In recent years, the impact that technology has had in the field of education has been a major deal. Ranging from different online learning platforms, to apps and online classrooms that has made it more accessible for students and educators to learn anywhere they want – without being physically present in the classroom. 

Technology has had its impact on students, teachers, and administrators from learning platforms, assessment strategy, and grading. It also produced fear of plagiarism, academic dishonesty, and downright cheating through the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

In his blog, “Digital Transformation in K-12 Education (+Examples)” Levi Olmstead stated, “76% of students say that technology makes learning more engaging and 90% of teachers say it helps them assess student learning more effectively.”

During the 2020 COVID-19 outbreak, social distancing was enforced, and the country went into lockdown. Schools around the world shut down to mitigate the disease. Students weren’t able to attend school and in-person learning was not possible. Educators were forced to adapt overnight to a long-term absence from the classroom. 

Then apps like Zoom and Microsoft Teams stepped up, making it possible for schools to still proceed with teaching through virtual classrooms. This trend has continued into education still today; a lingering effect of the digitized classroom.

What separates online learning pre-pandemic and post-pandemic is the amount of tools now adapted for large-scale learning, no longer specialized for the occasional online class. AI technology is also on the scene, threatening the integrity of technology-based learning.

However, these are extremely useful; classes can be either online, or hybrid versions, where education can be anywhere, still with regular in-person classes. This benefits the students a lot since they are able to learn at their own pace and it also creates a flexible class time around their schedules to learn. 

Due to this technology crafted and perfected, education has now become accessible to working adults, parents who care for their children, and students with disabilities. Tech acquisition resources are available across campuses, even here at Highline. 

Technology can also help reduce the cost of physical instruction material. Items such as textbooks, which could cost you up to $400, while E-textbooks can cost from $9 to $19 of the same version. Teachers can also assign homework and study guides online, helping to reduce the cost of printing sheets of paper which helps the environment be more green. 

Not only has the resources become easier, technology itself has become more accessible to even those on a budget. Highline’s TRiO program for first-generation and low income students offers chromebook rentals at no cost. 

Students and teachers can have good communication on and off school campus since the use of email helps so that students are able to ask classroom related questions to the teacher via email. This especially benefits those that are introverted and have a hard social skill when it comes to asking questions in person. 

With the internet, it opens many ways for students to be able to have access to a wide range of information. This enables students to learn in more than one way from YouTube videos to AI, like ChatGPT, showing step by step on how to solve the problems. 

In the article, “10 Ways ChatGPT will be a boon to first-year writing” by Jennie Young, she expresses bluntly that, in the professional world, people are using AI. She recommends teachers should start teaching students how to use AI properly to prepare them for the world outside of school. It’ll help students with more knowledge so they can apply it outside of school.   

Technology also plays a big factor in people with disorders. Technology enables them to learn in many different ways. In an interview with Kylan Lam a student at Highline college he says, “Since I’m dyslexic, I use Gleim to make [lectures] into a transcript which gives me guidelines on what to study.” 

Technology can also impact students’ ability to learn. In the same interview, Lam says, “I’m on my phone a lot scrolling through TikTok, YouTube, Instagram which distracts me from my learning.”

This is one of many ways that tech can be a distraction. Studying the learning style and attention span of students to understand how to mitigate distraction and increase focus should be embraced as an opportunity to learn itself.

As we could see that by integrating technology into education students are able to learn skills such as media literacy, critical thinking, and information literacy which plays a big role for a successful career in the 21st century.