Five Ways Technology is Changing Education

As the world adapts and changes along with ever-improving technology – the classroom is no exception. In fact, places of education are the absolute centre point of trying out and maximizing the uses of new devices and gadgets. The classroom is a completely different place to what it was even 10 years ago.

Technology is changing education, and therefore changing the way we learn. Blackboards have been replaced with computers and iBeacons are there to help us navigate and communicate.

Here are some of the top ways technology is changing education.

#1 Long Live the Blackboard

The times when students were sat cringing at the sound of chalk against a black board are most certainly over. So much so that it’s hard to remember they ever existed. The death of the black board in the classroom is a fundamental insight into just how fast things are changing, as they were a normal part of life only about 10 to 15 years. Let this be a symbol of things to come. These days, boards in classrooms are basically computers.

#2 Smart Boards are basically computers

The Smart Board interactive whiteboard operates as part of a system that includes the interactive whiteboard, a computer, a projector and whiteboarding software – either SmartNotebook collaborative learning software for education, or SmartMeeting Pro software for business. In plain English, the entire world is available at the click of a Smart Board pen or Mouse, and students have an epically large ocean of information available to them at any one time. Arguably a bad thing, as the saying goes, we are“drowning in information while starving for wisdom” – but generally the possibilities now in the classroom due to Smart Board technology are incredible.

#3 Bluetooth is Changing the World

Here is an interesting one. Bluetooth, once thought to be an almost redundant feature used on mobile phones after the Internet became more available – has raced ahead and has many more uses than it ever did before. Teachers love Bluetooth gadgets in the classroom and it helps with lesson structure. Anything from wireless Bluetooth speakers to “throwable” classroom microphones are aiding education and learning more and more each year.

#4 Mobile Phones are becoming tools, not enemies

Bluetooth Beacons, which essentially aredevices that broadcast signals that can be heard by smart devices nearby, are becoming a major tool in education. They days when mobile phones were strictly prohibited in classrooms may even become a thing of the past, as student’s phone systems can be transformed into learning hubs and tools for information sharing. Also, much less paper is being used and all the information, notes and details of homework, exams and other such information can be kept digitally and shared freely between students and teachers.

#5 The things we are learning have changed, too

It’s quite logical, but the more that things change, the more the things we need to know have to adapt. It’s quite normal for high school and college students to learn, for example, about writing code, and SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and all things computer related have become more important than many hands-on skills. The use of tablets and touch screens is perfectly normal in schools. It remains unseen what other fascinating changes are heading our way in the coming decade.