[Personal opinion] Education through modern technology

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

I think it's no secret that the current level of education in our country is quite low. Problems arise not only with students who do not want to learn, but also with teachers who do not want to teach themselves, to interest the student in something new. So it turns out that the school / college / technical school / institute become a gathering place for a pastime not in order to gain new knowledge, but to share stories about how cool it was at the disco yesterday. Could it be otherwise? Would schoolchildren and students themselves run to the next lesson or lecture if classes were conducted using modern technologies?

Status

The current level of development in the educational sphere got stuck somewhere in the late 80s - early 90s. Schoolchildren are dragging behind their backs huge bags with dozens of disheveled books, rumpled notebooks, many multi-colored pens. In their paper diaries, teachers put grades, the sheets with which are then safely torn out so that the parents do not see them. And this is in a good scenario. If it’s bad, no one just goes anywhere.

Fortunately, this does not happen everywhere. There are, for example, fee-paying schools where students can use laptops during class. However, even there, everything is far from being as rosy as it could be. All records are mainly limited to standard markup in Word and drawing up a small table in Excel. And few people think that everyday things like a tablet and a smartphone can also help in learning.

Gadget as a learning tool

It is common knowledge that there are many educational apps available on the App Store and Google Play. In the same iTunes U there is a large number of different courses that you can download absolutely free and start practicing. Developers are paying more and more attention not only to children's interactive books, but also to more serious problems, such as solving mathematical formulas using.

But programmers are not the only ones contributing to solving the problems themselves. Control over pupils is also a necessary measure in the educational process. A similar problem is solved by individual applications, for example, (no longer available in the RU App Store) - a kind of interactive journal of class attendance.

But one of the most important functions, of course, must be performed, which will carry not only an educational function, but also an entertaining one. First of all, the student needs to be interested in the subject. Interactive tasks can not only attract attention and challenge, but also relieve a little the teacher's work, who does not have to approach each student with a check.

For modern children, a smartphone is quite a common everyday object. It may not be the latest generation iPhone, but even a budget “dialer” on Android is quite capable of coping with such tasks. We're not talking about buying tablets and smartphones with the money of the school, wherever … Although I saw computer labs with iMac computers in them, they are there not because of love for students, but because of money laundering by someone. They are absolutely indifferent to the younger generation.

Monitoring students, teachers and alerts to parents

If we come back, then, without a doubt, Apple devices can help in this better than other solutions on the market. No, I'm not pulling it by the ears, it's just that the ecosystem created by the Cupertinians has proven itself well, and the Family Sharing feature that appeared in iOS 8 (like the system as a whole) took it to a new level.

Parents now have a tool with which you can easily find out where the child is, at school or at home. The teacher will not waste time on the roll call of the class if iBeacon sensors are installed in the classroom and use an application like the above described BeHere. It will be more difficult for a student to make excuses to parents for grades, if they are displayed in the application - you cannot pull the sheets out of it.

Messengers or, at worst, e-mail can serve as a good means of communication between teacher and parents. And FaceTime, or at least Skype, replaces private appointments or meetings. The current pace of life for many parents does not allow them to periodically attend class meetings. They have no less pressing questions about how to stay in a certain position, survive until the next not so big salary and somehow please the child in an endless crisis that, it seems, will never pass.

Augmented and virtual reality

But let's get back to a more positive attitude and imagine that you can go further, not limited to portable gadgets alone. For example, virtual reality glasses like Oculus Rift or Project Morpheus will definitely be of interest to almost anyone. With their help, it would be possible to study planets and stars in astronomy, flora - in biology, as well as anatomy, history, chemistry and other subjects. Who wouldn't mind flying in a spaceship among the stars or watching a knight's tournament?

For simpler things, you can also use a smartphone camera with an augmented reality application. For example, in history lessons, follow the movement of troops on the battlefield on a map, or, in anatomy, “without cutting” anyone, study the structure of the body and the processes taking place in it. I bet that students would be more interested in this than looking at the yellow pages of sealed textbooks.

Technology implementation

Now let's go down to earth and ask a simple question: will someone implement something similar in our schools, colleges and institutes? Will someone be interested in making the learning process interesting and not a routine for the students? Who will finally give money to schools to implement such programs? Apparently no one. After all, it is much better to hide most of the allocated funds in your pocket, throwing a bone in the form of a “new computer in the teacher’s room” to people who are afraid of this computer themselves and turn to it not to “you”, but to “you, sir”.

Editorial opinion

Lena Sh. Author of "Macradar"

I remember how at school we were forced to wear textbooks on each subject, despite the fact that there were 5-6 of them. And with this hump behind our backs, we stomped every day, dreaming at least to share this burden with our fellow party member. Those who refused to comply with such an order immediately fell into the camp of the "unwanted", with the corresponding consequences. Of course, looking at the convenience of the iPad and the variety of applications, I would really like to see something change for the better in our educational institutions. But for this, a lot must change in the country itself. But when using electronic devices, there must be control by parents and teachers, because, otherwise, the educational process will turn completely into a game. It is worth deleting all games, and using parental controls or guided access, which runs only one application.