TECHNOLOGY AND EDUCATION

Technology has made the learning interesting. The role of computers and Internet in education cannot be ignored. The use of computers in teaching has made learning more interesting. Computers enable better storage and presentation of information, thus making the process of

teaching easier and more effective. Educational CDs are available everywhere. Lectures/lessons can be uploaded on websites, as PDFs or even as videos. This has made information more easily accessible and provided for better ways of knowledge sharing. Online degrees and training courses have led to spread of education. Today, people can continue learning even while managing their jobs, because online education gives them the flexibility to do so. And all the information in the world is so widely available, thanks to the internet.

Reasons Why Technology Is Important In Education:

1. Expansion of Time And Place

Using the "textbook plus classroom" approach, the places where learning can occur are limited. On the other hand, a wireless laptop has access to the teacher's course material and the entire Internet almost anywhere. This is also a vastly larger resource than can be practically carried on paper in a backpack.

2. Learning vs. Teaching

Instead of teaching (push), students can be given projects that require them to learn (pull) the necessary material themselves. Key to this is the ability to get the information they need any time anywhere, without being in the physical presence of a teacher. This project-based pull approach makes learning far more interesting for the student.

3. Weight

Three textbooks and three binders easily weigh over 25lb. A laptop computer weighs about 5lb and provides access to infinitely more material via its own storage and the Internet. A 40Gb hard drive can hold 2 million pages with illustrations; the web is unfathomably large. Right now, students are getting back injuries lugging around a tiny subset of what they need in the form of black marks on slices of dead trees. And it's just static, boring text.

4. Personal Productivity

Students need productivity tools. They need to write, read, communicate, organize and schedule. A student's life is not much different from any knowledge worker, and they need similar tools. Even if they are never used in the classroom, portable personal computers will make a student's (and teacher's) life more effective. To cash in this benefit, schools need to go paperless.

Bottom line: Information technology allows learning anywhere, anytime; not just in one particular classroom for forty minutes a day.

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