8 Ways Technology is Improving Education

Here is the website with the article and the picture put :http://mashable.com/2010/11/22/technology-in-education/: 
http://angaran0814.blogspot.com/2011/04/ipads-for-kindergarten-children.html

Technology is helping teachers to expand beyond linear, text-based learning and to engage students who learn best in other ways. Its role in schools has evolved from a contained “computer class” into a versatile learning tool that could change how we demonstrate concepts, assign projects and assess progress.

Despite these opportunities, adoption of technology by schools is still anything but ubiquitous. Knezek says that U.S. schools are still asking if they should incorporate more technology, while other countries are asking how. But in the following eight areas, technology has shown its potential for improving education.

1. Better Simulations and Models

These can help teachers better explain something by slowing it down or speeding up the process. It also can draw the students attention in and if they are visual learners, this will help them.

2. Global Learning

You can now go online and practice a language you are trying to learn by speaking to someone who can speak it fluently. You can find out anything about the world right at your finger tips.

3. Virtual Manipulatives

This is used for math classes a lot. My Math for Elementary Education teacher used this a lot to show us fractions and things like that. You can figure out what the answer is and then ask for it to show you the correct answer or if you got it right.

4. Probes and Sensors

Here is a video example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h14-sDplrww&feature=player_embedded

5. More Efficient Assessment

You can make tests online and enter the answers and the computer will correct the students scores for you! That way you never mess up your grading!

6. Storytelling and multi-media

You can find anything on You Tube now. Our math teacher used youtube a lot of times tables and counting by numbers!

7. E-books

You can find books online now and its a great way to find a good book fast, instead of having to go to the library or store!

Despite students’ apparent preference for paper textbooks, proponents like Daytona College and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger are ready to switch to digital. And electronic textbook vendors like CourseSmart are launching to help them.

E-books hold an unimaginable potential for innovating education, though as some schools have already discovered, not all of that potential has been realized yet.

“A digital textbook that is merely a PDF on a tablet that students can carry around might be missing out on huge possibilities like models and simulations or visualizations,” Dorsey says. “It takes time and it really takes some real thought to develop those things, and so it would be easy for us as a society to miss out on those kinds of opportunities by saying, ‘Hey look, we’re not carrying around five textbooks anymore. It’s all on your iPad, isn’t that great?’”.

8. Epistemic Games

These put students in roles such as an engineer. Lets them try out real life positions. I think this is the most interesting one because how do you know if you like doing something until you try it!