The Covid-19 outbreak had a major impact on almost every aspect of our daily lives. Travel and social restrictions have kept people at home for the past two years. Online shopping and grocery deliveries have become increasingly integrated into our lives. There is one area that has not been sufficiently analyzed yet, but it is of great importance for a large part of society.
Surveys showed that most interviewees enjoyed the flexibility of the remote format. They could decide for themselves when they wanted to study, as many students now began recording lessons. They also no longer had to travel all the way to classrooms, which was a significant time saver.
Another plus was that they were now forced to get to know about certain software and tools. This knowledge is important overall and makes them more competitive in the 21st century. Video conferencing software and all the tools associated with interactive classrooms were very popular and used daily. Their use will expand in the nearer future.
However, it was increasingly influential to have your own computer and a stable Internet connection. This involved investment. The total number of households that had access grew during the pandemic.
CHALLENGES OF ONLINE CLASSROOMS
Still, a number of them faced challenges. For example, they had to find a suitable location for classes. In some countries, this even involved school or university policies. That students or schoolchildren needed, above all, a space to themselves in order to learn. However, this did not correspond to the reality of many low-income families around the world. Young people also find it difficult to concentrate and stare at screens for hours.
Less social contact and interaction on campus led to rising stress levels and a decline in motivation. Let us not forget that going to university is not just about seminars and lectures, but also about personal development and making contacts.
THE EDTECH MARKET
However, digital tools for teaching have emerged as one of the winners of this crisis. In the US alone, there has been a 90% increase. The e-learning market is expected to grow to over $1 trillion by 2027.
One of the most popular tools has been Education Cloud Technology. The current demand will almost double its value to $947 billion by 2026. The Software as a Service segment will play a prominent role. These are externally hosted, subscription-based applications that can be accessed over the Internet no matter where you are.
Besides the Cloud technology Artificial Intelligence and Machine learning influenced the way of educating. Ever more people subscribed to learning platforms, for software skills or even languages. Hereby it was necessary to tailor the learning process to the individual and its time and effort.
This market still has room for expansion to meet the needs of customers. Not only regarding universities and teachers but also to individuals. Undoubtedly, further investments will pay off.
Technological innovations have a huge impact on the educational sphere. Discover how new technologies are changing the future of teaching and education itself.
New Technologies and The Future of Teaching
Today, new technologies provide students with unbelievable opportunities for learning and education. If someone wants to learn programming, for instance, there exist a lot free online courses that teach this skill, such as Code Academy. Those who need help with crafting a brilliant essay can use a service like https://essayhelper4you.com, where they can order a custom written essay for whatever purpose they need.
Projects like Khan Academy let anyone upgrade his or her knowledge of any school subject free of charge. In general, new technologies have greatly transformed the educational process for students of all ages.
But what about teachers? Technological innovations are supposed to increase the productivity of teachers in the same way they help students, writes TechCrunch. In this article, we will analyze how new technologies impact teachers and the future of teaching.
Image source Wikimedia
Investments in Educational Technologies
Recently, educational policy has been focused on assessing and monitoring teachers’ activity and performance. In this regard, a promising gap has emerged in the educational technology market. Technological companies that can create valuable products for assessing and enhancing skills of teachers may succeed at generating significant profits. This is indicated by investment trends in the recent years:
In 2012, 1 billion 250 million dollars were invested in educational technologies.
In 2013, that number rose by another 35%. At the same time, most investors were focused on the start-ups providing open online courses for the general public as well as educational platforms and education software.
Things stayed the same in 2014. Back then the capitalization of the market was around 1.36 billion dollars. At the same time, the majority of funds were received by companies developing tools for upgrading personal and mathematical skills. Thus, in 2014 investors were mainly focused on tools for students. The exception was the 64 million allocated for the development of the Teachers Pay Teachers project, an online startup for education professionals.
In September 2015, the largest investment in this sector amounted to $60 million. This sum was received by Civitas Learning, which develops office software for educational institutions. Another $13 million was received by Learn Zillion, which is developing a “cloud” system for transitioning to the Common Core initiative’s standards.
The Need for Technologies and Tools for Teachers
The products that those companies like develop are indeed useful for educators. However, they do not provide the tools that would help teachers grow professionally or make their work more transparent. In order to really change the educational sphere and improve the performance of students, technology in education should help make teachers’ work more transparent and provide the ability for teacher assessment.
The need for teacher evaluation and monitoring their work was widely discussed back in 2010. Back then the Los Angeles Times published a series of articles describing the great differences in student performance, depending on the particular teacher. The research conducted in 2011 confirmed that a teacher’s professionalism improves the learning ability of students.
A recent Stanford study indicates that consistent evaluation increases a teacher’s professional skills. In order to improve the quality of teachers’ performance, their work should be evaluated and be public.
Nevertheless, this trend has undeservedly been deprived of attention in the sphere of technology. More recently, several start-ups and non-profit organizations have begun developing the necessary software. For instance, Teaching Channel is a platform for educators, which allows sharing training videos and communicating with colleagues.
Kickboard service is usually used at schools with the help of an iPad to track local cultural trends and evaluate the behavior of teachers. Whetstone is a platform that collects and analyzes data about teachers’ performance, and also provides feedback. The evaluation tools of this kind should be combined with effective tracking tools. This will improve the effectiveness of education. For this reason, educators and influential politicians are interested in these measures.
Considering that general investments in the sphere of educational technologies are growing, now is the right time for developing new products in this field. Building services and tools to help students may prove to be a successful business idea. But taking into the account the social demand, the development of technologies for evaluating teachers and monitoring the educational process may happen to be a very successful venture as well.
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