How Technology has Changed the Way we Learn

As I have alluded to in previous posts, new technology has brought with it a whole host of changes. Whether your opinion is that these changes are good or bad there is no doubting that education has been deeply affected by new advances. For this post I will be addressing 3 key ways in which technology has changed the way in which we learn.

Distance Learning

 Before technology infiltrated education the standard student would travel to a school to be taught subjects in a classroom then be given homework to do in their own time. The advent of the Open University however changed this. The Open University used technology to reach those who were not able to afford or attend University and thus developed the first recognised instance of distance learning. These days a computer and internet access are far more reasonably priced than a stay at University and even if a person cannot afford these luxuries local libraries offer these for a much lower price. For these reasons the use of technology in learning has taken students out of the classroom and made education accessible to so many more people. This fact is emphasised by sheer number of examples provided by (Bates, 2005).

Virtual Learning Environments

VLE’s refer to ‘a specific piece of software that enables students and staff to interact and includes content delivery and tracking’ (http://excellence.qia.org.uk/ via (Reece & Walker, 2007)) These systems have been adopted by the vast majority of institutions and include such examples as moodle and blackboard. VLE’s offer the teacher the ability to share any presentations or handouts they have used during the lesson or indeed any information they think is relevant that they didn’t get to go through in the lesson itself. This not only provides reading for the students themselves but serves as an archive for everything that has been covered in the year. Although some have criticised this usage due to the notion that a teacher may choose to use it over spending time with the students, this is not the case. A VLE should be used as an additional outlet for teachers to provide useful information as well as potential support. A further advantage of VLE’s is that it can make learning more accessible for those with disabilities. For example a visually impaired student could use a screen reader to gain information (Reece & Walker, 2007). This type of additional support and information was previously unavailable before the technology was created. Technology has allowed teachers, through little effort and time, to open doors for new ways of thinking for students. It has also allowed them to show students things that, whilst maybe not imperative to the lesson, will help them develop their understanding of a topic more.  

Access to information

The final point to make about how technology has changed the way we learn is now that students have access to effectively unlimited amounts of information. This allows students (and teachers for that matter) to research topics extensively and the potential for further reading is endless. There is no longer a need for a teacher to explain or define every term used in a topic due to the fact that students can easily google search the term and within 15 seconds understand the meaning. Although this ability does allow for a plethora of information to be accessed it does strike the question; is it too much? Will students who google the definition of terms actually take in the meaning of the terms or will they accept the definition without understanding it? Also researching topics independently can lead to a number of pitfalls. Students may be taking information as gospel from websites that are not credible creating further problems when it comes to assessment. It is not possible to monitor what every student researches and it is not plausible to keep up to date with information students have gathered from outside sources. For this reason it is important to ensure students are provided with a list of credible sources or indeed a guide on how to spot false information.

Works Cited

Bates, A. W., 2005. Technology, E-Learning and Distance Education. 2nd ed. s.l.:s.n.

Reece, I. & Walker, S., 2007. Teaching, Training and Learning: A Practical Guide. 6th Revised ed. s.l.:Business Education Publishers Limited.