Impact of Technology in Education
Dr.K. Sounthara Priya,
Assistant Professor of Commerce, The Standard Fireworks Rajaratnam College for Women, Sivakasi.
Dr.A.Josephine Stella,
Assistant Professor of Commerce(CA), The Standard Fireworks Rajaratnam College for Women, Sivakasi.
Mrs.M. Govindammal,
Assistant Professor of Computer Applications, The Standard Fireworks Rajaratnam College for Women, Sivakasi.
Dr.A.Sathya,
Assistant Professor of Commerce, The Standard Fireworks Rajaratnam College for Women, Sivakasi.
Introduction:
Technology plays an important role in every sphere of life. Several manual tasks can be automated. Also, many complex and critical processes can be carried out with ease and greater efficiency with the help of modern technology. Technology has revolutionized in the field of education. The importance of technology in schools and colleges cannot be ignored. In fact, with the onset of computers in education, it has become easier for teachers to impart knowledge and for students to acquire it. The use of technology has made the process of teaching and learning in convenient manner. The education sector is facing many challenges nowadays. We live in a world where frequent changes occur in all sectors. The biggest instance is the corona pandemic. Covid-19 has changed the whole world. Due to lockdown, everyone is working from home online. Students, educators, and all are working hard so that learning continues. This pandemic has brought a new model of learning, which is online for people. When ICT is integrated into lessons, it helps to improve more engaged in studies and knowledge retention. This is because technology provides different opportunities to make it more fun and enjoyable in terms of teaching the same things in different ways
Importance of Technology in Education
Due to COVID – 19, all schools are closed in the academic year 2019-20. Due to the COVID-19 crisis, all students are restricted to their home and they have no access to the classroom in school and colleges. There are few opportunities for them to engage with academic content and practice during the extended emergency break in schooling. When students, especially younger ones are confined to the home for a long duration of time without regular schooling in a situation similar to the summer break, there is a significant risk of regression in academic proficiency to happen for a large number of students during this period. Without access to learning content, practice and suitable remediation a significant learning gap may be observed when the students return to school at the end of the lockdown crisis. This could potentially have a measurable negative impact on student academic performance across students of all age groups in the upcoming academic year. The amount of time needed for teachers to bridge the gap to grade of students may also significantly affect the progress of dissemination of academic content planned for the academic year. The trend of online education has brought about a change in the role of educators will become a facilitator. The teachers these days are expected to assist students to utilize the online learning tools effectively so that they become experts in self-learning. This sudden change in the teaching- learning methodology has created confusion amongst educators due to lack of experience and absence of effective ways for interaction. The students also face problems like technical barriers, blended learning, lack of motivation and no classroom structure.
Evolution of ICT in Education
ICT created an enormous growth over the past years in the filled of education. It has changed many aspects in the teaching and learning process as it affects the educational system, educational. Learning environment, teaching methods and the way the students learning. The ICT used in Learning and Evaluation Process are used in many ways like WhatsApp Group, Google classroom, Google Meet, Google Forms, YouTube Channel, Lecture Capturing System and Remote access-Online Library system. The benefits of using educational technology also include the improvement of learners'mental and physical health. By using these tools, students are able to enhance their learning and their cognitive skills, which in turn helps them improve their academic performance as well as their physical health. With numerous benefits to offer, digital learning has become an important part of the education system. Information and communication technology (ICT) brings in multiple benefits for digital learning and student-centric engagement. The ICT trends in education shaped the schools and universities to implement the latest in education technology in order to improve the teaching and learning process.
Problems faced by the Students during Online Education
Students have to weather through a set of unique problems and challenges caused by the Covid 19 pandemic. A student generally feels comfortable in a classroom as he is in the company of his friends and peers. In case of online education delivery, this is not possible as the camera has a clear view of the student which can be seen by the teacher. Further, the many students have complained that the online education system has created a stressful environment for them in their homes as the active observation of the teacher on the student, the workload to be completed from the home and the absence of friends force them to study in an environment that is not conductive for them to study in peace. However, not everyone is as smart or daring enough to resort to this method to fool the teacher and therefore, students are forced to study in a stressful environment. In addition, a few students due to their economic or social condition may not be in a state to afford internet enabled smartphones and computers. This has caused them to miss out on the content being delivered to their friends, which may cause them to suffer during
the examinations
Initiatives by the Government to Promote Online Education
The Government has taken various steps to provide online education amidst COVID-19 pandemic. These include PRAGYATA Guidelines on Digital Education, Internet access under
BHARAT NET scheme. PRAGYATA Guidelines on Digital Education keeping in view the availability of digital infrastructure, guideline briefs on various modes of digital education including online mode that depends more on availability of internet, partially online mode that utilizes the blended approach of digital technology and other offline activities, partial and offline mode that utilizes television and radio as a major medium of instruction of education. Internet access under BHARAT NET scheme has been made available to Government institutions and to improve the internet connectivity in rural areas the CSC e-Governance Services India Ltd (CSC- SPV) of MEITY has been assigned the task of providing Fibre to the Home (FTTH) connectivity to the Government Institutions, including schools. This project is for providing Internet connection to Government schools in respective Gram Panchayats. Accordingly, the state governments have been directed to act based on the situation prevailing at every place to meet the demands of all students for providing them with the digital access required for learning digitally. In order to enable online education benefit to the children of every category and teachers, Learning Enhancement Guidelines have been issued. Tamilnadu Government is pioneering the use of digital technology to improve governance, to empower teachers and to enhance resource utilization leading to excellent student outcomes. In this direction, efforts have been made to promote digital learning so that the students as well as teachers can continue to improve their learning and teaching skills respectively by making best use of the available digital platforms. With these aspects in mind, the School Education Department of Government of Tamil Nadu has launched several initiatives supporting the students and teachers during the lockdown. These initiatives are focused on continuously engaging teachers and students by creating multimodal learning opportunities.
The list of major e–learning initiatives provided by the School Education Department
inresponse to the current crisis is as follows.
E-Learn Platform for Students
TN-DIKSHA for Students & Teachers
Kalvi Tholaikatchi (Television Channel for Students)
TNSCERT YouTube channel
Facebook – Workplace
Student Mental Wellbeing in Partnership with UNICEF
Tamil Nadu Vagupparai Nokkin (Classroom Observation module)
NEET – Online Practice tests & Crash Course
Tamil Nadu’s content creation, practice and assessment questions have been much appreciated and termed pioneering. The report on remote learning initiatives across the country praised the State’s use of television to provide education. The State using Kalvi TV for classroom teaching. Kalvi TV has since taken off in the State. The State has provided online practice tests with detailed analysis for aided and government school students preparing for the NEET entrance test. The QR code provision in books and over 14,000 resources for Classes 1 to12 in both Tamil and English medium are available online. Students can also access over 500 science experiments and over 1,000 videos related to the curriculum. A cascading WhatsApp network daily enables students to revise course content in smaller chunks. For teachers too, professional development courses are offered. They are expected to contribute, and a repository of content is built. Contributing teachers are also recognized for their efforts through digital certificates.
Conclusion
Online Education is good news, but at its initial stage it poses certain threats to students as well as staffs. Attitude change and technological literacy would help them gain confidence inorder to succeed in their courses with a positive vibe. Online education being the latest wave ofeducation, is already having a fair show despite posing challenges for both staffs and students.While staffs need to put in intensive work and time to design the instruction, students need toequip themselves with technical proficiency to decode the course material. Although students aregenerally tech savvy, and thus able to manage computers well, lack of computer literacy is amajor issue among students today. However, a few opportunities that can be gained from theonline education which can benefit the student and the teacher in the long run. The opportunitiesto explore new learning applications and platforms during the class, which helped them to develop new skills and capabilities accelerating their growth trajectory. Online learning hashelped students to become independent learners before they make their way into the real world.
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