Technology in Schools: What are the Opportunities and Challenges

See around and you find how technology has changed the way life is today. The same is with technology in schools- it has opened up a lot of opportunities for sure. The adoption of technology in schools has a different picture to offer in different countries. While some developed countries like the United States are looking for more technology to integrate in their schools, countries from the lesser developed parts of the world are still struggling with how to integrate technology in schools. While there are a lot of opportunities that technology has to offer to education institutions at all stages, there are some shortcomings that’s preventing widespread acceptance of technology in schools all over the world.

Opportunities are wide for technology in schools

When you talk about the opportunities for integrating technology in schools, we can actually see how technology is already transforming the way teachers teach in schools- a drift from text-based learning to something that would involve and engage students in the best possible way. Opportunities are plenty; here, we talk about four such opportunities that have every potential to take education to the next level.

1. A global learning platform is surely one blessing bestowed with the introduction of technology in schools. Students can opt to learn a foreign language from natives of the particular country through video conferencing. A lot of websites have come up with this kind of learning sessions via video conferencing call, letting students experience educational benefits minus the travel cost involved.
2. A paperless classroom is on the way. Cloud-based apps and tools like Google Drive, Gmail, Google Docs have a smarter way to offer to students and teachers to carry on their daily classroom learning. A definitely affordable option to save more time than the traditional methods of classroom teaching.
3. A great opportunity for technology in schools lies in the form of virtual reality (put the backlink to our blog)in the classroom. Virtual reality has the power to transform the classroom into the practical field for students to experience real-life applications in a virtual world.
4. E-books have huge potential to change the face of education in the coming days. A lot of schools from different parts of the world have already discovered the huge potential of e-books, yet, some schools remain unaware.

There are challenges too:

The introduction of technology in schools is surely not an easy road to success. It has its share of bad patches which are to be met with.

• Coming out of the comfort zone and accepting technology in schools is perhaps one of the biggest challenge to face with. Most of the times, teachers and school authorities are reluctant to experiment with new technologies in the classroom, for they consider these experimentations are beyond their job descriptions.
• Technology in schools has another setback- most schools are hesitant to implement distance courses, unlike the universities who have already joined the bandwagon of online courses.
• The costing factor is always a prominent challenge for the adoption of technology in schools. Most schools do not have the funding to support the use of technology in schools. There is an initial cost involved in the purchasing and installation of technology. Moreover, the cost of maintenance, upkeep and upgradation involves an ongoing cost, which is, at times, financially unsustainable for most K-12 schools.

There are challenges to face; but the biggest test is to face these challenges, overcome and accept technology in schools and revolutionize education with improved opportunities for students.