Technology in classrooms is becoming an increasingly commonplace thing. For many of us, classrooms weren’t exactly at the forefront of the tech industry. Yet in 2022, technology has become one of the most important priorities across many sectors, including the education sector. This was accelerated somewhat due to the Covid-19 pandemic; but the truth is that classroom technology has many benefits in any case – from enable a more diverse array of learning tools, to increasing student engagement.
We discussed this with TechQuarters – an IT company that has been providing small business IT support London schools and educational institutions have relied on for many years now. In our conversations, we discussed how classroom technology can be defined, and how it can help modern schools.
Classroom Technology: What Is It?
Technology has helped reinvent and empower so many things, across so many sectors. In the education sector, technology has been used to make administration more efficient, the creation and tracking of assignments easier, and the student reach of schools longer (which is particularly important during periods of social distancing). The use of technology for educational purposes has in fact been going on for long enough that it has spawned its own subsector – classroom technology.
Classroom Technology Examples
Any form of technology, the purpose of which is the improve the experience of students or faculty in schools may be categorised as classroom technology. In providing IT support services in London, TechQuarters has been able to work with schools and see what kinds of classroom technology are most popular. Below are 5 popular examples…
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Education Technology
Education technology is not a term that can be used interchangeably with classroom technology. It is in fact yet another subtype of technology. Education technology (or EdTech, as it is frequently called) usually refers to software that is designed for use by faculty – although students may also access it, depending on the type of solution. A good example of a popular EdTech solutions is Google Classroom, which is used primarily for creation and distributing assignments for students.
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Videoconferencing
While videoconferencing is technically a broad category of technology, which is not designed specifically for the classroom, it is definitely a very useful solution for modern classrooms. Videoconferencing technology refers to any solution that enables users to transmit and receive audio-visual communications in real time. A good example – one which has been widely adopted by schools, according to TechQuarters – is Microsoft Teams.
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Asynchronous Learning Solutions
Asynchronous means something that is not happening in real time. In the context of asynchronous learning solutions, it simply means any means by which students can access learning materials on demand, at any time. TechQuarters gave us an example of their own for this – the IT support for schools that they provide comes with access to their own portal of training videos, aimed at staff members looking for common software solutions. A school may wish to create a repository of learning materials which students can access even outside of school; this can help reinforce knowledge they have learned in lessons, and help with homework.
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Digital Textbooks
E-Books have become very popular in recent years. There are many great advantages to them. Firstly, they tend to be cheaper, because they are not printed. Secondly, they aren’t vulnerable to physical damage; in fact, if an organisation keeps their e-books stored in a cloud environment, they will be almost completely invulnerable to loss or damage. A school may choose to use e-books, giving students access to the e-books for the duration of the school year, and then revoking access, so that they can be assigned to new students the following year.
