Education is witnessing a tremendous revolution, owing to advances in technology. Computers and mobile devices like phones and tablets have introduced exciting opportunities for tech-based interventions like innovative communication, interactive textbooks, pragmatic learning, web-based study, differentiated learning and gamification.
This has brought a change in the traditional classroom practices. Today, technology is ubiquitous in education, opening up new frontiers for everyone involved. Its intervention has drastically revolutionised the educational landscape with new learning trends that are making academic learning extremely accessible for everyone.
With all the technology trends in the last decade, it is the smartphone that has the potential to be the most influential and powerful tool in enhancing education around the world. With access to the Internet, students can use smartphones to virtually meet any instructor across the globe, enabling access to vast realms of information and endless educational opportunities. This technology allows the students to search for and consume relevant information, thus enjoying the responsibility and liberty of charting their own progress.
Exciting times are underway for education with schools, colleges and universities across India enhancing their learning spaces to facilitate this new model of education. This is promoting more interaction and driving learner engagement in the teaching process.
This evolution of technology has notably created a new pattern in education, making it easier for teachers to create instructional materials and allowing students to learn and work in innovative ways.
In recent years, the dependency on learning Management Systems (lMSs) has increased among students for the convenience and invaluable educational resource they offer. lMSs, at their core, allow institutions to track attendance as well as organise and administer all facets of learning. But the lMS is just a concept and can do more to lead the changing face of education.
lMSs are also becoming crucial for higher education as well with students taking up at least one online or hybrid course by the time they finish college. Perhaps, the main reason is that this system is bringing students in touch with institutions that have greater accountability and transparency features.
Educational institutions, on the other hand, are required to ensure that student information and teaching ‘transactions’ are secure so as to be able to integrate the online teaching environment with its administrative systems. With the digital footprint provided by lMSs, they are able to substantiate quality assurance and personalised development to students. Although this system has proved to be successful in solving pain points and creating efficiencies for an individual college, it hasn't yet sparked fundamental improvements across institutions or higher education as a whole.
But this may change going forward. Today, technology is opening doors to enable lMSs to create the kind of innovation we hoped for. However, without seamless Internet connectivity, teaching multiple users across geographies while retaining the live and interactive nature of a classroom remains a distant dream.
Therefore, to make sure that lMSs are able to bring about a speedy progression in education, more and more students and teachers should embrace the use of smartphones in education. By ensuring that we all are connected, we can enable the lMS to play a vital role in improving education.
There will always be room for traditional classroom-based education. The lMS will evolve only to revitalise it, ushering in an impactful and exciting new educational environment for the forthcoming era.
The writer is Joseph Freed, co-founder and CEO, Byndr