It’s no secret that today’s education has evolved into something beautiful that our past generations could only dream of. Gadgets and applications are available to us almost instantly, with costs and accessibility reaching manageable levels with each passing day.

With that said, it’s also important to note that such drastic and impactful changes are hard on everyone who is unprepared for the challenges coming our way. The transition from old to new is not an easy one, so we are here to take a look at some of the most significant challenges that today’s education poses to teachers and students alike.

Teacher training

Like everything in life, education is a two-way street that requires teacher-student cooperation. That being said, teachers will soon transition through an uncomfortable phase that will require them to study and educate themselves on new technologies. While it’s beneficial to learn new things at any age, some of the older teachers might be reluctant to and options it provides, simply because “it worked for years before the technology was invented”. It did work, and it would still work, but why not adapt and upgrade your way of teaching?

What teachers need to understand is that new technologies in education are not there to hinder progress, but to streamline processes and make teaching much easier than before. If you have an option of showing your students a far off place using VR technology or use tablets during class to play trivia, why wouldn’t you? The children will use the technology with or without our help anyway, so why not use this opportunity and teach them how to use it morally and properly.

Education expenses

As with any new technology or innovation, adapting is difficult for the first generations. This challenge concerns the parents and school administration more than anyone else, simply because they need to invest money into new technologies. These expenses range from software subscriptions, buying new gadgets and devices for students to use during and outside their classes, or even specialized training for the young ones. The education expenses are becoming more predominant now that the tuition is not the only thing to worry about.

Some schools are going out of their way to equip students with modern gadgets and make them an essential part of their curriculum. In doing so, they spend money that could have been used for renovation or school trips. No one said that adapting to new technologies was an easy process, but this day and age is showing us that it is an expensive process as well.

Device implementation

We’ve talked about teacher training before, and that’s only the first part of the equation. The next step that any teacher is challenged by is how to implement these into their lessons. Some teachers and courses have been unaltered and operation the same way for years or decades. Today’s age is not only offering but forcing older generations to move further into the digital age and adapt their way of work.

Implementing new devices into the curriculum can be as painless as using Google Maps during geography classes, but there are other specialized classes that will have to think out of the box. It will all end well, however, with dedicated teams of experts on national levels looking for new opportunities for embracing education technology every day, so there is no need to worry too much about it.

Student’s education

Just like the teachers, the students are going through their own period of change. Teen years are the most turbulent time of any person’s life, but this gives the young ones an advantage over the old. They are very susceptible to new influences and change comes very naturally to them. This means that technological education for youngsters is easier to manage and more streamlined than for their older counterparts.

If we look at the facts that students look for new and unconventional ways to do assignments and lessons that we have worked hard to finish, it’s easy to consider the fact that this transition will be less challenging for them. Just think of all the times students use professional writing sites to get paper help during their studies. Looking at writing service review will give you a better idea of how students think these days. Their technical education to accommodate for changes in education will be challenging but in a fun and smart way, just like everything else is during youth.

Student’s attention span

A bigger problem that teachers and parents face with the coming education technology revolution is their children’s attention span. Kids today simply have far less tolerance or attention for anything that seems remotely boring or useless. They are ruthless in their judgment and very hard to convince otherwise.

The only way we can approach them correctly is to even the playing field and try to understand them better. They think differently than us, in a new and unfamiliar way, through young and innocent eyes who don’t fully understand the world. In their eyes, gadgets and devices are meant for fun and entertainment, much less so for education and learning life lessons. While it’s easy to understand their perspective, going around their reasoning and offering them best of the both worlds might be the smartest idea.

Implementing education technologies through games and interactive workshops that utilize new capabilities of touchscreen gadgets and smartphones might be the best way to go. We won’t get anywhere if both sides are stubborn and try to put their opinion over the other one. That is why we have to find a way to overcome the challenge of small attention spans and offer the young ones something they will like.

Value of grading

The grading system that we use in education today is archaic, to say the least. We refer to empiric measures as a definitive evidence of someone’s intellect, capability and work proficiency – but is this really a good system? Forget the fact that every country in the world has its own slightly modified system that works well in that country, but what about traveling abroad to continue the studies?

Young generations today want mobility, ease of access to new and and very little downtime ( a byproduct of their attention spans). What this means for education technology is that we are actively looking for ways to overcome standardized empiric measures of academic success and offer young generations something that they will appreciate more. We’ve all had teachers who gave us slightly lower or higher grades than we really deserved. That’s because grades are subjective to the person who is issuing them, and even more so to the person reading them and deciding if they are good enough.

The most important challenge of new education technologies will be exactly that – to grow out of our standardized grading systems and venture into territory that allows mobility and professional development in a much more liberal way than before.

Relevance of textbooks

As with any other technology that passes down the torch, the real question is what to do with the concept of printed textbooks. The age-old debate that there is no replacement for a book in your hand might be true in some cases, but we have to think about the long run as well. What about all the forests that are getting cut down just so we can print books instead of holding our tablets and reading the exact same texts?

We can argue that recycled paper is very viable for use but that is only a temporary solution to a much bigger issue. Generations that are coming to school now will have to say goodbye to the concept of using actual textbooks and instead focus on digital e-books and online materials for their studies. While it seems heartless at first, it makes sense from ecological and moral sides in equal measure.

The children will not only not miss the printed textbooks (that they would resell or put in the attic after studying), but they will learn to appreciate taking care of the nature around them. The real challenge in this trend will be getting used to caring a single tablet to lectures instead of a stack of books – and the inevitable disbanding of school libraries due to digitalization.

Preparation for the future

The most important and inevitable challenge in the education technology revolution is actually using it to the benefit of younger generations. Can we say that adapting to the digital age and turning to gadgets and devices will really prepare the children for their future? We can certainly hope so, and judging by the more and more predominant IT and technological job market, their odd is fairly high.

The important question we need to ask ourselves is how to adopt the possibilities we have at our fingertips in the best way possible in order to ensure that for our children. Using new technologies in their studies will help them better adapt to the world around them once they leave school. The challenge is how to utilize the education technology at our disposal to help them do so as painlessly as possible.

In conclusion

With all being said, the challenges that are waiting for us in today’s education technology are some of the hardest we’ve ever faced. Like any change, it takes time and effort to overcome and actually bear fruit. That means that we have to be more patient and hardworking than ever before in order to prepare our young generations for the future. In the process, we are adapting our own skills and knowledge to better understand their world and prepare it for the coming generations and the inevitable passing of the torch.