Note: This is a guest post written by Christina L
The contemporary adult will recall an adolescent classroom education comprised of chalk and blackboards; pencils and paper; and heavy textbooks that necessitated the advent of backpacks with wheels and tug. Oh, how things have changed. More and more educators are deferring to gadgets to enrich and enhance the learning experience.
Take the Dell interactive whiteboard, for example. This gadget replaces the standard chalkboard with a large, white, chalkboard size slab on which an interactive interface is projected. Teachers and students can then interact with the projected content as they would with a computer screen. This technology allows a classroom to concurrently experience a lesson that might otherwise require dozens of individual computers.
Tablets, specifically Apple’s iPad, is another gadget being adopted by classrooms around the country. What appeals to educators most about the iPad is its versatility. On a single book sized device, students could have access to thousands of applications and books.
Some applications in particular are Clinometer, which uses the iPad’s built in gyroscope to measure the level of a surface; Field Notes, which is for taking notes that automatically attach GPS location and time stamps; and TourWrist, a particularly popular app with history teachers as it allows users to see 360 degree renderings of famous places of interest throughout the world.
Of course, prevalence of technology in classrooms is not limited to the grade school level. Colleges are also getting in on the trend. Textbooks are becoming increasingly available in digital format downloadable on tablets and e-books, making them less expensive and more convenient — not just in that they are easier to carry in digital format. Digital versions of textbooks are also easier to study. If, for instance, you are looking for something particular in the digital textbook, you need only to enter the key word or phrase in a search bar which will retrieve the relevant sections of the text for you.
Naysayers might be of the opinion that the technological overhaul of classrooms is lavish and unnecessary. However, educators have been known to report that gadgets are a good way to engage students, particularly adolescents, who are used to a high-tech environment at home and hence find paper-and-pencil approach of traditional education dull.
Note: This is a guest post written by Christina L
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