EdTech That Teachers Use In Classrooms

By: Justin Ferriman • April 22, 2015
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blended-learningThe classroom is a different place than it was 10 to 15 years ago.

Once the home of green chalkboards and pencils, there has been a transformation in recent times fusing today’s technology with classrooms across the world.

A variety of technology is used to enhance the student’s learning.

Teachers indicate that the following technology is used on a regular basis:

  • Laptops & Desktops – 93%
  • Smart Whiteboards – 55%
  • Tablets – 34%
  • Handheld Devices – 34%
  • Mulit-Touch Tables – 5%

As one would expect, the PC is still dominating usage in the classroom, but other edtech tools have a significant presence. In fact, there are a great number of classrooms that supply students with tablets for their lessons.

Not so surprisingly, 50% of teachers and administrators indicate that their students use technology in the classroom five days a week.

This begs the question: why use edtech in the first place? Without over simplifying the matter, the following supporting arguments have been made:

  1. Children enjoy it, which translates to them enjoying learning
  2. Technology assists children in meeting learning objectives
  3. It helps to support dual language students
  4. It helps to support students who have special needs

Of course there are other reasons, but these four really capture some substantial benefits.

Despite the great benefits, the greater reliance upon edtech does come with some challenges. Namely, these tools are expensive for schools to acquire. Additionally, the technology can become distracting instead of useful if not monitored properly.

Personally, I think the most complicated part of using edtech is that teachers need to become IT specialists in the event that the devices start to experience issues.

If one student’s tablet doesn’t work, it disrupts the entire lesson flow. We all know how frustrating it is when our technology decides to not cooperate!

Still, this shouldn’t prevent edtech from having a place in the classroom. If anything, it may help a child’s problem solving abilities 😉 .

It will be fascinating to see what tools are being used in the next 10 years to assist upcoming generations in learning.

Reference:
Early Childhood Education

Justin Ferriman

Justin started LearnDash, the WordPress LMS trusted by Fortune 500 companies, major universities, training organizations, and entrepreneurs worldwide. He is currently founder & CEO of GapScout. Justin’s Homepage | GapScout | Twitter