Essay on Importance of Educational Technology for Teaching and Learning

Technology has rapidly changed the human lifestyle as it has changed the education sector. It is gradually and steadily taking over our education systems which are a few years behind. The website is about how technology is transforming learning by modifying how, where, and when learners learn, as well as empowering them at every step of the journey by offering them a choice over how they study, improving education meaningful to their digital lives, and equipping them for their futures (Kobayashi, 2008, p. 13). When students have access to technology and resources beyond the classroom, they are motivated to become logical thinkers, collaborators, and creators. When technology is correctly incorporated into the classroom, learners acquire a passion for learning (Bishop et al., 2020, p. 26).

Equitable use of technology refers to learners gaining access to information technology despite social status, economic status, ethnicity, physical ability, age, or other qualities. Despite technology having essential opportunities to learn, it is also a basic component in aiding students with gaining the skills and knowledge they require to be digital citizens. Insufficient access to information and technology denies students learning experiences and may limit their future opportunities. Equitable use includes ensuring that each student has the chance to learn from technologically advanced teachers.

Ethical use of technology is the use of technology in an appropriate way to gain from its use rather than using technology selfishly or enviously. Technology and internet use differ for each student. Students may not be victims of cyberbullying and copyright issues, but teachers should ensure that the students obtain the right skills to use technology and the internet.

Educational technology should help instill social responsibility among learners. Social responsibility is the use of technology in an ethical framework to benefit the student, the school, and the community at large. Both teachers and students have the responsibility to use technology responsibly. Students should adopt from activities that make them irresponsible such as software pirating, hacking, and illegal online activities. This helps the students have digital etiquette. Teachers should model ethical technology usage for their learners, acting responsibly.

Research has been done on educational technology to facilitate learning. Different resources were used in this research. Such resources include statistical software, reference management, and online storage. Statistical software helps to improve research expertise, increase speed and robustness of research work, reduce human errors in data analysis, and ease and increase the efficiency of research work.

Reference management refers to archiving of research and findings. The introduction of referencing management has reduced the strictness of referencing rules. Students need to understand the referencing systems to effectively make use of them in class work or the future. Referencing management offers students with research resources such as books, journal articles, conference papers, and thesis.

Online storage is an essential resource for research. It involves moving data to the cloud. It ensures secure data management and storage. Online storage comes with several advantages such as accessing data while anywhere, easy sharing of data, quick data recovery, and many others. On the other hand, in case of improper handling, it can be hazardous. It is also a more convenient and efficient means of obtaining information from students, instructors, and guardians. First of all, web surveys ensure a short time for collecting responses and are both cost and time-effective (“Educational resources and technology,” n.d., p. 2).

Technology integration engages students and allows the teachers to differentiate their learning in multiple ways. This might be frustrating at times, but there are many innovative ways to incorporate technology into regular teaching. One such method is Game-Based Learning and Assessment. Some of the concepts that we know are important in the theory include the ideas of relevant context, having a reason for carrying out various tasks, the cognitive integrity of what is happening in one’s brain while engrossed with the game is similar to the situation in real life utilizing language, the emotional aspect – having an interaction with the game is advantageous to learning. Another method of integration is videos, podcasts. and slideshows created by students One of the key principles of digital or internet literacy is that learners should become makers and critics of media rather than merely consumers.

Technology is integrated into the curriculum instructional design for different reasons. For example, to motivate students, provide new approaches, and increase productivity. Technology must be easily accessible and be used at a point of instruction. Each level must plan well so that technology may be integrated efficiently and easily into the education curriculum. In a curriculum, technology can be integrated with specific disciplines for effectiveness, efficiency, and ease of implementation. You can benefit from considering the usage of technology is an integral part of the curriculum design process through developing new solutions to cope with educational issues and communicate ways to facilitate discussion.

Formative assessment is the process of obtaining feedback to improve the continuing teaching and learning environment. Summative assessment strategy is a method of determining a student’s measure of success by the end of each education session. Integrating technology with formative and summative assessment strategies helps students engage and promote critical thinking. Other advantages include the useful clarification of grading standards as well as the increase of the integrity and consistency of academic results.

Educational technological tools that an educator uses to instill self-directedness and independent learning nay include online education. It introduces students to a broad variety of online materials addressing their points of interest, something that they can learn at their speed. Online learning improves student learning performance. Open educational resources are also another tool offering a solution by lowering the cost of materials for students while increasing their dependence on digital resources.

Assistive technology, particularly in the classroom, is reshaping what is possible for persons with a wide range of learning, cognitive, and physical skills and impairments. Some examples include e-books and apps. There are apps for accessing digital books on handheld devices. Accessibility preferences and some other built-in accessibility options in our handheld devices support many features which are used for different purposes for example text-to-speech output.

References

Bishop, M. J., Boling, E., Elen, J., & Svihla, V. (2020). Handbook of research in educational communications and technology: Learning design. Springer Nature.

Educational resources and technology. (n.d.). https://doi.org/10.21777/2500-2112

Integrating technology into the curriculum. (n.d.). Share and Discover Knowledge on SlideShare. https://www.slideshare.net/HinaKaynat/integrating-technology-into-the-curriculum-69929434

Keengwe, J. (2013). Research perspectives and best practices in educational technology integration. IGI Global.

Kobayashi, R. (2008). New educational technology. Nova Publishers.

Rolfe, V. (2012). Open educational resources: Staff attitudes and awareness. Research in Learning Technology, 20(0). https://doi.org/10.3402/rlt.v20i0.14395

Using technology to facilitate formative and summative assessments. (n.d.). Sherrilyn’s Classroom. https://sherrilynhicks.weebly.com/sherrilyns-blog/using-technology-to-facilitate-formative-and-summative-assessments

What is successful technology integration? (2007, November 6). Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/technology-integration-guide-description