A Redefined Education by Shushana

A Redefined Education by Shushana - February 2018 Scholarship Essay

No generation of people lived a more simplified life with the access of technology than that of today’s digital community who are submerged in their smart devices. As previous generations relied on pens and notebooks as the gateway to knowledge, today’s population developed a new toolkit for education that includes laptops and smartphones. Technology runs in the veins of society and serves as the foundational fuel that drives lives. It expands people’s societal boundaries and channels a world full of exploration. The current era of pervasive technology will have a substantial implication to education in the year 2038 and thereafter. Technology has become the window through the future. It has the power to completely transform the entire learning and teaching experience, redefining education.
Books played the stepping stones to the advancement of humanity, as these rare pieces of work were only used by the nobility and those who could afford education. Today, massive amounts of information are available at one’s fingertips, as the access to learning opportunities is unprecedented in scope due to modern technology.
For one, the development of E-books has profoundly changed education. Used to support both teaching and learning, these technological devices have ushered in fundamental changes that are integral to achieving educational success for the future. Classrooms infused with digital learning tools, such as the electronic books, have significantly expanded the access of information, as the heightened accessibility has formed more available courses of study, added more experiences, and provided more resourceful learning materials. E-books support learning 24 hours a day, 7 days a week; they construct 21st century skills in people. It has increased student engagement and motivation, causing an accelerated learning experience. It has also furthered a new mode of connected teaching, creating linkages between teachers and students and increasing educational productivity.
Technology has begun to change the roles of teachers and learners as well. In the traditional classroom, the teacher is the primary source of information and the learners passively receive it. However, through the accessibility of information and educational opportunity that technology has enabled, the teacher’s role has been replaced by technology, while the teachers are simply a guide to the side, and the students are more responsible in making their learning experience effective. Schools and universities across the country are beginning to designate learning spaces to enable this new model of education as well as use technology as the key to opening doors to new opportunities in the educational field.
The digital E-books contain textbooks or leisure novels that are portable and can be accessed in a PDF format. Although these ubiquitous devices have captivated today’s society, they lack visualizations and simulations that include hands-on involvement. Knowing and doing are interrelated, and this link is strengthened through reflective practice. Thus, the implication of technology in humanity has revolutionized a pathway for the emergence of advanced pedagogical methods of learning like for instance, the epistemic games. These computer “games” have developed to place students in professional roles like mathematicians, engineers, or journalists in order to solve real-world problems. The group involved with the formation of the epistemic games will provide several real examples in which students are situated in circumstances through game-like simulations that allow students to learn important concepts, demonstrate their mentality, and also engage in the learning process. The games will create controversial issues in medicine or business that require critical and innovative thinking that forms them into creative professionals. It will allow them to digress from traditional academic classrooms, and it will also motivate students to actually retain any information necessary for the future. It also will enhance student’s skills in the real world by setting high expectations and utilizing professional values as well as implement ways to tackle problems and find reasonable solutions. This advancement will change the relationships between students, as they will no longer narrowly socialize in a classroom setting, but they will be able to develop new social circles, which encourages collaboration and communication. The walls of the classrooms will no longer be a barrier as technology will enable new ways of learning, communicating, and working collaboratively.
Schools are on a quest to create a large-scale implementation of epistemic games in standards and curriculums. These games have become an alternative model for organizing the educational system for an era of dramatic social and economic transformation stimulated by the introduction of technology. They are a collection of compelling activities that will provide vocational education and be an adaptation to authentic professionalism in an entertaining format. Epistemic games will prepare students for a diverse way of learning and thinking with the application of technology in daily life. There will be a dawning of a redefined education.