When the pandemic broke in early 2020, the world literally stood still and numb. Everything stopped – shops, musea, secure online casino, schools. Once the initial shock wore off, businesses and entire industries came up with innovative ways to get back on their feet. It turned out that many institutions and enterprises can work efficiently, even if some of their employees work remotely.
School learning by using technologies has also become a savior for modern education. As it today connects millions of learners and educators and promotes lifelong learning. despite extreme circumstances.
Therefore, it is very important to understand what is happening now and what awaits us ahead. How modern educational technologies will change the future.
Let’s figure out which technologies will somehow affect the future of education. But first we have to define homeschooling.
What Is Homeschooling?
This is family learning. This is a form of education outside the educational organization. This means deliberately voluntarily leaving school and teaching children as the family sees fit. At the same time, the child, like all schoolchildren, receives a certificate, since he is obliged to pass the state final attestation.
So, which technologies can help to homeschool?
E-Learning
Right now, e-learning is going far beyond the usual lightweight mode of instruction on online platforms. It allows everyone to do study and learn things in real-time, get grades for their work. Another advantage – feedbacks to students and their parents, as well as the use of online testing as a formative assessment tool, receiving regular reports on the progress of the remote educational process, and much more. Distance e-platforms not only bring potential students and teachers together but also allow parents to regularly receive information on their children’s progress. Remote technology has enormous potential, and it is likely that it could remain even if schools and universities fully open up in a post-pandemic world. At least, we will treat them completely differently than before the beginning of the known events.
Video Conferencing in Education
Video conferencing takes distance education to a new level, as close as possible to full-time education. The teacher can not only give lectures but also show additional materials that illustrate it. Students, in turn, will have the opportunity to ask questions about the material covered. In addition, video conferencing is very convenient for remote training of personnel, since a specialist does not have to visit a new group of trainees every time.
Another advantage is that now that everything has shifted to non-digital platforms, there are more opportunities to attend various conferences. Many universities, coaches, teachers, masters of their craft hold conferences, where anyone can register and attend. This is an amazing opportunity to learn a lot of new things first-hand, without wasting time and effort at all.
OCW Concept
MIT OpenCourseWare (MIT OCW) (since 2002) is a project of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the goal of which is to publish materials of its entire educational program in the open access. This concept implies the entire spectrum of content: from video and audio recordings to lecture notes, reference apparatus, bibliography, transcripts, etc.
Instead of forcing students to assimilate certain knowledge, teachers will encourage them to independently engage in the learning process. All the basic technologies needed to do this exist today. Self-motivation will become the main jet engine for learning, and as a result, learning itself will become much faster. After all, any material is assimilated much faster if it is perceived with pleasure.
How Clouds Are Helping Remote Learning
The scalability and reliability of the cloud can dramatically improve the availability of mission-critical systems within it, and educational services are no exception.
What are the advantages of this technology for the future education at home?
- providing access to library collections and internal resources of educational institutions around the world;
- storage of educational materials in the format of lectures and presentations;
- access to the repository from anywhere in the world with a network connection;
- availability for distribution to others;
- offload your own IT resources;
- forget about the long process of modernization and building up local capacities;
- regardless of the number of users, conduct seminars and lectures without failures;
- improve the quality of services.
It is on the basis of cloud technologies that distance classes can be organized on a schedule, regardless of where teachers and students are physically present. Take up Intellipaat Cloud Computing courses to get an in-depth knowledge of cloud hosting service providers and their architecture, deployment, and services to solve any business problems.
Gamification in Education: When a Regular Course Becomes a Quest
Elements of gamification make the standard course more interesting. For example, game mechanics can motivate you to do homework and solve tests, and if the topic is too complex, then simple examples with gamification will help you better understand and learn the material for the future.
A large skill course, in which learner risk drowning, is usually supplemented with a rating – such a tool provides an incentive to go to the end. And incentive badges or points for different actions when completing practical tasks will motivate him to pass it on time. Among other things, game mechanics make the activities themselves more memorable. You are more likely to recommend such a course to a friend because you remember that it was interesting to take it.
Data Management and Analytics
Data management is another important aspect of future education. Such technologies make it easier to complete various educational tasks, for example, by allowing teachers to give students homework. In addition, teachers can plan and monitor assignments and exams.
When combined with analytics, data management also allows you to accurately track and measure individual student performance. In addition, teachers can pinpoint students who need additional help and ensure that they receive it.
Use of Mobile Applications
There is a reason why more and more companies are investing in mobile learning technology and mobile app development year after year. Mobile apps are one of the most popular mobile learning trends on the market today.
This format has many advantages:
- Ideal for learners looking for information and learning on the go
- Suitable for both online and offline viewing
- Very popular among the new generation
- Provides access to operational information
- Ideal to support efficiency and productivity
They can be used to offer a small snippet of formal training or to complement existing training.
When it comes to homeschooling, mobile apps are the ideal platform to support performance. They can be used as productivity tools and can be built into a learner’s workflow. When available to learners on their mobile devices, they can be used to provide timely information and support in the workplace.
BYOD (Bring Your Own Device)
Students or learners are encouraged to use their gadgets to search for information, watch videos.
Advantages of the format: Learners receive information in their usual form (through videos, articles, chats) and are more willing to learn. They are more confident in managing their own education outside the “classroom”.
Of course, such an approach at least brings the effect of novelty to learning and attracts the attention of a teenager. But to keep that focus, you need to be clear about which apps are best for collaboration.
The main thing is to understand that using the BYOD idea allows learners to work online and get processed results in a short time, take surveys, not waste time working with different teaching materials, create their own bookmarks, enter their personal account without a login, and password, etc.
In addition to being fun, there is another important aspect here – saving time, which now does not need to be spent on unnecessary actions, such as opening a diary, finding a page in a textbook, redrawing a graph, or writing down a quote. It may seem like a small thing, but in class, these fussy steps usually take 5 to 15 minutes. With BYOD, this time can be spent on more important things – discussions, personal consultations, teamwork.
Flipped Сlassroom Format
The study of the material and the completion of assignments take place in the opposite sequence to the standard lesson. In the free time, the learner over the Internet looks at the theoretical part proposed by the teacher, often in multimedia format. In the lesson, practical tasks are done.
Advantages of the format: This frees up more time for communication between teacher and student in the classroom and for work in a group. learners are more easily included in the study: the video lecture contains all the necessary information on the topic. In addition, you can always return to such a resource on the eve of exams.
Instead of Conclusion
Whether to transfer a child to homeschooling from school is, of course, a private matter for the parents. But it is important to note that this type of education has certain advantages, there are certain advantages over the usual school system. In the modern trend, with such a rapid development of technologies, these advantages will only grow and bring new opportunities for both children and parents.