How Technology Aids Learning
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Students of Federal Government Girls’ College, Shagamu enter a classroom that looks like any other, except that a projection system and video screen have been installed. Their Biology teacher announces that today they will be talking about the kidney and its functions. Rather than leave the students to their imagination of what a kidney looks like, the teacher projects a HD quality image of a kidney from his Skool Media tablet to the video screen. The students are marveled at what they can do with technology and even more eager to learn. This is just a few of the realities of how technology is revamping the learning space in Nigeria. The use of technology in education results in a lot of positive changes in teaching methods and learning experience.
Let’s talk about some other benefits of incorporating technology in our educational system.
Enjoyable learning experience
Engaging students and grabbing their attention can prove a herculean task for teachers due to the static manner of traditional teaching methods. This can be solved by equipping schools with technological devices like projectors, audio-visual presentation, wide screen television, educational tablets, internet connectivity and so much more. With these innovations, instruction delivery from teacher to student is less tedious. Also, technology-centered activities can be introduced to our learning space in a bid to make learning less boring. Some of such activities is the Skool Media initiative tagged “Art Tech”, an art competition and workshop that encourages secondary school students to express technology using their artistic skills.
See pictures of some young artists from the Federal Science and Technical College, Yaba hard at work during the competition. You can also read more on that here, here and here.
Learning on the go
Traditional teaching methods are static and rigid. Technology helps students learn from anywhere in the world. Learning is no longer restricted to the four walls of a classroom as books, lecture notes and videos can easily be accessed online. Assignments and exams can also be done via internet.
Eco-friendly
Trees are very important in the environment as they help protect the ozone layer by keeping the atmosphere cool. The number of trees that have to be cut down for the production of papers for all kinds of books is outrageous. This problem can be averted with the use of technology as all hard copy books can be converted to eBooks and stored in an e-library.
Problem Solving
Using technology to express and convey knowledge all entail different kinds of problems solving. Learning with technology requires that students make myriad decisions while constructing their representations. Deciding what information to include and exclude, how to structure the information, and what form it should take are all complex decision-making processes. Students also engage in a lot of design problem solving while constructing their interpretations. They also must solve rule-using problems in how to use software. When learners are solving problems, they are thinking deeply and are engaged in meaningful learning. What they learn while doing so will be so much better understood and remembered than continuously preparing to answer multiple-choice test questions.
Cheaper means of learning
Distant learning, which depends a lot of technology, is less expensive means of education as compared to the traditional method. Scholars can study for different courses from any part of the world without going through the rigours and expenses of traveling.
So there you have it. Technology is really amazing and it’s here to stay. We either get on the train as a nation or we will surely be left behind.