Raising Expectations and Addressing Inequities in Education Technology
Education technology is becoming increasingly popular in all contemporary-day schools, and for different reasons. In fact, most educators rely solely on these tools for teaching purposes.
There are a few issues when it comes to this advancement in tech. This piece will discuss and address the inequities developed because of education technology and its role in the educational environment.
Raising Expectations
As we have already mentioned, education technology is becoming an increasingly popular tool in the educational world. This is because lots of evidence suggests that education technology is successful when used in the classroom.
Most educators have reported an increase in their learners’ results due to the incorporation of educational tech. This may be because education technology offers learners more diverse lessons. Instead of listening to the educator talk for an hour, they can learn via video, illustrations, online games, etc.
Additionally, parents and educators often believe that learners enjoy using tech in the classroom because they are already so tech-savvy. Many teenagers own their own smartphone or technological device, meaning they are likely to learn how technology tools work very easily.
There are so many innovative tools and apps that educators can use to make lessons even more engaging, such as Pedagogue. Educators can offer a central location for accessing material online and developing content with this social learning management system.
Most educators out there incorporate education technology into their lessons with high expectations. However, there are a few issues that learners (or educators) could face when adapting to tech in the classroom.
Inequities in Education Technology
Even though education technology is a fantastic tool and advancement, it brings a few issues with it when being incorporated into lessons:
- The digital divide refers to the gap in knowledge between people who have access to tech and people who do not have access to tech. This is a significant issue in most schools, as not all learners will understand how to use or operate the education technology tools. There are a few ways in which educators can get around this problem. For instance, they could offer additional lessons to learn how to operate the educational tech.
- Learners will need WiFi at home to get the most out of certain education technology tools. Different schools and educators use education technology so that learners have access to the cloud and other online resources. However, this becomes an issue when learners do not have internet access in their homes. Educators can suggest that these learners visit public spaces with internet connections, such as the public library, to combat this problem.
Conclusion
Most parents and educators have high expectations when it comes to using education technology in the classroom. This is because lots of evidence suggests that tech can be effective when used correctly for educational purposes.
Even though education technology is so popular, a few issues and inequities are still related to it. For example, the digital divide means that certain learners will not understand how the tech works. More so, specific education technology tools require all learners to have internet access at home.