Using Educational Technology to Enhance Student Learning

Growing up a lot of people have experienced both old school type of learning with no technology involved, as well as new systems of incorporating technology into everyday classes.

However, as one get older, the classes get harder. Teaching materials get bigger and bigger, and, more boring every day. Students easily lose interest, as the day goes by, the concentration gets lower and kids aren’t even capable of taking in any information at that state. Some of people reading this will never know how hard it is trying to write down teachers every word by hand, while still trying to understand what they are talking about. If that is the case - you are lucky. So, forgive it when one says that using technology in class was the best thing that has happened to educational system by far. Nowadays, you don’t have to catch notes and worry about missing something. You can have everything in a class database with a click of a button, which leaves more energy for actually listening the classes and paying attention. That leads straight to enhancing student learning. Speaking from experience, it is so much easier to keep up with a lecture when it is followed by a presentation with visual examples and explanations. 

Many argue that the use of technology distracts students from learning the information being given and therefore results in lower test scores, but as someone who experienced both types of learning one can highly disagree. When used in the right way, educational technology can only improve student learning and, therefore, result in higher test scores or better Pro-Papers. Speaking of tests, one more major benefit of educational technology is its ability to save teacher time and efficiency. For example, by having students take the test electronically, on computers, it is made easier and faster for professors to grade them. They don’t have to go through tons of papers by hand, reading everything, which would take so much time. Now there are specialized programs for test sorting and grading that are done immediately. That means no more waiting for results for weeks, which takes off stress and pressure of young students. Efficiency is the key component when talking about educational technology. 

With all this new educational systems coming up, many feel that technology is taking over the human factor in modern education. Some people have always believed that it is essential never to lose sight of teachers’ significance in classroom. As Bill Gates once said: “Technology is just a tool. In terms of getting the kids working together and motivating them, the teacher is the most important.”  It is not all about the numbers and grades. School is supposed to offer so much more to the youth. Compassion, teamwork, kindness. You simply can’t learn that through a computer. That is why we must never disregard teacher’s role in student’s development. Educational technology should only be used as a tool to help improve student learning and never to replace the teacher in classroom. 

Studies have shown that interactive classes result in better learning. One of the simplest ways to incorporate an interactive approach to learning is to use educational technology in classes. Technology makes everything simpler, faster, easier and – most importantly for students - more fun. From a personal experience, students know how excited they were going into a college that has a modern system of education. Having visualization with your lectures, not only hearing it but by also seeing examples, pictures, visual explanations, graphs etc. To have a 24/7 access to everything you need, all of your lectures, information, scripts. Professors don’t have to be chased at in the hallways, you can get in touch with them by school emails. It helps professors time to be managed more efficiently and effectively. 

Student’s mental health is also benefiting with incorporation educational technology because it is taking so much stress off of a student. Even as it is, we are all slaves of technology anyways. It would only be natural to incorporate it in modern education. Technology, when used appropriately can have so much benefits to a modern day education. So much is already being done, but so many schools don’t have the budgets for new technology. However, it doesn’t to be big. Not every student has to have a laptop in front of them in every class. A good presentation on a white board is all you need to keep a student interested. Moreover, an online class database, where a student can find class presentations and important information. 

As you can probably tell by now, this paper is a strong advocate of educational technology. Not all technology is good, but in this case – it is crucial. It has become so hard to keep young people interested in school and education nowadays that we need all the help we can find. So many of them pose a question of “Why should I sit here and listen to this for hours when I can Google it with a click of a button”.  We live in a modern world, and it is only natural that our educational system would be the same. Of course, it should be moderated and used wisely and in controllable environment. As many benefits as it has, technology can easily be abused. However, despite its flaws it can do far more good than bad.