Educational+Technology+Then+and+Now

= = =toc Introduction= Use of technology in education is very important in order to develop understanding and concepts in students' mind. In our childhood there were just printed papers, colourful pictures in books and lectures using blackboard, lab activities etc. in my high school we learned through 'Gnyanwani Akashwani' on radio and some programs on Doordarshan. Now a days I teach in an IB world school. Here we widely use educational technology. Our documents remain saved and shared on Google drive. Conversation related to education with the students takes place any time through Edmodo.com

Current Technology
Now a days teaching and learning has become more easy as compared to last decade. Lot of teaching tools like videos, power point presentations, simulation sites, use of MSOffice to save time of learners and teachers, use of various apps on smart phones and i-Pads, etc made the teaching very interesting and understanding the concept has become easy. In the school where I teach students use i-Pads. They make their notes on Evernote or book creator. Teachers can use the app Show-me in teaching. quizzes can be conducted easily with the use of i-Pads. I have used simulation sites while teaching Science. Virtual labs and simulations provide better learning to students and keeps all the students involved in the topic in class. The following image is a screen shot of a simulation demonstrating change of energy from its one form to another form. There are several options to try like changing the intensity of light, devices, source of power generation etc.

Virtual labs are also very useful because many things can not be demonstrated in class, sometimes material can not be arranged, sometimes it's risk to perform the experiment in lab or class, sometimes we can't get the lab available at our class time. In any of such situations virtual labs are very helpful. I am pasting an image of the screen shot of using virtual lab which was used to explain Hook's law:

Earlier Technology
In my childhood it was very baring to attend language class because our teacher was giving a lot of work to write and was not explaining much. There was no facilities like listening files or videos. The technology which was helpful to us was photocopy machine, printed black and white books, radio and TV at home. Use of some charts by teachers and lab activities in school were the most interesting moments in our school days. In last decade of 20th century when computers were introduced in schools in India, students got very excited. That was a turning point in the field of education. But the use of computers was limited to Information Technology subject only. The programming LOGO was being taught in primary classes and Wordstar, D-base and Lotus in higher classes.

Comparative Analysis
Whatever I learned in my schooling much more than that I learned in last few years while teaching. With the help of new technology in education teaching and learning has become quite easy and interesting. Artificial intelligence is available online to the students anytime. This has changed the scenario of education system. The course what we learned in M.Sc. that is now in Higher Secondary syllabus. Developing various skills in students has become very easy due to modern educational technology. But on the other hand many students are becoming lazy and pessimistic due to getting over facilities. Most of the students get diverted from the main goals and remain busy in computer games and social networking sites. It is very important to guide students appropriately and teach them difference between right and wrong.

Conclusion
Current technology is a boon in the field of education. We should judicially use it in developing learning and skills in our students. We should also control direction of the progress of our students. Now a days students can get knowledge any time from anywhere. We need to update ourselves to maintain our position.