Blackboards, whiteboards, textbooks and jotters: all objects that wouldn't look out of place in most traditional school classrooms. With the global technological revolution in full swing, scho
ols perhaps need to look at ways of modernising their set-up.
Whilst teachers are as vital as ever to any educational process, the tools that they use to impart their knowledge are equally important. Rather than resisting change, it's always best to embrace it – change is inevitable across the world and as we move increasingly towards a ubiquitous online, digitalised society, technology surrounds us wherever we go. That includes children.
Anyone brought into this world from about 1995 onwards will probably be fairly clued up on technology and gadgets. E-books are becoming increasingly popular, whilst the Internet now exists in just about every portable communications device around. Throw into the equation portable media players, mp3 players and handheld gaming devices and you start to get the picture. Technology really is everywhere and a child's learning environment has to reflect their experiences from outside of school too.
Portability is probably one of the key defining characteristics of most modern devices. Everything is getting smaller and more compact, from mobile phones to laptops. Indeed, the
latest wave of portable laptops – net books – are fantastic additions to any modern classroom.
Net books are built primarily for Internet browsing and applications that don't require a great deal of power or memory. For this reason, net books are smaller, cheaper and have much greater battery life – three good reasons why classrooms should be thinking along these lines if they intend to jump into the 21st century.
Then there are interactive whiteboards (IWBs) which are essentially multimedia-enabled whiteboards that facilitate a far greater degree of student participation, collaboration and all-round involvement. The real interaction comes in the form of student response systems which are small mobile devices that essentially gives a voice to every child in the classroom.
Some young learners are natural communicators and require no coercing out of their shells.
Other children, however, can take a little bit of time to find their voice in a large group setting and an individual student response system can certainly help to involve kids in classroom activities. Question and answer sessions, for example, can be presented on an IWB, with the pupils each possessing a response system on which they input their answers to a teacher-initiated quiz.
Mobile technology can help optimise and streamline the classroom education process and, as is happening across much of society, schools should embrace the technological revolution.
ols perhaps need to look at ways of modernising their set-up.Whilst teachers are as vital as ever to any educational process, the tools that they use to impart their knowledge are equally important. Rather than resisting change, it's always best to embrace it – change is inevitable across the world and as we move increasingly towards a ubiquitous online, digitalised society, technology surrounds us wherever we go. That includes children.
Anyone brought into this world from about 1995 onwards will probably be fairly clued up on technology and gadgets. E-books are becoming increasingly popular, whilst the Internet now exists in just about every portable communications device around. Throw into the equation portable media players, mp3 players and handheld gaming devices and you start to get the picture. Technology really is everywhere and a child's learning environment has to reflect their experiences from outside of school too.
Portability is probably one of the key defining characteristics of most modern devices. Everything is getting smaller and more compact, from mobile phones to laptops. Indeed, the
latest wave of portable laptops – net books – are fantastic additions to any modern classroom.Net books are built primarily for Internet browsing and applications that don't require a great deal of power or memory. For this reason, net books are smaller, cheaper and have much greater battery life – three good reasons why classrooms should be thinking along these lines if they intend to jump into the 21st century.
Then there are interactive whiteboards (IWBs) which are essentially multimedia-enabled whiteboards that facilitate a far greater degree of student participation, collaboration and all-round involvement. The real interaction comes in the form of student response systems which are small mobile devices that essentially gives a voice to every child in the classroom.
Some young learners are natural communicators and require no coercing out of their shells.
Other children, however, can take a little bit of time to find their voice in a large group setting and an individual student response system can certainly help to involve kids in classroom activities. Question and answer sessions, for example, can be presented on an IWB, with the pupils each possessing a response system on which they input their answers to a teacher-initiated quiz.Mobile technology can help optimise and streamline the classroom education process and, as is happening across much of society, schools should embrace the technological revolution.
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