Internet, Smartphones and AI: How is the trio shaping education

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Thanks to tech advancements, internet, smartphones, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are collectively revolutionizing the education sector as we know it and making learning a little bit “cooler”. Globally, education entities have made AI investments to the tune of billions in an effort to cope with the fast-changing world. Tech companies, on the other hand, are continually designing intelligent systems that “think” through and memorize information in an almost identical fashion to humans. 
 
Smartphones and tablets are also having their fair share of contribution to this new trend. All learners need to access volumes of information is a browsing device and an internet connection and everything else falls into place. There are even university courses on the internet today, not forgetting the articulate, easy-to-follow YouTube tutorials on literally every topic imaginable. 
 
These tech advancements aren’t only changing how learners consume information. It is sweeping across every big and small department within the education sector. I’m talking changing how educators interact with the learners, how classrooms are set, to how grading and awarding are done. In a nutshell, technology has successfully made education a personalized experience rather than a mass exercise. The learner has a direct link to the information sources and the educator’s role has changed from being the information owner to a learning facilitator. 
 
Case Study
 
Osmosis is offering students smart, highly effective ways of studying thanks to technology. The organization has an assembly of thousands of video tutorials, flashcards, and guiding questions that assist learners to access information in a more consumable fashion. All you need is to purchase a study plan amongst a host of their plans and you will be good to go.
 
Learning by osmosis is no longer a far-fetched dream. Learners of pathology, physiology, and pharmacology have greatly benefited from this form of learning. They get personalized learning and exam schedules based on each learner’s potential and previous performances, reference materials, and personalized reminder emails that keep the learners on their toes at all time. At the end of it all, learning becomes fun and effortless. 
 
Ways through which Internet, AI, and Smartphones are Shaping the Education Industry:
 
1.         Enhanced continuous learning
 
Traditionally, learning started at a finite age- say 3 years- and ended somewhere in the mid-20s. It is as if learning has a specified shelf-life and then once it reaches expiry date, it is substituted with working life. This trend is swiftly coming to an end thanks to the internet and smartphones. People in their 60s and even 80s are now learning through their phones. People are using YouTube tutorials to learn about lawn management, rodent control, cooking, and many other areas that they previously thought were reserved for professionals. 
 
2.         Teaching method algorithms
 
Traditional teaching methods have been blamed for putting all learners into a single basket and then teaching, testing, grading, and awarding them using the same parameters, without caring about how unique people are. Some learners are good in sports, others are good in social sciences, others are good in math, while others are good in sciences. Thanks to AI, educators can be able to tell where exactly a student is weak and where he/she is strong. That enables them to focus more on the strengths other than condemning a kid to failure just because he/she is learning the things she can’t comprehend. 
 
3.         Learners are more empowered with information.
 
Previously, educators have been focusing on training learners on how to handle different tasks in an already-established job market. There wasn’t really any room to learn and tweak things in the market- graduates had to fit into the system otherwise one would be deemed unprofessional. Well, not anymore.
 
Thanks to the internet, educators are now challenged to prepare learners to become innovators. Graduates can now enter a profession and change their outlook from within. No one will ever be forced to conform to ridiculous industry requirements anymore.
 
4.         Better grading
 
Thanks to AI, students will soon start getting the grades they deserve without having to worry about impressing the examiners. Machines have the ability to read a learner’s handwriting, mark an exam, and then grade it appropriately. Professors will no longer hold the fate of the students.
 
5.         Kids will be teachers as well
 
If a kid is conversant with computers and programming codes from as early as 5 years, then he/she is a prime candidate for teaching roles. He/she can, for example, help her mother to organize her recipes or teach her grandparents how to use different prescription drugs. In a classroom setup, that kid can teach her teachers how to set up different tech learning tools. In simple terms, technology has made it possible for teachers and learners to change roles every now and then. 
 

Author Bio: Laura is a marketing specialist at SEOforX. She helps her company advertise its products and services and she has a thorough knowledge on developing marketing approaches for products and brands. Besides being a marketing specialist she has a special interest in financial technology. She finds Fintech fascinating and writes about how the new technology is being used to improve activities in the finance sector.



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