The age of “no more homework, no more books” may finally be upon us—though perhaps not in the way that children chanting the nursery rhyme envisioned. Increasingly, trends such as gamification and mobile learning are being applied to the classroom, as are technologies such as blockchain and virtual or augmented reality.
Teachers, parents, and the creators of these technologies are wise to keep a finger on the pulse of education technology (EdTech), but they’re not the only ones. Who else should be interested in EdTech?
Lifelong learning or continuous education are sought-after soft skills in virtually every field. If you’re a recent graduate, you can beef up your bachelor’s degree resume by maintaining an up-to-date understanding of EdTech. Below, we’ll consider a few emerging educational resources that you may or may not have encountered.
Learning in Virtual Environments
In 2020, sudden lockdowns left educators scrambling to find ways to connect with their students virtually. Many turned to video conferencing applications like Zoom or Microsoft Teams. These programs had limitations, however, and user-friendly virtual learning platforms arose to fill the gaps.
Maybe you used Google Classroom during your university studies. Many schools have adopted this virtual platform for assignments, quizzes, document sharing, and communication between students and teachers. It is user-friendly overall and integrates seamlessly with other Google products.
For these reasons, you should keep your eye on Google Classroom, whether or not you’re entering the education sector. Teachers at all levels may use Google Classroom, of course, but you may also be required to use it during on-the-job training in your industry. Once you’ve solidified your experience in your field, you may even use Google Classroom as an instructor.
Gamification: Making Learning Fun
How many hours have you spent gaming? If you’ve ever lost yourself in a marathon gaming stint, you understand how captivating they can be. You may not have known that there were solid scientific reasons behind your motivation to play games.
Psychology and neuroscience educator Dr. Steph Acaster explains: “Games almost always produce perceptible results and have… a much more consistent system of reward, progression, and success, than many other contexts that people experience in their daily lives.”
In other words, games make us feel good because once we learn how to play the game, success is usually within our grasp. When we succeed, our brain receives a dose of feel-good chemicals, and this motivates us to try for the next success.
Gamifying “boring” tasks like learning about an uninteresting subject can be motivating and remove the tedium of the learning process. Consider an example.
Many people consider language learning to be difficult, largely because of the amount of memorization required. Duolingo has famously broken this down into 17-question segments. Each correct answer heralds a celebratory “ping,” and the characters congratulate you at the end of each lesson, leaping for joy or portraying similar sentiments. Users are encouraged to complete more lessons to maintain a daily streak or complete a friend or monthly quest. They are rewarded with “league” and quest badges as well as social media shareables.
Duolingo is just one of thousands of programs that gamify the learning of various subjects. Familiarize yourself with those that are relevant to your career field, and keep your eyes peeled for more.
A New Era of Simulations
Simulations of various kinds have been learning tools for thousands of years. Warriors were trained by running obstacle courses. Children played with miniature versions of objects associated with their gender-specific roles. Modern soldiers, pilots, and student drivers have learned inside immersive mechanical and video simulators.
Today, several companies offer virtual and augmented reality (VR and AR) headsets specifically for classroom use. ClassVR, for example, offers hundreds of lesson plans “designed to help raise engagement & increase knowledge retention” through transportive experiences.
For example, students can go where field trips couldn’t take them—a rocket launch, an ancient city, the inner workings of a computer, or the prehistoric world, for instance. They can interact with historical figures.
Augmented reality features allow them to manipulate digital objects in a real-world backdrop using QR-code printed cubes. For example, a student could hold a model of eukaryotic cell in his hand, turning it to view the various organelles.
This technology is still in its infancy. It has not yet reached the level portrayed in fiction, in which AR glasses overlay dizzying amounts of real-time information. But that kind of technology is in the works. In the coming years, look for AR headsets that train technicians by overlaying instructions on the real-world components they see, or that help them troubleshoot by using artificial intelligence (AI) to diagnose problems. Similarly, surgeons, mechanics, and engineers will use future VR technologies to practice delicate procedures—and perhaps assist them in the real thing.
Key Takeaways
Educational technologies are available today that would have seemed like science fiction a few decades ago. Additional tools are currently under development that will help create fertile learning environments, engage students more fully, and immerse them in information.
