Education Technology Trends for 2021-2022

2020 marked a drastic shift in education approaches. Since the COVID-19 pandemic caused many students and teachers to stay remote for most of the year, many schools resorted more and more to technology-based options.

While the future of in-person schooling is still up in the air, teaching techniques will continue to evolve for screens rather than classrooms. Here are several rising education trends for the 2021-2022 school year.

Personalized Teaching

The accelerating reliance on technologies in education has helped teachers focus on individual needs within large classes, a problem that they’ve often experienced before the pandemic.

Platforms for electronic learning (or e-Learning) are forms of education that use technology to help students learn. They offer one way to accomplish personalized teaching thanks to these and other benefits:

• Flexible organizing of study hours
• Cloud-based teaching resources that students can view and download at any time
• Real-time chat options between students and teachers
• Reports of student data and statistics that teachers can pull up when the students need assistance

Social Learning

Virtual campuses, user communities, and even social media have important roles to play in the future of education. These applications can encourage learning, enable interaction between individuals, and inspire connections between people with similar interests.

Thanks to the growing acceptance of social media in education, students frequently use such platforms to interact with classmates. Specific methods of communication include sharing study materials, debating with members of a group, and commenting on a publication. Schools that have adapted to these communications demonstrate their acceptance of humans as both technological and social.

Mobile Learning

The heavy reliance on mobile phones in everyday lives, to the point where they are often considered an extension of the human body, has led to the concept of mobile learning (sometimes referred to as “m-learning”).

In the last few years, many apps have become available that allow individuals to learn languages, mathematics, sciences, and other subjects wherever they want and whenever they want. M-Learning is a support tool that can implement the learned concepts and resolve doubts or further investigate a topic that students need more educating in.

Combining mobile phones and m-Learning with e-Learning facilitates well-rounded training for teachers.

Nano learning

Nano Learning is a concept that counters an information age with declining attention spans and increasing screen fatigue. Since the unnecessary influx of distracting mobile alerts and notifications has made many people unable to concentrate and process lengthy amounts of information, Nano Learning provides students with data in smaller quantities and over a shorter period.

Lecturing students in short bursts may sound risky, but it is proven to increase their abilities to take in and retain information. Providing students with bits of data that are as small as pellets are likely to elevate their productivity, keep them focused, and help them learn.

The following four solutions make for effective Nano Learning in classrooms:

• Identifying students’ needs
• Setting learning objectives
• Choosing accessible content in the form of videos, apps, ad podcasts
• Keeping lectures short; experts recommend 2-to-5-minutes.

Virtual and Augmented Reality

Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technologies have made their way into classrooms. VR experiences require a VR headset, while AR experiences require viewing through a smartphone or tablet.

VR has a digital interface that projects images and thus creates a real or virtual world in which users can see and interact. This technology even has gesture controls and easy-to-use teacher controls. Some VR headsets are relatively expensive, but specific alternatives such as Google Cardboard provide a comparatively more affordable VR experience. Users simply place a smartphone into a viewing contraption.

While AR technology projects images, sound, and video with the device camera and uses a screen to display them, it layers these images on top of what people can regularly see on their cameras rather than immerse them in another reality. For example, Google search allows users to see different animals in their environment and see a panda on their desk.

Some ways to incorporate AR and VR into the classroom include…

• Field trips. VR can take students on tour around many galleries, museums, and cities without leaving the classroom. Art, geography, and history are just some subjects that students can learn about with this technology.
• Virtual careers. VR allows students to learn about a wide variety of careers. They can even gain firsthand experiences through someone else’s eyes.
• High-tech training. VR and AR can project real-life training and offer big help for students looking for careers in the military or medicine. For example, it can show students the anatomy of the body from the inside out.
• Language immersion. By placing students in a virtual world, VR can immerse them in a foreign language.

Sound Masking

Sound masking involves playing ambient background noise in an area to reduce the intelligibility of human speech.

How can schools apply sound masking to education? Offices often use it to reduce workspace noise, and the same goes for schools. Student centers, classrooms, and libraries that are sound masked can benefit students who are busy studying and want fewer noise distractions.

Sound masking can reduce not only distractions but also protect students’ privacy. The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) requires that colleges reasonably protect student information, including how the information is obtained, stored, used, and disclosed. If colleges must sound mask rooms for legal reasons, why shouldn’t other institutions do the same?

Digital Signage

Digital signage is another technology that hasn’t entirely broken into education. There are many benefits of digital signage that organizations can enjoy. Schools can use this communication and marketing tool to transmit multimedia information onto screens in public places such as retail stores and tourist sites.

Believe it or not, using digital signage in education gives schools plenty of perks:

• Help students find relevant information on walls.
• Increase digital communication and understanding
• Digitize school infrastructure
• Boost students’ engagement

Schools can also design creative content for digital signage and maximize return on profit. These are some ways to do that:

• Display social media walls with hashtags and mentions
• Welcome new students, teachers, or staff
• Display important notice, bulletin, or information
• Easy navigation and wayfinding for visitors
• Announce events, functions, or special occasions
• Show exam schedules and student roll numbers
• Motivate and inspire students
• Display students’ creativity and innovation
• Build school reputation and values

Temperature Scanners

Temperature scanners (sometimes known as thermal imaging systems) provide a hands-free method for checking if a COVID-19 infection has elevated someone’s temperature.

This device may provide plenty of benefits during the pandemic, and some schools seem to agree. Not only is this technology automated and contactless, but it is also capable of scanning large numbers of people at once in areas of varying sizes, which takes away the frustrations of standing in line to receive a temperature check.

Need a Technology Consultant?

Teksetra is here to help your organization realize some of the most helpful educational trends. We provide AV solutions that will help improve your school environment for students and teachers alike. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help your school with sound masking, digital signage, temperature scanners, and more!