Edtech: Unlocking students’ and teachers’ hidden potential

Technology as a tool has the ability to transform learning for individuals. Edtech (Education Technology) can bring personal effect, efficiency, and enhanced understanding by including videos and collaboration in learning.
The time and location flexibility which Edtech brings has transformed learning and tutoring, making classroom sessions quite engaging and interactive.

Take an example of Radhika, a teacher of secondary school, she found it hard to give individual attention to a class of 35 students. The individual user experience is impossible to create no matter how hard you try in a physical classroom environment. 

Edtech is changing the landscape of education. Now teachers can deliver personalized learning to meet unique individual students needs. Edtech can support teachers with pedagogically sound solutions and quality resources that target the student’s needs.

Why Edtech matters

Teachers and students both evolve and thrive in an interactive learning environment. It brings out the best in them. 

1. Personalized adaptive learning

Every student has different levels of cognitive abilities and aptitude for different subjects and therefore, has different learning requirements. 
Edtech removes the practical difficulty to devise different modules for each student. Thus offering personalized adaptive learning suited to individual student training needs. A well-designed EdTech solution help judge each student’s response to training and accordingly mould the training to aptly address one’s training needs

2. Visuals enhance understanding of the subject

Edtech employs production and usage of video lessons. The curriculum delivered through videos lessons by the best of the teachers with visuals related to subject matter helps students grasp fundamentals in a better way. Plus it relieves teachers of the rigour of taking classes. But classroom teachers need to make it more effective by discussing the takeaways from such video sessions and answer queries.

3. Educators to spend time effectively

Edtech solutions have already started relieving teachers of charting out the courses, scheduling sessions, keeping records, assigning tasks and projects. The grading tool has automated the objective grading and has removed manual grind. Relieved of daily chores, teachers can now focus on student engagement and devote more time to their core work of teaching.

4. Learning through collaborative tools

Education technology tools can bring teacher and students or peers for collaborative learning from one another in interesting and fun ways. 
Plus Edtech tools can help the intra-class and inter-class students collaborate on projects.

How Edtech helps to unlock the potential of students’ and teachers’

1. Advance their understanding of new languages

Gamification makes learning fun thus find immense usage in language learning applications. Gamification tools in Edtech enable students to understand new languages and concepts in a fun and interactive way by scoring points and badges for level completed. Practical application or recent learnings in the form of a game helps embed new language more effectively than by repeating words or phrases over and over again.

2. Grow Better at Technology adoption

With technology getting into mainstream education, there will be more usage of tech tools to harness the full benefits of Edtech. There will be challenges to understand and learn new technology for both teachers and students alike. While students of the present generation are quick learners, the teachers will need to get better at learning tech and tools. Exploring Edtech will unlock minds and make both (teachers and students) open to adopting new technology.   

3. Learning growth through visuals

Edutech works on videos and visuals as an effective method of lesson delivery. Merely speaking on a subject matter will not be engaging and interactive. Edtech allows the use of pictures, photos and even live videos to make students understand a particular topic in a better way. Visuals add one more dimension to human cognitive understanding thus unlocking the immense potential to grow.  

4. Help explore new approaches

Edtech can help teachers find new approaches that were earlier impossible or impractical. For example, using technology now, teachers can provide specific instructions, take daily snapshots of student learning, connect with other teachers and subject specialist to take assistance while improving on teaching. Further, Edtech can complement present teaching approaches such as project-based, experiential, inquiry-based and adaptive learning methods.

5. Potential to Increase Learning and Time Efficiency

Edutech brings in time and location flexibility, where both students and teacher need not be at a location at the specified time. The flexibility saves a lot of time resources and individual efforts which can be utilized in a productive manner to enhance further learning.   

6. Enhances Communication and Collaborative Efforts 

Effectively using Edtech will require students and teachers to be collaborative. Which is helpful for students who are shy and fear interaction. Online teachers can start engaging by explaining, answering queries and encouraging students to come upfront. Similarly, both (students and teachers) can take project works where collaboration is required. Which will open up the student to understand teamwork and appreciate collaborative efforts.

7. Build Creativity and Competencies

Competencies develop when students approach complex challenges. The challenges make them think, be creative and devise ways of addressing problems. Edtech presents such a situation for first-time teachers and learners. Edtech tools help teachers and students be creative by allowing them to use videos, audios, pictures, text, images, tables, links, interactive tests and slideshows.

Benefits of Edtech

1. Edtech Makes Learning More Fun

Technology makes teaching more dynamic by including gamification factor. Edtech now allows teachers to run live polls, quizzes, and surveys. The gradings also have undergone changes by giving badges for the level of subject proficiency achieved. All of which is making learning more interesting and exciting for students. 

2. Instant Access to Knowledge

Gone are the days where you could spot teachers and students spending hours in the library looking for the information they needed. Today, technology integration has changed the way we access information. An infinite sea of information can be accessed within seconds using Google and Bing. Students can have in-depth study materials by online access to journals, scientific articles and reports. 

3. Customized Education Experience

Personalized learning with the help of technology gives students better control over their learning experience. Edtech allows students to learn freely and at a speed that suits him best. A student can go at his own comfortable pace and teachers can give feedback and instructions keeping in mind the individual level of progress. Which is far better than the traditional teaching methods where the class as a whole was given a general instruction.

4. Enhanced Student Engagement

With technology, it is possible to have effective one to one interaction with students through video which increases engagement. Further, Edtech makes it easy to include tools such as game-based learning apps which improves engagement and more students become excited about learning.
Edutech can be a boon for introvert students, especially the ones who are more reserved or are less willing to step in front of the class. Technology gives them the perfect opportunity to get involved as well.

5. Great Collaboration Tool

Edtech provides a platform for teachers and students to collaborate for common projects which help them better understand the subject and methods. Further, technology helps to collaborate and connect students with one another on group projects, which encourages teamwork, assisting their peers to learn and create. 

6. Flexible learning environment

Online teaching tools have made it’s easy to assign work, take lessons, engage and communicate with students via the cloud. Edtech tools have created flexible learning for students and teachers which is location and time-independent. Now teachers can take classes from home and can create lecture videos at their convenient time. Likewise, students can login and learn when they feel comfortable. Thus creating a flexible learning environment.

Conclusion

You can use Edtech tools as you want it gives a lot of flexibility in learning and engaging, but if used judiciously, it can open up ways to tap hidden potential in users. The potential which can help a person grow into a better individual.  Above were the few ways which I think, Edtech can help unlock the potential of students and teachers alike. You can share in views of any other potential which can be tapped.