We are living in the modern era where all the objects that we use in our daily lives are becoming smart. The world changes when the things around you are given data connectivity. No one can deny that the state of education has been dramatically changed by internet over the past few years.
It allows to establish a rapid communication between the students and teachers in the classroom. Very few educators would disagree that technology plays a very vital role in changing the educational landscape. Education looks very different today with proliferation of open universities and use of tablets in the classroom.
According to a saying of Brendan O’Brien who is the Chief Architect & Co-Founder of Aria Systems,
HP imagines the way future classrooms will look and be,
One of the very smart aspect of modern schools and classrooms is that the IoT improves the education itself and brings advanced value to the physical environment and structures. A smart school has the facilities functioning smoothly that provides higher level of personalized learning. The smart devices that are used in the campus makes use of Wi-Fi network to send data and receive instructions. A computational Internet of Things nervous system for schools and learning centers helps to create smarter lesson plans, keep a track of important resources,improve access to information, design safer campuses and much more.
Internet of Things can be considered as a new method for managing the classroom with advanced tools. Here is a short list of the most common IoT devices that has changed the education sector.
It is indeed very difficult to compare the older generation presentation boards with today’s multimedia posters. Web tools like Glogster has changed this experience and allows to create the virtual posters easily combining with the images, audio, video, text and hyperlinks. This allows to share them electronically with others and monitor the activity of the student very easily. These digital posters can then be shared with classmates and teachers via email, simply accessed through the poster’s URL address and posted on class blogs.
Learning today is not limited to the combination of texts and images but beyond that. Most of the textbooks are paired with web-based sites that include additional materials, videos, assessments, animations and other materials to support the learning. This gives a broader outlook to the students to learn new things with a better understanding and interaction with teachers and their friends. The educational professionals are bringing the real world problems in the classrooms and allows students to find their own solutions.
iPad is truly changing the way to teach and learn which can be considered as a very powerful creative tool. It also allows the students and teachers to create 3D graphics textbooks featuring videos and gives the ability to take notes. It can be considered as a game changer which provides tons of educational games and makes education more appealing than ever before. It is bundled with many features that provides interesting possibilities in learning as well as teaching. The motion sensor of such devices is bundled with intriguing applications which provides the best way to learn new things.
Popular iPad or iPhone Educational Apps,
eBooks are portable that allows the students to carry library of hundreds of books with them with greater ease. Mobile devices can hold hundreds of textbooks, plus quizzes, homework and other related files thus eliminating the need for physical storage of books. For all the students who are very excited to watch the videos, diagrams or Infographics, eBooks provides with very richer experience and expanding learning opportunities to students.
Advanced technology helps the students to learn new things by supporting instructional objectives. Tools such as Google Apps allow the students and teachers to share the documents online and make changes in real time on a screen. Course management tools such as Canvas helps the teachers to organize all the resources of the students. Panopto which is a lecture capture tool helps to record lectures directly from the computer. It also helps the students to access any information they need with a single Google search.
Technology helps the students to communicate with the teachers using different modalities. It helps the teachers to keep a proper track on each of the students and assign them with home works through different online tools and track their performance. Teachers remain connected with the students all the time and removes any gap of communication between them. Communicative use of technology helps the students to take on several roles and bear their own responsibility for learning. It also gives them freedom of speech and action in a modern and safe environment.
Due to the advanced techniques, all doors of the schools and education centers are well integrated with the push of a silent panic button. It also includes pre-existing fireproof doors that lock immediately in the event of a school lockdown measure. The security measure of the schools includes the door access control system which verifies visitors before unlocking outside doors for entry. One can unlock or lock doors remotely using mobile devices and also receive the notification for the same when someone has arrived on the door. This is indeed very useful feature for the school authorities and help them to avoid any mishaps. One can program the doors to check the status of a remote door lock via mobile device, lock automatically at specific times and program buttons on your security system’s interface
IoT plays a vital role in building a community using different web based platforms. Advanced technology helps the teachers to monitor the progress of the students. Edmodo is one of the best means of teacher-student communication. Edmodo makes possible for the learners to gain knowledge from any place at any time. It allows students and teachers to stay connected via different means, checking messages and upcoming events while away from the classroom and even replying to posts. It is a very powerful app that provides safe network and full privacy. It also allows to store your unique ideas and class project without worrying and guarantee you full confidentiality.
Implementing the advanced technology solutions in the classrooms and education sector is very useful. It includes emergency alerts, audio enhancement, wireless clocks and hearing impaired notifications that provides the students and staff with a sense of security. It can also minimize the devastation and save lives that can result in the wake of a crisis situation. The schools and education centers are adopting different security measures that help to secure the campuses. The communications console can also be utilized for different emergency tones, live announcements, multiple bell schedules and pre-recorded instructional messages that will direct the staff and students during emergency.
Students nowadays makes use of a very powerful platform such as Smart Boards. It helps the teachers to explain the lectures more easily with the help of online presentations and videos. Students are encouraged with interactive gaming as a powerful platform. Web-based tools and programs help to teach the students more effectively that was once paper or chalkboard based. Smart technology let teachers and students surf the web and even edit video and share assignments.
According to a recent study, temperatures of the classrooms have a great impact on the student’s cognitive abilities, memory and attitude. A very hot weather can make students and teachers feel as though they lack energy. There are some advanced temperature sensors that allows schools to monitor different conditions in any environment. It not only saves the thousands in utility costs but also enhances the learning capabilities of a student. Remote monitoring solution helps to monitor all the classrooms at once at anytime from anyplace. These temperature sensors are easy to setup and install.
A strong school attendance system ensures the security of an educational organisation and can help schools and education centers in many ways. It helps the teachers to input the necessary information directly into the system. This will help the organization to minimize the time it takes to submit attendance data and allows school officials to send an electronic message to parents. It can also help to track the number of times a student has reported to the doctor and keep a check on student’s medical needs and medication they may be taking. It also gives the choice to the student to confirm their meal for the day.
IoT has a greater potential to remove all the barriers in education such as physical location, geography, language and economic status. Combination of technology and education not only makes learning faster and simpler but also enhances the impact and quality among the students. There is still tough and long road ahead for the IoT to bring more transformations in the education sector.