How Technology Has Changed Education

The 21st century classroom is not your mother’s classroom anymore; it’s not even your classroom, for that matter. With Smart Boards and iPads in classes and text updates sent directly to parents, technology is changing the landscape of education, informing how educators teach, how children learn and how parents participate in the process.

And parents definitely participate in these new online grade monitoring tools. "I feel that if I don't check up on him, [my son] would just do the bare minimum. Does that make me a bad parent?” asks Kate, a New York City mom of an 8th grader who declined to give her last name for privacy reasons.

Read on to discover nine ways tech has changed the classroom.

Google works in the "Cloud" network, which means that whatever you do on Google Apps for Education, you're able to retrieve, edit and share it. Students are able to communicate with others for projects and with teachers for quick responses. The apps also allow students to study together in real time and across distances.

“I've been a huge fan of Google Apps for Education for a while," says Karen Blumberg, an educational technologist at The School at Columbia in Manhattan. "Working in the cloud means easy access from a variety of locations and devices.”

Forget blackboards or whiteboards. Sarah Prendergast, a high school algebra teacher at Manhattan’s N.Y.C. iSchool, says that she couldn’t live without her interactive Smart Board.

“It’s an essential tool for a modern classroom," she says. "Teachers are no longer wasting class time writing out long notes on the board; instead we can type them up beforehand and project them for the class. We also can bring up images from the Web or design charts. It also allows us to save a copy of the class notes and post them online as a student resource."

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There have never been more cutting edge tools available for kids to simply create the things in their imaginations. “A recent movement in schools has been to embrace the STEAM initiative (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math),” says Blumberg. "Many schools are starting to build Makerspaces or FabLabs on site. A Makerspace is a place to make, tinker, ideate, invent, prototype, build, rebuild, craft, program, try things out and explore. … FabLabs are another term—both may also include 3-D printers, scanners, laser cutters and all sorts of tools.”

The most important tool that Prendergast says she uses is the free EduCreations app_._ "It is a video-creation app that is basically a video whiteboard that records what I write and say," she says. "I use it to create videos that cover the material for each lesson (for a student to watch if they were absent or maybe needed a second look at the material) and additional videos to accelerate the class."

Plus, Prendergast sees even more ways to get the most out of classroom time. "I’ve used these videos to create a flipped classroom a few times a week—which means the students watch a video at home, learning and practicing a skill for homework, and then we can do something more meaningful and hands-on in the classroom."

As a district at the forefront of digital innovation in the classroom, Mooresville Graded School District (MGSD) in North Carolina has had the opportunity to pilot several resources early in its development.

“Some of the newest resources our students and teachers are utilizing and excited about are the new Discovery Techbooks (digital textbook replacements which provide content that helps teachers transition to digital learning) and Naviance College and Career Readiness Solutions__,__ (an American college and career readiness software provider that assists high school students with college and career planning)," says Tanae McLean, public information officer for MGSD.

And digital textbooks are much more than a simple eBook. They can include features such as movable diagrams, videos and interactive models.

An important piece of making tech work for families is reaching out, and smart teachers are doing just that. “I started a monthly morning Tech Tuesdays for parents to come in and have coffee and ask questions about how we use the technology in schools and about anything else they wonder about, such as specific apps, privacy issues, parental controls, how to check the Web browser's history, etc.,” says Blumberg.

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Technology makes it easier for parents to stay on top of their student's grades and is a great resource to see what assignment may be missing, but some parents can go overboard:

“Yes, I am definitely guilty,” confesses New York mom Kate. “I would say about 95 percent of my son’s homework assignments are posted online. … I find myself going online and checking to see if he's up-to-date with his assignments or if there are assignments that he needs to revise that he hasn't mentioned to me."

Prendergast suggests that parents pick one or two days a week to check grades.

“Technology can be a huge distraction,” confesses Blumberg. “I ask my students to shut their machines or even put their hands on their heads while I give verbal instructions.” She stresses the importance of proper online behavior.

“I have many conversations with my middle school students about how everything they post or share is public, permanent and traceable," she says. "Plus, I constantly implore them to make wise choices and use our available technology academically, respectfully and responsibly."

In a recent speech on technology in schools, President Obama shared that only 20 percent of students in the U.S. have high-speed Internet compared with South Korea, where 100 percent of students have access in the classrooms.

“At our school, it is more difficult to be successful without (Internet access or computers), but we do offer office hours, a time where students can work with teachers or borrow a laptop to complete work. Students can also ‘check out’ a laptop from our technology lab to use at home," Prendergast says.