Using eLearning Technologies To Improve The Quality Of Teaching
12/20/2017
eLearning has become an important part of our educational system and has changed the way we view teaching as a whole. With technology advancing with each passing day, soon we might be able to provide a form of free education to everyone in the world, regardless of class or financial stability.
In the time that we live in, computers and other forms of technology have become a very crucial part of our lives. Not only can they be used for entertainment, but they are also an important part of learning and teaching.
The Importance Of eLearning
eLearning in today’s generation has refined the core aspects of teaching and has made schools perform more efficiently.
In the past, using technology in education was a very controversial topic. Many people criticized it by saying that modernizing education would lead to many negatives in society. Along with these negatives, there were also a huge number of positives by making education technology-aided.
With time, educational institutes began implementing various technologies into their lectures and realized the increase in productivity and interactions of their students which proves that the ever advancing technologies have greatly improved our educational system and our way of teaching. There have been many researchers addressing whether the merging of education and modern technology affects a student’s achievements compared to a traditional classroom.
After extensive and thorough review of student transcripts from different schools, they came to a conclusion which suggests that the inclusion of technology in education can very well improve student achievements. The levels of improvement depend upon both, the way technology is infused into teaching methods and the design of instruction. Some educators do not know how to properly use the technology, and they should focus on better ways to use the given technology to provide an easier medium for students to learn. But, let's have a closer look at the ways eLearning has helped.
4 Ways eLearning Tools Have Improved The Quality Of Learning
1. Language
Take, for example, a teacher teaching a certain language. Instead of simply explaining the meanings of different words, teachers can play a clip from a movie where that language is being spoken to help teach their students to understand how to use words and in which context. Not only does this make the session far more entertaining than old-school ways of teaching, but it also helps keep the class more attentive to the lesson rather than falling asleep or having their minds wander off.
2. Physical Presence
eLearning has also introduced a new way of learning for someone who is unable to be physically present in a classroom. Technologies such as Skype allow someone at home to be equally as interactive with the lesson as someone who is present in the class.
3. Information Access
In older times, if you had to find a certain piece of information you would have to scan through a multitude of books until you find what you are looking for. Now, using the internet, both students and teachers have access to all the known information in the world with the press of a few keys, allowing them to find the exact answer to their problem in a matter of minutes.
4. Own Pace
In society, these days, there are some students, especially youths, who perform much better at their own pace instead of having to adapt to the pace that their schools go at. Online educational courses are now accredited and a viable option that they can opt for to study at a pace they are comfortable with.
3 eLearning Concepts That Improved The Quality Of Education
There are also some ways where we can truly see the improvement in the quality of education once it started implementing the technology.
1. Flipped Classroom
The flipped classroom concept is one in which the standard classroom model is reversed. Students watch video lectures at home before the class session begins and have to do some research on their own, while the time they spend in class is used to practice various different exercises and problems related to what they learned by watching the video lectures.
This method has made it much easier for students to learn about certain topics and be able to clear any questions they might have before-hand so that they can devote their time in class to practicing and refining what they have learned.
2. Improvement Of Interest And Creativity
There are many statistics that show that implementing technology into the classroom has vastly improved a student’s interest and creativity. In this generation, technology has a strong influence on the lives of the youths in our society. When that digital world is introduced into the classroom, as long as it is incorporated properly into the lesson, students have a far easier time paying attention.
3. Simplified Presentation
Before the introduction of technology, educators teaching subjects such as Mathematics or Physics have had difficulty teaching certain topics where they had to plot data on a graph or draw large diagrams by hand.
With devices such as smart boards and projectors, it is far easier for teachers to draw sketches and graphs on the screen as well and it is far easier for the students to understand. Furthermore, a teacher can pull up a picture of any question or exercise on the screen instead of having to dictate entire questions from a book or having to write them on the board.
How eLearning Has Benefited Teachers
With the development of technology, many people are finding work online by getting online teaching jobs. Across the globe, there are many who have the passion to teach but cannot give up their regular jobs to do so. In such cases, these people enroll themselves into different online teaching programs where they have to give a class only once or twice a week while still working their regular jobs.
With the rising popularity of sites like YouTube, anyone anywhere in the world who has the will to teach can make and post video lectures on the internet for people to view and earn their income through AdSense. This not only benefits the educator but also the student, as they can pause and replay certain parts that they did not understand instead of having to ask the teacher to repeat themselves.
Conclusion
To conclude, eLearning has become a very important part of our educational system and has changed the way we view teaching as a whole. There are still a few schools out there who condone the use of technology, but soon they will see the overwhelming positives that outweigh the negatives of eLearning.
By Jens Ischebeck, Africa and Middle East