays In Education

There was an era when the advent of technology was considered as the greatest curse to the files of education. Yes, that was around the 1980s and 90s when the growth of the television industry left an in-erasable impact on the youth. Is it hard to hear cases of college going guys sticking back home for watching Tendulkar scoring his century or Pete Sampras winning a straight set? This created a negative impact in the minds of the then elder generation who had it imprinted into them that modern technology would never be a use to the upcoming generation.

Stephen Hawking described this century, the 21st century as the Quantum age. This is true because many fields of science are being suffixed with this magical word quantum and given an entirely new meaning – Quantum Optics, Quantum Computing and what not. Does this say anything about the impact of such in-depth areas of science and technology over the 21st century education? Of- course not. The present educational scenario relies over technology only in an optimistic manner. The role of technology can be visualized in many sub-areas of the modern educational system, which sometimes seems to be even more complex than the administration hassles of the White House, a few decades ago.

One such area is the mode of reach of the teacher to his student. This has been highly facilitated and enhanced now with the help of technology, thanks to the inevitable resource of the era, the Internet. In the early 1960s, Stanford University psychology professors experimented with using computers to teach math and reading to young children in elementary schools. This was the first ever global step taken by mankind to implement of the now, very popular E-Learning. Now, it is hard to find universities not equipped with their localized web servers and e-portals where students get access to the different facets of education apart from bookish knowledge. This also publicized the use of Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment (Moodle) which has been a widely struck phenomenal open sourced educational environment.

The introduction of tablet computing has changed the way man uses technology for his benefits. “The introduction to iPad based education to the first grade students has improved their success rate by 70%”, says John Connolly, Technology Director, and Chicago Elementary School. The advent of the iPad has widely affected the perspective of the modern day education. Students find it easier to carry eBooks on their tablets rather than carrying a whole pile of books over their backs. Off course study has been greatly enhanced by the use of tablet PCs. They can better view the live lectures being delivered by the professors somewhere far-off to reach.

Hence, summarizing, the modern day technology has, by now doubt taken education to a whole new level. But looking at the loopholes and the predictable hazards to switching entirely too electronic education, makes us to careful plan the trade-offs between the two, very intricately.