Technology advances almost faster than we can keep up with it, and there is always something new and exciting on the market. For education, it’s important to use the e-learning tools which can give the best results in classrooms, enhancing learning rather than distracting from it. Here are some of the most effective examples of e-learning tools being implemented in educational settings.
Interactive Whiteboards
First there was the chalkboard, then the whiteboard. Both of them offer certain drawbacks, chief of which is that after a few years of use, a build-up of residue makes it hard to continue using them. The chalkboard ends up more grey than black, and coloured smudges appear on the whiteboard which can never be rubbed away. The interactive whiteboard is another step up entirely. Here, notes and diagrams can be swept away with the tap of a button, and erased for all time. Screens can also be saved – nothing needs to be temporary. It’s a huge change which makes note-taking in the classroom so much easier, for both the teacher and the student, as well as removing cleaning time.
Virtual Classrooms
For students who live far from a real school, or are unable to leave their home, learning can be a lonely experience. However, with virtual classrooms, that is changing. These classrooms can give a live window into a real lesson, lecture, or seminar, from anywhere around the world. A student can become a real member of a class, talking to their professor in real time and being recognised by other pupils around them. All of this is done without having to ever set foot in as much as the same country as the room it is broadcast from. Lectures can also be saved and rebroadcast in the future as part of a wholly online course. This is a massive game-changer for home-schooling and for disabled or seriously ill children.
Screencasting
When showing videos and images in class, there used to be a few clunky and difficult options. You could load a videotape or DVD into a player and hope that they would work after you had fast-forwarded to the right spot, wheeling in an ancient television set to display them on. You could use a projector with slides, which were often subject to jams or to being placed in the wrong way around, and which took a long time to set up. These days, screencasting makes it all easy. Hook up your laptop to a digital projector, or just allow students to watch on their own screens. This is also an essential teaching tool for software programs, in which the student needs to see exactly what is happening on the screen.
Sophia Mest is a Content Manager at BizDb, where she aspires to put her writing passion into practice and spread her words across the world. She spends her free time travelling and exploring the wonders of nature.