Nowadays, advances in technology are the order of the day. That is why today’s paper writers want to explain the importance of technology in education. It is essential to keep updated and informed of all the new developments that are emerging and their different applications.
In education, it is vital to know how it can influence children and adolescents who are in total development. By doing so, we will learn new skills, improve creativity and make children autonomous.
The basics
- For years, technologies have been gradually being applied in education. Different studies confirm that this incorporation helps them to develop new “21st century” skills. They are more critical, autonomous, and have more excellent initiative.
- Teachers and parents must be trained in the use of these technologies to be applied effectively. The best thing to do is to read and be informed before introducing them to children’s education.
- There are different practices and applications and other ways to adapt the technologies in a didactic way. You can try Internet applications, learning video games, or mobile devices.
Everything you Need to Know about the Role of Technology in Education
The use of new technologies can be intimidating, but today we are becoming more and more accustomed to recent advances. Whether you are a parent, tutor, or teacher, it is essential to know all the advantages and disadvantages and apply them in education. In this way, you will achieve the best development of children and young people.
How Does Technology Influence Education?
Since the end of the last century, technology has been advancing by leaps and bounds. We have been adapting to their role in almost every aspect of our lives and daily lives. It is only natural that they have been incorporated into education. They represent a new challenge for the educational system to develop and leave aside a unidirectional model between teacher and student.
New technologies open up a new range of opportunities in the didactic field, making it possible to put pedagogical theories and learning methodologies into practice. These advances allow students to be more proactive and not mere receivers of information from teachers and tutors. With this, children and adolescents develop their curiosity, proactivity, and initiative. In addition, they learn to be critical and to share their points of view with others.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of using technology in the education of children and adolescents?
Although technology is a great tool, and more so in education, we must consider all its nuances. You can read a list of advantages and disadvantages in this table:
Advantages
- New applications emerge.
- There are new pedagogical methodologies.
- There is more outstanding communication.
- The system is bidirectional.
- It promotes curiosity, decision-making, and initiative.
- It improves creativity and imagination.
- It helps to develop new skills and experiences.
- Encourages independent thinking and acting.
- Allows greater flexibility in schedules.
Disadvantages
- It is difficult to access for children and adolescents in precarious conditions.
- May decrease communication and socialization.
- Can produce unpredictable and uncontrollable changes in social structures.
- There are constant changes and a need for ongoing training so that technologies can be effectively incorporated into teaching.
Technology should be understood as just another tool. Depending on the user, it will be negative or positive. Therefore, the educator must become a guide so that this use is the most appropriate possible. Each child’s characteristics and learning environment or classroom must be taken into account at all times to be effective.
What are the Applications of Technology in Education?
The emergence of technologies has led to different applications. Within education, it has fostered new, beneficial, and effective utilities. The possibility of accessing these advances is an improvement, both in classrooms and at home. The applications and advantages are the following:
- Development of new skills: They will learn basic skills more effectively. These skills are critical thinking, information management, proactivity and initiative, team learning, goal setting, stimulation of creativity, curiosity, and self-expression within new contexts.
- Distance education: It is a solution that provides accessibility to the problems that arise in teaching, derived from costs and location. The need for training in the technological field applied to education has become evident. It is also crucial that teachers, tutors, and parents know how to manage them correctly and effectively. The Internet makes it possible to access information in seconds and anywhere in the world. The objective of distance education is to organize all this information and make it available to students logically to facilitate learning.
- New pedagogical and didactic methodologies: Technology can be understood as one more tool in education. Thus, we can use new elements and tools such as graphics, spreadsheets, or e-mail. In addition, it has many other utilities that can help develop the child, such as integrated learning systems that encourage individual activity in children, simulators, and playful games.
Good Practices for Incorporating Technology in Education
Although technology is taking center stage in education, it must be applied correctly. Thus, we can establish a series of good practices, which develop different objectives, such as improving learning or generating pedagogical innovation.
There are different models, both normative and empirical, that point to a list of good practices. The most important are those of UNESCO, the World Bank, and the OECD. Some of the good practices that can be found in these models are the following:
- Uniting new technologies with new pedagogies.
- Encourage cooperative interaction in the classroom, collaborative learning, and teamwork.
- Adapt changes in the educational system, teachers, and classrooms.
- Develop 21st-century skills in both teachers and students.
- Teachers take another role, moving away from the unidirectional model.
- Promote creative and independent thinking, which helps problem-solving and time allocation.
- Students are the primary beneficiaries of any initiative that introduces new technologies in education.
Thanks to these good practices, we get children to develop the so-called “21st-century skills”. It means that they will improve their higher-order skills, such as being more critical and autonomous, gaining reflection, and help in problem-solving.
Examples of Technologies Applicable to Education
Now that we have seen all the benefits and how deeply rooted technology is in education, you may wonder how to include it in the classroom or at home. With different examples, you will see that it is even more straightforward than it seems, and you will be able to implement it in a didactic and practical way.
Internet and Apps
They are one of the most significant advances in recent years that have caused technology to advance even faster. The use of the Internet in education can help children foster curiosity about different topics, learning by themselves to find information on the network. It is, in turn, a great help and complement when doing homework, tasks, or developing new projects. Children will learn to surf the Internet and discover what possibilities this tool offers them.
Apps are nowadays an essential element of the network, and there is an infinite number of themes. It is best to look for those that have a playful and didactic objective. In this way, children can develop new skills, learn about different technologies and learning methodologies, and be entertained.
Video Games
You may think that video games are an unfounded pastime, but are they? Video games can be an interdisciplinary technological tool in a child’s cognitive development. Video games can help children improve different skills such as:
- Their concentration and focus
- Reading and language skills
- Memory
- Analytical and strategic skills
- Situation analysis and decision making
- Time management
Likewise, not all video games are suitable, and for each child and adolescent age, we will find one or the other. Finally, for a video game to intervene in learning, we recommend choosing among one of these types of themes: arcade, sports, strategy, simulation, platform, puzzle, adventure, and role-playing.
Mobile and Portable Devices
Together with the Internet, the computer is a great tool that allows instant access to information from anywhere. With the emergence of portable and mobile devices in recent decades, this ease of access is even greater. Thanks to this, children can use the Internet and different applications from a multitude of places and contexts. We encourage children to adapt to other platforms, improving their autonomy to know and handle them with these devices.
Toys
Going a step further, we can find more and more advanced toys that can attract children’s attention. Thus, the incorporation of technology in education is also tangible in the most current toys.
The best thing is that they offer more interaction and expand learning possibilities. One recommendation could be classic board games with complementary multimedia elements using an electronic device. In this way, we can balance traditional toys that develop specific skills in the child and other technological toys that promote new ones.
Summary
Children, nowadays, are very accustomed to the use of technologies, but applying them to education can be very beneficial. It depends mainly on how they are chosen and how they are applied. For the learning and development of new skills to be effective, we must consider what aptitudes and attitudes they foster in children. The use of technology opens up a new world of teaching and many possibilities. Appropriate service, my parents and tutors with essential knowledge, will prepare children for a
