Roles and Functions of Educational Technology in the 21st Century Education

Roles of Educational Technology in the 21st Century Education

Society has changed. The term 21st century has become the central part of educational thinking and planning for the future. The Role of Education is to prepare students to be active, successful and contributing members of society.

Instruction should be student-centered. In student-centered learning, the students are encourage to learn on their own while the teacher act as a facilitator.Education should be collaborative. In collaborative learning, students are expected to collaborate with people from other cultures, with different values and to share information and learn about different practices or methods that have developed. Learning should have context. In learning, teacher should help students to understand how the skills they are building can be applied in their lives.In order to prepare the students to play their role in the 21st century society, the following are considered:

Technology allows 24/7 access to information.Technology allows constant social interaction.Easily create and share digital content.The Roles of Educational Technology in the 21st Century Education

Learning is about discovery, not the memorization of facts.websites like Google, Facebook, twitter and etc. are popular free social networking sites that connect students to the learning opportunities here and around the globe.Through our new and advanced technology learners can demonstrate learning in a different and exciting way by allowing everyone to gather information from a wide variety of resources.Technology allows 24/7 access to information.

Social networking sites use graphics and text to allow users to share photos and information about themselves, chat and play games.Allows constant social interaction

Encourages contact between students and faculty.Facilitates feedback and promotes an active learning.Develops cooperation among students.High levels of interactivity and engagement.Gives confidence to shy students.Alternative way of learning.Presence for distance/remote students.Connect from anywhere-home, school, mobile. Promotes a more informal and intimate student-educator relationship. Source: http://infosecawareness.in/children/instant-messaging-icons.jpg/viewHere are the benefits of instant messaging in the classroom:

Students surf the internet for researching and writing articles. Giving information through e-mail messaging than writing letters is very usual. Imagine, if only everyone is online communication can be much easier and faster.Example: Wikipedia is a free , open content online encyclopedia created through the collaborative effort of a community of users known as wikipedians. Anyone registered on the site can create an article for publication; registration is not required to edit articles. These files from wikipedia can be shared by sending them through Instant Messaging Programs (Yahoo Messenger, MSN Messenger, Google, Facebook and AOL Instant Messenger)Easily create and share digital content

Develop proficiency in 21st century skills .Support innovative teaching and learning.Create a robust education support system.21st Century Education system is about maximizing the impact of technology to:

Aside from mastering the core academic subjects, students must use technology comprehensively as a preparation for succeeding the postsecondary institutions and future workplaces.Use technology to develop proficiency in 21st century skills.

Technology supports new, research-based approaches and promising practices in teaching and learning. In other words, technology supports innovation.Use Technology comprehensively to support innovative teaching and learning.

Technology transforms standards and assessments, curriculum and instruction, professional development, learning environments, and administration.Use technology comprehensively to create a robust education support system.

Functions of Educational Technology

Educational Technology analyzes the process of teaching.It tries to find the different variables of teaching, their interlinks, effects upon each other, relationships, theories of teaching, phases of teaching principles of teaching, maxims of teaching etc. Indeed it helps improve the quality of education1. Improvement of Teaching

Educational technology analyzes the process of teaching and learning.It tries to find out the different variables of teaching their interlinks upon each other, relationship etc.It establish better relationship between teaching and learning.2. Analysis of the Teaching-Learning Process

Educational Technology analyzes the process of learning and the related theories.3. Improvement of Learning

Educational Technology helps in finding out the right objectives and enhancing it in the light of the changed circumstances and environment.4. Enhancing Goals of Education

Educational Technology render its valuable help in the trainings of teachers.5. Training of Teachers

Educational Technology develop a suitable curriculum appropriately that help in the attainment of goals.6. Development of Curriculum

Educational Technology develop teaching learning materials which will modify the behavior of the learner suitably making him a fit person for the society.7 Development of Teaching-Learning Materials

Educational Technology develop strategy which should be according to the materials and is able to bring about effective teaching-learning.8. Development of Teaching-Learning Strategies

Educational Technology develop Audio-Visual Aids used in the present type of teaching learning environment.9. Development of Audio-Visual Aids

Educational Technology helps in locating the problems in the different areas of education. 10. Help in Overall Improvement

Educational Technology aims at identifying the needs of the community from time to time to improve the community in every possible way.Identification of Needs of the Community

We cannot adequately prepare students for the society that exists today or will exist tomorrow if we continue to prepare them for the society that exist yesterday.