Importance Of Technology In Education During The Pandemic
The corona virus pandemic has had a drastic effect on the education sector. In April, 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic, nearly 1.2 billion students were pushed out of the classroom. Technology has stepped in to resist and reverse the halting of education during this period.
Here are 6 ways how technology is helping the education sector during the pandemic.
e-classes
Schools have had to make a humongous transition from offline to online mode. Through online meeting hosting apps, such as Zoom and Google Meet, it has been made possible to host audio-visual classes with students. These apps allow teachers and students to share screens, “raise hand” without interrupting the class and so on. While physical classes cannot be completely replicated, these video conferencing applications allow significant and “good-enough” engagement to take place between trainers and pupils.
Digital Teacher training
The digital channel has allowed teachers and counselors to up-skill and train in an online mode. The knowledge enhancement also helps teachers in coping with the new educational formats instigated by the pandemic and to learn how to integrate digital tools as part of the curriculum.
Online Exams
Assignments, Questionnaires and tests can be conveniently conducted using the digital medium. This allows for the regular teaching-learning cycles to keep going on without much abruption. Additionally, online exams lead to non-wastage of paper (that would have taken place during offline exams) and instant results. Simple strategies such as changing test question sequence for students and asking higher-order thinking questions can deter the issue of cheating in online exams.
Digital Resource Sharing
The digital learning systems have also popularized sharing online resource files with students to support their academic learning. These resources include- Photos, Pdfs, Research Papers, youtube video links, audiobooks, and so on. These resources also allow students to experience learning outside of just the standardized school-book based curriculum, and gain a wider perspective through interesting and dynamic content- such as inspiring expert-led tech talks, reality-depicting and informative research papers, other photos or video based content that explains complicated topics in simple and humorous forms.
Broadcasting Curriculum
In Afghanistan, broadcasting media such as- television, websites, radio and social media have joined the fight for widely delivering education despite the pandemic. The ministry is planning on recording educational content and putting it out to audiences across the country via these media. Argentina has followed a similar path, broadcasting educational content for school students on television and radio. This method is especially beneficial for students who do not have access to computer systems or the internet, as television and radio have greater reach even in the rural parts of these countries.
Online Learning Portals
Portals such as LMS and Moodle along with cloud solutions offered by companies such as Google and Microsoft are making it easy for students to access learning resources and assignments online. The portals also allow students to interact with and give feedback to teachers, and vise versa.
We hope this was an interesting and informative read for you. This article was brought to you by BeSingular.
BeSingular is an edtech platform that offers online tech courses to kids, globally. BeSingular integrates tech learning with social purpose, by acquainting the students with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs). We provide live and teacher-led sessions, where children learn to apply their learning for creating real-life workable tech solutions to global problems. Technology Programs offered at BeSingular include- Artificial Intelligence (AI), Robotics, Game Design, Internet of Things (IoT), 3D printing, App Development, and Augmented & Virtual Reality (AR/VR).
To learn more about us, visit www.besingular.com or mail us at contact@besingular.com.
