The Oxford Dictionary defines “Innovative” as “featuring new methods; advanced or original.” Tech was trickling into our school systems at a pretty comfortable rate when, all of a sudden, it was forced down our throats at breakneck speed with the rise of Covid-19. “Ready or not, I’m here!” With the advancment of tech, countless changes in teaching methods and materials and numerous innovations in the classroom have come. It’s incredible how most of those new innovative features in classrooms support education technology. Let’s look at a few!

Paperless Environments

Schools are using these environments to send homework home digitally from cloud-based systems, which means that educators can use a vast range of metrics to track their learners’ progress. Learners can access their homework from anywhere at any time as long as they have internet access. 

There are cons to this, however. What happens if they have a learner that doesn’t have internet or that have poor connectivity? What if they don’t have a device at home that connects to the internet? This may present a problem. 

However, there are also solutions. Most schools have devices that they enable the learners to borrow. They also have many ways around the low or no internet problems.

Screencasting

A screencast is a recording of what is occurring on a computer screen, along with an audio recording. This is useful in the classroom when used with a projector via education technology

Screencasting enables educators to record step-by-step tutorials, lessons, or commonly asked questions and upload them to any digital platform they choose for the learners to playback later. The only downfalls are that the tech can get expensive, recording can take time, and editing is a pain.

Plagiarism Detection Apps

There are so many tools out there to prevent plagiarism. Copyscape is popular, and so is Turnitin. They compare the writing with publications to detect plagiarism. Turnitin also compares the work against that of other learners.

Turnitin is internet-based. It lets educators provide feedback to learners. It also comes complete with tools to help learners write more confidently.

Screensharing

Screensharing lets the person sharing his screen show his screen to the rest of the viewers on their devices in remote locations. This enables them to see what he sees, promoting collaboration and sharing ideas between the educator and the learners. It draws the learners in, maximizing learner engagement.

However, although the educator is screen sharing, his face is typically off-screen, limiting face-to-face interaction. Screensharing uses a higher bandwidth, so it can be interrupted by connectivity issues.

Online Tutoring

Online tutoring is available for learners from Kindergarten through college. All they must do is ask. Accredited educators are available for one-on-one, live tutoring help for differing lengths of time. However, these services can be quite expensive.

Conclusion

All of these innovations support education technology. You must have tech to use a paperless environment. Screencasting and screen sharing is not possible without education technology. Plagiarism detection tools support education technology by supporting the paperless environment, and online tutoring is online, so it’s education technology all the way.