Pros And Cons Of Edtech in the Classroom
Edtech, also known as education technology, consists of software and hardware developed to improve student growth and teacher-led learning in physical and online classrooms.
The Significance of Edtech to Modern Education
Using technology as an essential learning tool in schools has become imperative as millennials and Generation Z, who have never known a world without the Internet, are now students and teachers.
Over the past decades, and especially over the last three years, there has been a significant shift toward teaching and learning through the introduction of cutting-edge technological equipment into schools. In the United States, we expect ‘modern’ schools to have projectors, TVs, computers, tablets, and internet access. Although in-person classes are once again the norm, e-learning courses often remain an essential part of the curriculum.
While EdTech is still in the initial stages of its development, preliminary results indicate that it is a reliable resource. EdTech engages students, tailors the curriculum to embrace diversity, addresses a variety of learning styles, and even controls the pace at which the teacher delivers content to each student based on their abilities.
However, despite the enhancements brought to the classroom by EdTech, teachers cannot ignore that there can be disadvantages when overusing technology. Administrators must weigh the values and potential risks of using EdTech to determine which option can provide the most significant gains for their students.
Four Pros of EdTech
- Saves Time and Automates School Processes
As schools have become more operationally complex and budgets have become smaller, many Edtech solutions help schools do more with less. Some of the most time-consuming tasks within schools include:
- High school master scheduling. Schools previously spent weeks using whiteboards to organize the right students, teachers, and classrooms in the right order so that students could graduate on time and get their preferred classes. However, master schedule software can now be used to automate this task and within a couple of days deliver 90% of students' first choice classes.
- Test accommodations for students. Planning and coordinating thousands of students across all state and local K-12 school assessments while taking into account dozens of accommodations (reading disabilities, physical disabilities, translations, etc.) for students used to be a time-consuming process. With advances in technology, schools can now use test accommodation software to automate the process and generate reports that make sure each student receives the right accommodations.
- Curriculum mapping and planning. Teachers collectively spend thousands of hours making sure that curriculums for students are aligned with state and national standards. Using new curriculum mapping software, teachers are now able to quickly analyze whether or not their curriculum is aligned with state and national standards as well as share best practice curriculum plans with other teachers to reduce duplication and with parents to keep everyone up to date.
Using EdTech to automate time-consuming tasks helps teachers and administrators focus their time on how to provide a high-quality educational experience for their students versus doing administrative work.
2. Facilitates Active Participation
Student response platforms such as online polls or digital engagement platforms assist in engaging all students, including those who might not wish to speak aloud in class. Online class polls enable teachers to check in with students regularly to solicit feedback on course materials and assignments, and they can use online polls, also called engagement platforms, to identify and connect with students who may be struggling.
Digital evaluation (personal assessment) platforms can allow students to assess their understanding of a topic by answering specific questions in return for participation points. Teachers can also use this data to evaluate which content areas and skills need remediation or review.
Online educational software and evaluation platforms such as clickers can be excellent interaction tools for teachers wanting to upgrade their lectures and appeal to student interest and engagement. In addition, student response systems promote global citizenship in the classroom by encouraging active participation and rewarding them for that engagement.
3. Promotes Flexibility
Opportunities for student interaction with content become more flexible and are virtually unlimited with Edtech. For example, source material in a digital textbook is vibrant and timely, with links to relevant materials or interactive multimedia that can increase student interest and enable active learning.
Edtech integration can be as simple as adding a single tool for a specific project or as complex as implementing a flipped classroom.
Tools such as video conferencing software, live polls, discussion boards, interactive educational games, and other products are just a few means at a teacher’s disposal for a flexible learning environment.
4. Enhances Student Engagement
Some teachers use classroom gamification and digital storytelling to encourage student engagement and make online learning fun. Gamification software includes the use of competitive scenarios and the allocation of points and rewards. Students favor competition and instant gratification games, so these programs have a high level of student engagement. In addition, Gamification can create the classroom time a teacher needs to work with individual students or act as a reward for students who have completed their assignments.
In the future, EdTech will hopefully support specific course content learning objectives such as using digital storytelling to engross students in an entirely fictitious environment to make learning more engaging and relatable for students.
Four Cons of EdTech
Although EdTech has taken education to a new level, it can sometimes still be controversial among some administrators, teachers, and parents.
- Distracts Students from Paying Attention in Class
Paying attention is a life skill learned in childhood and required of all adults. However, when surrounded by multiple digital devices, even the most tech-savvy students may struggle to focus in class, especially behind a screen.
One professor came up with an effective solution. According to Professor James Lang, change reaffirms attention, which means that if students are beginning to tune out, it is time to implement opportunities for class discussions. Lang refers to these as signature attention activities because teachers design them specifically to spark interaction even when a student remains distracted. The point is to provide a meaningful break from the current activity, re-engage students, then resume work on the original project. Signature attention activities provide a brain break relevant to the topic to decrease the inevitable fatigue that builds over time when performing a single activity.
2. Isolates Students From Social Relationships
Some parents are concerned that too much technology in school will impact students and their verbal communication ability. This fear extends to other concerns that social media is blocking an entire generation from knowing how to communicate in person. While it may be true that text based interactions are limiting to social relationships, the increase in frequency of video interactions has also allowed students to improve social relationships.
3. Facilitates Cheating
Unfortunately, digital media has made it easier to cheat as students can copy and paste someone else's work. Teachers should design assignments and assessments in such a way that restricts copying or other cheating methods. For example, some classroom software allows instructors to create subtly different questions or vary the order of those questions as a precaution. In addition, there is free software available to educators that can detect plagiarism in student created assignments.
4. Obscures When A Student Takes Shortcuts
Sometimes, it is difficult to determine if students take shortcuts through unit modules or skip videos and other content. For example, LMS (Learning Management System) providers may indicate that a student has launched a file, but this provides limited information. Currently, a teacher can’t always tell if students have reviewed, absorbed, and retained knowledge until the assessment, but as EdTech quickly adapts and develops, software programs should address this issue.
Final Thoughts
The cons of EdTech, while real today, will be corrected over time as the technology market adjusts to student and teacher needs. EdTech creates innovative and exciting ways to engage students with the lesson material, promotes interaction, provides feedback, and creates time-saving options so that teachers can create high-quality lessons that encourage student growth.
If your school is interested in automating tasks and streamlining processes, Education Advanced offers a suite of tools that may be able to help:
- Cardonex, our master schedule software helps schools save time on building master schedules. Many schools used to spend weeks using whiteboards to organize the right students, teachers, and classrooms into the right order so that students could graduate on time and get their preferred classes. However, Cardonex can now be used to automate this task and within a couple of days deliver 90% of student's first choice classes.
- Testhound, our test accommodation software, helps schools coordinate thousands of students across all state and local K-12 school assessments while taking into account dozens of accommodations (reading disabilities, physical disabilities, translations, etc.) for students.
- Embarc, our curriculum mapping software, helps teachers quickly analyze whether or not their curriculum is aligned with state and national standards as well as share best practice curriculum plans with other teachers to reduce duplication and with parents to keep everyone up to date.
Request a demo of our software today or contact us here to see how we can help you streamline your school operations.
