It’s evident that today’s #GenMobile students are showing up in classrooms knowing more about technology than previous generations. They’ve grown up tech-savvy and prefer to do everything on mobile devices. For them, untethered digital learning is fundamental for future success.
Classrooms are changing. We are seeing the impact of the Digital Revolution. Learning environments are now preparing students for their future work environments. Classrooms are shifting away from rows of desks, to an environment that promotes collaboration between students, teachers and learning devices. It’s what we call the Optimized Digital Classroom.
Textbooks are being swapped out for mobile devices that provide up-to-date content in real time. Printed exams are transitioning to online assessments. Attendance is automated.
To implement digital learning, a school must build the right infrastructure:
- The network infrastructure needs to be robust and reliable. While students are taking an exam or submitting an essay online, technology can’t get in the way. The Wi-Fi used throughout the school needs to be enterprise-grade and stable.
- While students are engaging with their mobile devices, teachers need digital tools to enable roll calling, messaging with students and monitoring what students are doing during an exam. EMM enables teachers to fulfill these requirements
- Administrators also need information on teacher’s attendance to calculate overtime which can be accessed through the teachers’ log times on network access control.
- Parents can get access to their child’s attendances as well as their grades and report cards through network access control as well.
Below are just a few benefits to digitalizing schools:
- Store and access complete student files, including enrollment paperwork, report cards, sports records and all other paperwork in one system.
- Reduce manual entry data by automatically extracting data from student information systems and database
- All the documents can be searched for and accessed in a matter of seconds, so you don’t have to waste your time searching those records from cabinets and boxes.
- Paperless exam prevents cheating during test and Students can amend their answers as often as they like without “leaving tracks” and handing in confusing or barely legible worksheets.
- Learning tools and technologies make it easy for teachers to create and manage groups. The shift to digital learning can approximate the benefits of tutoring while freeing up time for teachers to address individual and small group needs. Apart from an educator, parents can also explore online learning activities with their child which can serve as an extension to what they are learning in their classrooms.
- Learning tools and technology enable students to develop effective self-directed learning skills. They are able to identify what they need to learn, find and use online resources, apply the information on the problem at hand, and even evaluate resultant feedback. This increases their efficiency and productivity and all of that can be done by one device, not a stack of the textbook. In addition to engaging students, digital learning tools and technology sharpen critical thinking skills, which are the basis for the development of analytic reasoning. Children who explore open-ended questions with imagination and logic learn how to make decisions, as opposed to just temporarily memorizing the textbook.