Why tech in education is so important

With Co-operative College celebrating their centenary this year we’re exploring how technology plays such a vital role in education.

Generations of children are growing up with tech at their fingertips, making them more tech-literate than any before them. They are growing up with cutting edge technology, learning their times tables on iPad apps and learning languages through YouTube. The education sector has been forced to adapt to these changes with help from companies such as Google and Microsoft.

Virtual Reality has changed the education landscape, creating new resources for children across the world to learn. Students don’t need to read textbooks to learn about history, they can time travel, look inside a human body and travel the world without leaving their classroom.

Education is at the heart of all well-developed nations, legislation surround attendance, billions invested into the education system and attending school is normal day to day life.

Unfortunately, in some developing countries they simply don’t have the resources to educate all of their citizens. 61 million children of primary school age do not have the chance to go to school, 32 million of these live in sub-Saharan Africa and almost 11 million in South Asia. This 61 million includes indigenous peoples, religious, ethnic and linguistic minorities, people with disabilities and people living in conflict regions.

Distance learning through technology is seen by some as the answer to improved learning both at home and abroad. With a tablet or laptop students can dial into classrooms, have their coursework emailed to them, submit their homework and gain a first-class education without leaving their home.

A number of universities have opened up free online courses in a variety of subjects that can be accessed from anywhere in the world. This opens up opportunities that would have been closed to billions of people mere years before and makes the world a little fairer.

Technology has changed the face of education in a few short years, thanks to connectivity and broadband.

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