By Amanda Warren
The coronavirus pandemic has wreaked havoc across the world with plenty of people losing their jobs, their homes, and many businesses closing down due to lack of revenue. The pandemic has not only impacted businesses and working people, students have also been massively affected. In 2020, many colleges closed their doors to avoid outbreaks on their campus, which meant canceled graduation and little to no academic progression for some.
Thankfully, some colleges and universities have ensured that their students keep learning thanks to advancements in technology. There have been a few technological inventions that made studying approachable and effective during the pandemic.
Computers or PCs
Arguably one of the best technological inventions man has ever come up with is the computer. In 2021, almost every household in countries like the UK, Australia, and the United States of America has a PC. Modern machines have increasingly fast processing speed and large storage which enables students to do a variety of complex tasks that would otherwise take far longer to complete. These tasks include the ability to access lecture notes, type and submit assignments, communicate with tutors and other students, type and submit their content, listen, watch, download educational materials and much more. It is a revolutionary innovation which keeps evolving, and students now have a wider range of user-friendly writing tools.
The Internet
Alongside computers, this is also up there as one of the greatest technological inventions man has ever come up with. The internet helped many students across the world carry on with their education through communication tools like podcasts, as well as E-commerce where they can buy books related to their studies, join social media groups on Facebook to interact with fellow students, message their tutors directly, and more. Moreover, the Internet also enables homeschoolers and other forms of self-directed education to proliferate. The number of people streaming in 2020 went up significantly with many at-home students, colleges and universities using Zoom as a way to teach while they were in the safety of their own homes.
Tablets and Smartphones
Gone are the days when people only bought phones to make calls and send text messages. These devices can do that and more thanks to the thousands of apps in their library that help students continue their studies during the pandemic. Everything from speech to text and text to speech translators, spelling checkers, proofreaders, creative writing, grammar checks, and more can all be accessed on these devices from nearly anywhere. If a student is struggling with their assignments, they can use them to get in touch with an essay writing service like Custom Writings. Students during the pandemic relied on them for professional assignment help, custom-written essays, academic writing guides, tutorial sessions, and more thanks to this portable technology.
Video Games
Video games have been around for decades, with the late 1980s seeing a massive rise in gaming as a way of life. When people think of video games, the first thing that might come to mind in 2022 is the current generation of consoles and devices like the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X. While these consoles specialize in providing pure entertainment, they don’t have a massive library of educational games. Educational games can be better accessed by students online or via their college system. These games are designed to further students’ education and have become increasingly popular during the pandemic as tutors turned to them as an effective way to teach students, especially those with a learning disability. By gamifying the learning process, students also have new incentives to further their education in an informative but fun and engaging way.
Virtual Reality
This form of learning is something that has grown in popularity over the last 10 years, and it is thanks to technological advancements. Students during the pandemic were able to purchase Virtual Reality (VR) headsets and use them as part of their learning curriculum. Virtual Reality takes students on an immersive learning journey with the help of images and videos. While there are some significant drawbacks to current VR systems that we have noted in other articles, this tech is advancing quickly, so hopefully current concerns can be alleviated in future generations of this potentially helpful educational technology.
Smart Televisions
We live in a day and age where the old-fashioned TVs are gone and have been replaced with smart TVs. Love them or hate them due to various privacy issues we have raised in other articles, these smart TVs can far surpass the functionality of old TVs, especially in terms of education, by allowing students to access the internet or connecte DVD players to watch content in 4K and High Definition. If there are lessons online that a student would like to watch, they can watch them on their TV If they don’t have access to a laptop. An added downside about smart televisions, however, is they can be very expensive, especially as we are beginning to witness more widespread component shortages.
Kindle
Kindle works the same way that tablets do with buttons and a touch screen, but the key difference is that it is designed for reading only. Students with this device can access a large library of written documents related to their field of study on the go. This makes it a very convenient product because students have a choice to buy ebooks and store them to internal storage instead of buying physical copies of books online. Textbooks are often very expensive and heavy; carrying them in backpacks on top of everything else a student might have can be especially tiring. Additionally, as travel has become severely restricted in many areas, a Kindle opens up access to the vast libraray of online education in a whole new way.
Portable Listening Devices
While MP3s were incredible when they first came out, it was products like the iPod that changed the game. With long battery life and better sound quality, students can use these devices to not just listen to music but also listen to podcasts as well as load up recorded audio lectures. It is an amazing piece of technology for those students who don’t like being on a computer screen for long periods of time. These devices also enable students to take a more independent role in how they structure their education by offering more flexible study hours if permitted.
The role that technology plays in our everyday life grows every year. We simply cannot imagine life without it, especially when it comes to education. It has completely revolutionized the way people learn because now students don’t have to physically be in a classroom to persue their education. They can do most of the work at home thanks to the technological investment mentioned above like VR headsets, computers, mobile phones, tablets, and video games. Almost every student across the world has access to at least one or two of pieces of the latest educational technology. These tools can also make learning more comfortable and fun. While they might be expensive to acquire in the short term, the advantages they can offer in the long run far outweighs the negatives if used properly.
Technological Inventions that Made Studying Approachable and Effective During the Pandemic