Technology in Education

May 12, 2020

• Topical

Elizabeth, our intern, looked into technology in education at the start of the year. We never thought technology, when delivering education, would become so vital a mere few weeks later. Read on to learn about her discoveries….

With projectors and screens now a permanent fixture in classrooms across the country, the traditional classroom learning of the past seems very distant. From interactive whiteboards that can aid individual language learning to VR headsets that are able to demonstrate Newton’s laws of motion, technology is proving that it can and will continue to yield good results in the classroom. After the continuing development of audio-visual educational technology, focus has now shifted to solutions that link and enhance a collaborative classroom experience. This move reiterates an incentive within education to follow the team orientated world of work, and to cultivate innovation and leadership skills within a collaborative classroom setting.

As recently as a few years ago, mobiles, laptops and other devices were used solely as an alternative for handouts, paper and pens, but now initiated the transformation of how instruction and learning actually happen. With this increase, more and more start- ups are creating new and innovative methods concerning both school and home learning. Toys that teach robotics for early learning stages, games that help children learn to code, and social media apps for teachers are included in an industry that is predicted to be worth $40.9 billion by 2022.

In 2017, schools spent around £900m on technology, with investments in new operational systems for desktops around schools, a move to tablets or a digitalisation of the entire community. Among established ‘edtech’ ventures that are helping teachers tackle subjects such as English and Mathematics in a more innovative way is Kahoot!, an online languages quiz game which was launched in 2013. It has been estimated that 830 million players have used the app for education purposes, but it has also reached a business audience, who use it to create their own interactive training sessions.

However, it’s not just start-ups and businesses that are using technology to create effective solutions in education – it’s students too. On Instagram there are multiple study accounts where students have uploaded their (very aesthetic) revision notes onto the platform – usually accompanied by study tips or inspiration in the caption. In addition to this, there’s now a growing industry for selling and swapping notes between students, said to help motivate better quality of study, and help revision stick in the memory – as well as making some extra money. Evidently not only in the classroom, technology is creating a worldwide network of students collaborating and using their skills to improve the learning experience. With the industry only expected to grow, developers, teachers, and students look to the future.

Words by Elizabeth Reynard