Schools and education have been around since the beginning of civilization. They have been an important factor in many aspects of life. This is because schools and the education system are the ones responsible for teaching the youngsters around the world. It is often the standard that teachers supervise and teach the students using books and other learning material. The students learn using the learning material provided and participate in group activities that help aid their life. The students then can go to specialize in a particular field, and then get a job in a related area. Society has become complicated enough that without education and schools it will be hard to function in it. This article will tell you how digital learning is changing the education system.
Technology has had an intense impact on every aspect it has touched. Inevitably the technological revolution has also touched the educational landscape. Traditional education would rely on teachers and administrative staff and slower but tested procedures. Technology has seeped in and given rise to more procedures, but the speed of the procedures and their range and usability has increased. The increase in speed and usability has been considerable enough that traditional procedures have become obsolete.
What is digital learning?
Digital learning is the process of learning that has technological aid in it. Usually, this type of learning is heavily visual and relies much on media devices. Long-range networks are usually used in this type of learning. For enhanced security, such networks can be a local area only and encrypted with passwords.
Softwares of different kinds are used either to help in the learning process directly or indirectly. The indirect help comes in the fact this software often manage technology-centric parts of the schools. Such schools integrated with digital technology are called digital schools, and they have been expanding recently at an increasing pace.
How Schools and Education are Inevitably Turning Digital
People might not notice it, but the education system is changing right underneath our eye. This is because, in the present era, the requirements to get into basic working positions include some type of technologically influenced learning. It is a requirement and not a luxury in today’s highly competitive environment. It is also a requirement for school systems as a whole and some governments have made it mandatory for technology-centric education systems. This is especially true for those students engaged in higher education and specialization, as they can learn easily and faster using digital schools. Following are some ways digital learning is changing schools and education.
Online Tutoring Has Increased
Teachers were to be physically present in the classroom in the traditional teaching system. This is not something that is mandatory in the present era. Online tutors have been increasing and they have proven at least if not even more useful in the classroom. Students learn from these online tutors with the help of high definition video and audio transfer between two parts of the world. They can be connected via the internet or the local area network. This way of teaching is very advantageous, as experts when free can easily communicate their thoughts. The students thus are cleared of any doubts.
Digitized Content Has Increased
This is one of those things that have happened gradually and thus people have missed it. digitized content, that is content that is not traditionally learning material is increasingly being used at schools. Books and paper have been used considerably less over the last decade and their place has been taken by digital documents. Media usage has also increased, and most students prefer to learn in this manner. Digital learning has a positive effect on the efficacy and speed of learning, as many scientific studies have proven.
Self-paced Learning Has Become the New Normal
There is a new trend that has come to the education system. In this trend, students learn without the strict time limits placed on them. Of course, there are yearly or monthly plans to finish a certain amount of learning, but on a shorter span, such restrictions do not exist. This has been possible because digital learning allows students to easily track their growth on software. Such software can be easily installed on even mobile devices. The software alerts the user if any action needs to be taken and students can complete their assignments as they want to.
There are No restrictions with Digital Learning
This is also becoming less of an issue in education. In fact, this is even more relaxed than the time restrictions. All that is required to learn in the present times are equipment that makes remote connections possible. The devices operate over a long-range over low latency networks. The network is the only issue, as, with it, the place of learning almost becomes irrelevant. This is not so true for traditional schools. In fact, traditional schools use the school infrastructure to make an impact on students. This has a downside for both students and teachers as it is difficult for them because of the overly structured routine.
Advantages of Digital learning
Digital learning solves many problems, and these are some of the problems of the hour for many educational institutions. The technology used in digital learning strives to solve many of the upcoming challenges too since it builds on itself. The technology of today has the ability to predict events, and thereby try to control them. Following are the many advantages of using the digital method of education.
Globalization of Learning
This type of education has connected the world in a manner that the traditional learning system could never have done. Because of the relative ease of connecting with any part of the world, technology promotes the sharing of information. Students just need to access the technology and they can instantly read up on the educational material from anywhere around the world. Translation options exist over the internet to break language barriers, and it becomes extremely easy for both students and teachers to take advantage of this type of globalization of learning.
Familiarity of Technology
This is the most obvious advantage of the new method of learning. It forces students to learn with technology by first making them familiar with it. It is no coincidence that children of today are more technologically savvy than the previous generations. It also makes them more likely to understand new technology. By doing so the younger generation adapts the new technology into their life very easily.
Self-Directed Study with Digital Leaning
This is one of the greatest advantages there is to digital learning. Human beings are subjective, and therefore the traditional methods of learning seriously lacked the capability to address this issue. With this new technological aided method, it has been possible for people to direct the learning process to topics that they are interested in. This is beneficial for both the students and society as the students learn faster while they learn subjects that are of interest to them. Once they choose the subject of study, flexibility and time management tools that are abundant in the new way of learning help the students achieve their goals faster.
Progress Tracking
The tracking of growth has never been possible in the traditional education system on such a wide and large scale. This is also done in a more accurate manner in the technology-aided method. This is a significant advantage because it allows for the flexibility provided in the digital method of learning. It acts as a digital proof of growth that is trustworthy. teachers and parents, therefore, are more open to the new way of learning.
Environmental Benefits with Digital Learning
The digital way of learning also is a very environmentally friendly way of teaching. Traditionally, books and paper were an absolute necessity for teaching. The infrastructure of the schools themselves required a lot of processes that were environmentally hazardous. The tables and desks would cost a lot of trees to make. But as the new way of learning eliminates the need for such an infrastructure in the place, this comes as an advantage to the environment.
Recently, the covid pandemic happened and many institutions had to either figure out how to work remotely or close down. Schools were also among the organizations heavily affected. Those schools integrated technology into them and became digital schools. These in particular performed well compared to the others. Soon many other schools followed them and the world witnessed a steep increase in learning with technology. In the education field, most of the problems were solved by technology.
Conclusion
The number of digital schools present in the world is steadily increasing as most schools are integrating technology into their schools. Technology helps every member of the education system. JibuSMS is one of the best school management system that is available in Kenya. It was developed Advanta Africa as a pioneer digital learning solution for the nation. It is enterprise-level software that pushes the frontiers of digital education. It has library management, hostel management facilities and even supports Microsoft Azure’s Internet of things(IoT) feature.
