18th Nov 2019

Technology in Education: 4 Tech Trends Transforming Today’s Classrooms

Today’s generation of school and higher education learners, otherwise known as iGen, were born into a world full of accessible tech. They don’t remember life without the internet or mobile phones, so ever-evolving tech is something to be expected.

iGen are a new generation of ‘techy’ learners, and technology in education is evolving with them.

In this blog, we’ll discuss 4 of the tech trends that are transforming the classroom experience in 2019.

Smartboards

We’re kicking off with one that’s been around for many years already and is still going strong for very good reason.

Smartboards are essentially digital whiteboards, and they’re great for encouraging students to interact and engage with lessons, thanks to the ability to customise their functionality to suit individual classrooms.

Not only that, but the smartboard is suited to all learning styles. Tactile learners can benefit from being able to physically interact with the board, visual learners can view images and videos, and so on.

Systems like Clevertouch can also be integrated with full video conferencing functionality too. So Smartboards are definitely not dead!

Augmented reality

Augmented reality (AR) is being used more and more widely for education and training, especially in the medical and industrial sectors, but it’s yet to go fully ‘mainstream’.

Although it’s not the ‘ground-breaking new tech’ that it once was, it has the scope to bring new experiences into the classroom where not previously possible.

AR has the capability to make experiences extremely realistic which is great for training purposes. Take the training of surgeons, for example. It’s difficult for surgeons to practice before they qualify, with the stakes being so high (it could literally be a life or death situation), but AR allows them to have the hands-on experience that can make a real difference to skills-development. In fact, research suggests that hands-on experience and the option for quick application of knowledge can raise retention rates by up to 90%!

As costs get lower we’re hoping to see more schools and other education providers able to take advantage of this technology to enhance learning experiences.

Adaptive learning technologies

Adaptive learning (sometimes known as adaptive teaching) is a unique style of classroom delivery that rejects the idea of one-style-fits-all within education, to instead favour individual learning experiences.

The result is a learning environment that utilises clever tech. Namely, adaptive learning systems which use algorithms to tailor a personalised learning journey to each student. It means the interaction between student and teacher, the resources and the learning activities are all optimised for the individual. Pretty impressive if you ask us.

Surprisingly, adaptive learning has been around since the 1970s (we know, we were shocked too), but the development of adaptive technology has allowed it to become much more achievable, and therefore mainstream, in recent years.

The Flipped Classroom

Also thanks to advancements in tech is the emergence of the flipped classroom approach. It’s a teaching technique that allows for a more hands-on learning experience and promotes a deeper understanding of learning materials.

Students are given content prior to a lesson so they can go over it and come to the classroom prepared to work through it together or with a teacher. The pre-delivery of this content is often online, maybe on YouTube, or through a mix of online reading and video learning technologies.

Working through the content in the classroom often includes the use of other tech too. For instance, students may use a camera and editing software to make their own videos to show what they’ve learned.

Inspire Transformational Learning

These tech trends are just the beginning, but it’s vitally important to have a physical space that’s been designed and built to support a positive overall learning experience too.

If you’d like to take advantage of the tech trends having a big impact across classrooms right now, get in touch for a discussion with one of our experts.