Both education and learning are life time processes, they have no limit on when to start and stop. In our daily lives we learn new things and this helps us in changing the way we leave. Education provides us with information, and then we have to learn and process this information for our own use. It is very important to make education accessible at any time by every one; this will help in reducing on the level of illiteracy. Information technology has the ability of speeding up information delivery, so this ability can be used in improving our education environment. With the implementation of Information Technology, costs of accessing educational material are cut down and it makes it easy for students to learn from anywhere.
New technologies are changing the way we learn and they have also changed the process of teaching. Both teachers and students are using these new educational technologies to archive specific academic goals. The only challenge is that Information Technology comes at a cost, so those who can not afford the price tend to have difficulties to benefit from the opportunities of Information Technology in education. For example; the increased use of internet broadband makes it easy for students to access academic information on time. Also teachers use this broadband internet to created and deliver academic data using videos and graphic illustrations.
Below are some detailed points on the use of information technology in education and schools.
- Plenty of Educational Resources: Information technology makes it easy to access academic information at any time. Both students and teachers use Information technology to acquire and exchange educational material. For example; teachers can easily provide visual and audio classes to their students using computers and broadband internet. This breaks the boundaries of accessing information, because the student will simply attend a lecture while not in a physical classroom. Also teachers can assign tasks to students via electronic email or campus educational forums.
- Instant Access to Educational Information: Information technology speeds the transfer and distribution of information. Students can easily access academic data using computers and new technologies like mobile phone application. IT experts have coded educational applications which can be used by students to access information very fast. These mobile phone applications are replacing some old methods like borrowing of books in libraries, now days students can use Library mobile phone applications to download books inform of e-books, so they have these books at any time which saves them time and helps them read at any time anywhere.
- Full Time learning: Unlike in the past when learning was limited to a physical classroom, students and teachers could only access academic information while at school. Today , all that has changed, a student will access information at any given time of the day. It does not matter where they are or the time of the day is. Information technology has facilitated online education, so you will find a student in Africa will study the same course as a student in USA or India. And when it comes to getting jobs, all these students will have the chance to compete for the same job.
- Group Learning: Information technology has helped students learn in groups and it has also helped teachers teach students in groups. In past, we used to have group discussions at school which required each member to contribute, however the shy students could stay away from these groups because of the fear of expressing them selves. Now with information technology, schools have created academic forums, where students can discuss about a specific topic with no fear of expression. They can also engage in video and text chatting. Another benefit of these online group discussions is that not all group members will be from the same class or school as it was in the past. Students from various schools around the world can be in the same academic group and share academic information. Lets look at a student in Africa joining a group discussion of students in Harvard University, the information exchanged will be beneficial to this student.
- Use of Audio – Visual: Information technology has changed the way we learn and interpret information. The use of audio-visual education helps students learn faster and easily. As opposed to text and blackboard notes, students get bored in this form of education. It is a human weakness, people do not want to read text for so long, they get bored, so the introduction of audio-visual technology in education, makes students enjoy what they’re learning. Visual illustration using images on projectors helps a student understand the concept, because some of these images are interesting and they look familiar to a student. Our brains tend to remember visual illustrations easily more than text. This explains why you can easily remember someone’s face but fail to remember their names.
- Long Distance learning: Information technology enables students across the globe to study from anywhere through online education. This has been possible due to the wide spread of cheap broadband internet in both developed and non-developed countries. Unlike in the past, when some courses used to be provided in developed countries, so for a student to study those courses they had to go through the hassle of moving from their home country which was to expensive. Now days, a student can have access to these courses online. Many universities have opened their educational curriculum to the world. So at a small fee, a student can be part of that university. These students do the same exams and are marked by the same teachers.
Reference: wikieducator.org
