There are many new technologies being used in classrooms today: social networking, online teaching, class blogs and wikis, podcasting, interactive whiteboards, and mobile devices. There are many ways in which we can benefit from the new technologies being developed today.
For one, new technologies make distance learning easier. It also allows for faster feedback and improved collaborative efforts between large groups of people. Technologies like podcasting and websites allow students to learn and participate in discussions even when they miss classes due to sickness. Class blogs and wikis widen the avenue for discussion and give students a chance to participate outside of the classroom. Interactive whiteboards makes teaching easier, giving students better visual aids and teachers an easier time in presenting lessons; while mobile devices allow teachers to deliver information to students in a lightning-fast manner. Online teaching and distance learning is a fast growing industry. People today are not confined anymore by geographical or cultural boundaries. People want to learn and people want to give out information. In today's world that is growing ever smaller thanks to technology, classrooms aren't just confined anymore to the four walls of traditional schools. Education thru technology is the way of the future.
In the last decade, the use of computers in classrooms have extended and become widespread. From just being confined to computer labs in MIT and other research institutions, computers now pervade every aspect of the educational institution. You can hardly go to class without encountering the use of computers in teaching. Students use computers to complete their assignments, do their research, and connect with their classmates. Teacher use computers to keep track of their students, check on their work, and make grading them easier and more transparent.
The invention of the internet only made the explosion of information even faster. Now we can blog or tweet about anything and have it spread like wildfire in mere seconds. Everything happens in real-time. The internet is the new consciousness in today's society. It's a living, breathing organism that drives evolution forward. Educational projects like the Wikipedia, the Wikiversity, and the Wikibooks all make use of the internet as the driving force to make educational information freely available to all. E-books are now being made at a quarter of the cost of traditional books. It is hoped in the future e-books won't even have to cost anything since by that time every book in existence would have been scanned and downloaded there won't be a cost to the production of more e-books. Education that is truly free and universal will have been achieved by new technologies such as the computer and the internet.
From the old computers we used in science labs to iPads that we can now carry in our bags, the way we go about educating students sure has changed a lot. The continuous development of microchips that grow smaller and more powerful means that in the next few years to come, we will see even more new technology that will improve and change the way we teach and learn. One of the longstanding dreams of the computing community is that there comes a time when we won't have even have to go to school anymore. That with just one touch of a button, we can learn anything we want. By just downloading a lesson and uploading it to our brain, we can learn and master anything. The stuff of science fiction, you say? Yet in the past, the internet was also the stuff of science fiction. The latest technology used in classrooms today may just be the relics of history in the future.
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