Technology is shaping how we learn

The technological advances of the past two decades have changed the world and education is no exception. Today’s students have access to far more knowledge than their parents once found in encyclopedias and on maps. With the click of a mouse and without leaving the classroom, they can access the collective knowledge of all mankind via the internet. Students who use technology in the classroom perform better and emerge from their education better prepared for the challenges of adult life.

But that’s not the only way technology is making it easier for students to learn. Technology is facilitating communication between students and teachers, fostering increased engagement through educational games and making it easier than ever for non-traditional students to attend university for the first time or get the credentials they need to advance in their field.

Schools are saving money on textbooks, supplies and supplemental materials like maps and calculators, since students can read from e-textbooks, look up maps online, use the calculator function on their tablets or computers. They can do their work on their laptops and hand it in by email or through online forums like Blackboard. Today’s teachers may no longer bother to write lessons on a physical chalkboard, instead they use online forums to share the syllabus and classroom notes with students. Students, in turn, may learn lessons in a more hands-on way, through educational video gaming and simulations.

Teachers today need a firm grasp, not only of current technology, but on technologies to come. A great way for teachers to develop their technology skills is to go back to school online for an advanced degree in instructional technology.

Primary and secondary school students aren’t the only ones who have seen drastic changes in the way they learn thanks to technology. University students are also learning in new ways.

Thirty years ago, the average university student was a young person, aged 18 to 24, and newly graduated from high school. He or she didn’t work, at least not full-time, instead concentrated on his or her studies. But today, the average university student looks very different.

University students take classes online, go to school part-time and live off campus, juggling the responsibilities of a full-time job and family life alongside their academic ones. Technology has made distance-learning much easier for these students, who can now take university classes on their own time, as their work and family schedules permit.

Technology has changed every part of the way we live and the way we learn.

- The reader is a student based in Dubai.