Why Edtech Hasn’t Solved Education’s Problems
Many educators and teachers loudly espouse the innumerable benefits of edtech to solve today’s most prevalent classroom issues. Technology certainly does play a major role in the development of students and academics, but it doesn’t solve everything. In fact, there are a few major issues that still exist in today’s education system that edtech may be unable to solve.
Are you wondering why some of these issues still exist? Check out some of these reasons why edtech falls short in solving some of education’s most significant issues.
Technology can’t solve problems creatively.
Education is certainly important for giving students the knowledge they need to solve problems. However, an online course without specific teacher instruction falls flat when it comes to helping students who are stuck in a rut. Students may be able to gain the knowledge and master it to regurgitate it on a final exam, but they could struggle with real-life application. Technology can’t help students to come up with creative solutions to their problems. To summarize this point, technology can never be an effective substitute for a real person.
Edtech takes away from the social aspect of learning.
Participating with classmates is an essential part of the learning process. It gives students a new perspective on old issues and gives them creative opportunities to engage with the material. When the classroom becomes solely focused on learning material through online avenues, it takes away from this social aspect. Some schools are trying to get it back with telepresence robots, but it doesn’t quite replace the real thing.
This is one of the largest challenges that edtech faces in solving some of education’s problems. Students need to learn how to interact with one another for the future. It’s a skill that will be much needed in their future jobs and even higher education courses. Replacing social interaction with time in front of a computer screen isn’t likely to bode well for a child’s future success.
Some leaders are still resistant to new technology.
It’s impossible to determine the success of new technology until it is finally integrated and used effectively in the classroom. Many educators are still hesitant to incorporate this technology into their lesson plans, demonstrating that tech integration is still facing a great deal of resistance. Without utilizing these excellent tools to their maximum capabilities, educators can’t be sure what edtech can offer to students or where it truly falls short. This could be hindering what edtech could do to solve some of education’s larger issues.
Edtech has a promising position in the field of learning, but it could be hindered by some of these major flaws. Programming makes it difficult to create a replica of the environment students would face in the classroom. Keeping up with some of these major differences could allow educators to determine the perfect use of technology for future applications. With some more work, edtech could manage to solve some of these issues for a more successful integration into today’s academic models.