Go back 20 years from now and one would have never complained about the flaws existing in the traditional education system as economy rolled out quite easily, societal need for drastic change was nimble and it could well meet the expectations of the world.
But now it’s a different time altogether. Yes, the main reason why 21’st century education standards demand use of technology is mainly because, it helps to spur innovation and foster global economic competitiveness.
Education technology in colleges and universities is slowly making its way, and this being in almost every strata of learning. In the current digital age, there is a successful digital conversion of instructional strategies. Teachers are bracing up tech skills to innovate ideas and most importantly, implementation of such ideas is giving back real time benefits. So let’s find out examples of edtech usage that can help universities connect their students.
- In an age where internet has revolutionized things, staying connected at all time is no hassle. We find students stay connected more than ever and can find an access to course material whenever they are in need of it or share important notes among group members with the help of EdTech tools such like Learning Ace or any other tool facilitating communication and open sharing facilities.
Using EdTech, instructors can encourage group collaboration and help students increase flexibility, schedule ability and cooperation; all of which are essential skills to thrive in the changing world.
MIT University embraces openness and taking this into account, they initiate steps towards implementing education technology that support sharing of knowledge not just to their students but the world at large. - Another education technology that can be used by universities to give voice to the introvert students are the feedback and collaborative tool. Many universities have started to use them because, not all students in the classroom are prompt to share their ideas but evidences are that collective sharing of knowledge ignites better learning among individuals.
Tools like SurveyMonkey or TodaysMeet, assist students not only to voice their question or share ideas but most importantly, encourage classroom collaboration.
The University of Washington is making the most use of EdTech tools which allow the faculty and staff members of the college to improve their learning and make learning in the classroom more active. Through education technology, teachers help students to start online discussions, replace traditional papers with digital assignments, run complex simulations and assist students to start acting like professionals. - The other area where Universities are working really hard and where again technology turned out to be ground breaking is to boost up students retention ability. Yes, Universities have started to use mobile Apps that help boost retention and connect them to various services across the campus. Few colleges are making use of data analytics to improve student retention. While some colleges such like the Shawnee State University has embraced Apps to support its first year students to remember everything from dining hall schedule to class organization.
- Research work is given much importance in the Universities across the world and as new modes of learning and teaching takes place in higher education, can research work stay aloof? Today’s researchers are connected researchers and for this the share of credit goes to education technology once again. The main purpose of using digital tools in the area of research is to make the work more qualitative in nature.
The universities develop their own personalized Apps to share with the researchers the outcome of their work or for that matter say their experiment plans. Using such collaborative tools help not just the researchers to stay connected or know on the new advancements in academic research but remain well informed on what student are working on.
The University of Liverpool helps the researchers by suggesting cross platform Apps that would help them to make their research work easier or access resource from anywhere and at any time. - Because students remain engaged in various activities other than academics these days, therefore universities are developing mobile apps to keep the students alert on fun happenings on academic news, new admission sessions, social events, academic lectures so that they do not miss out on any experience that’s vital for individual and career growth.
The Ryerson University, for example is using Google groups for communication and sharing purpose. However, there are various other digital tools which help in easy flow of communication and which universities can harness to its maximum potential.
Thus, clearly the Universities across the world are embracing EdTech revolution by making use of different tools and apps in different areas of learning process to keep students connected. How are you using an EdTech tool to keep your students engaged and connected? Do let us know about it and help other institutions across the world get an idea of effective education technology usage with your example.
