Parents and grandparents of children in school today are often overwhelmed at the ways in which children are being taught. It isn’t even really that ‘core education’ that politicians have mandated for our schools or even the new math that many parents rebel against but rather how their children are being taught. In other words, it isn’t the ‘what’ but rather the ‘how.’ Technology has made a huge impact on the ways in which children can learn and even for adults attending university, studying online has become the norm. Here are just a few ways in which technology has impacted education.
A Brief Look at Distance Education
Just a few short years ago, getting an online degree was often frowned upon by prospective employers. Now it is actually a way of life and just as many students study graduate work online as those who attend conventional classes on campus. Why? Because this gives them the freedom to pick and choose the hours they want to study so that they can work a full-time job so necessary with the high cost of living. Consider studying for a master of arts in history online and you will see other ways in which technology has impacted education.
Research Easier than Ever Before
In your parents and grandparents days, students had to go to the library to do research. Even just a decade or two ago, much of the knowledge that is now in digital format just wasn’t available. Remember, it takes time for someone to type information so that it can be uploaded to a digital file. However, with recent advances in technology, even that has become obsolete because computers now have the ability to scan the written page in order to put it into understandable text that can be altered with programs such as Microsoft Word.
Portable Studies Made Possible
In the 1980s, word processing electronic typewriters were all the rage and the widespread use of laptops were at least a couple decades in the future! In fact, although the very first laptop was invented in 1981 and cost almost $2,000, the Internet was not yet invented so those were just a portable way to carry around a computer where you could do a bit of writing and saving of information you typed onto it, but those archaic devices were nothing like that laptop you are using to read this with. A dinosaur to say the least.
From research to studying to writing thesis papers and doctoral dissertations like you would need to submit when completing graduate work online, technology has changed the way in which students learn and where they learn as well. Technology is used in the classroom as a teaching aid and technology has made advancements in the sciences that were only dreamed of in past generations. Suffice it to say, technology has impacted education to such a degree that if technology suddenly disappeared from the face of the earth, most students wouldn’t know how to study and most teachers would be at a loss as to how best to impart knowledge. Technology has become integral to education which, in the end, is the way in which it has impacted it the most. Technology has become a necessary tool for today’s students and teachers alike.
Like this article? Share with your friends!