With the changing landscape of higher learning, students have more access to technology devices now more than ever. With that being said, just because technology is at students’ fingertips, it doesn’t mean they have all the tools they need to use it properly.
If you’re looking for solutions that will help improve your life as a student or students around you, you’ve come to the right place. Below you’ll find some simple remedies that will make things easier in the classroom and outside the classroom.
Use Virtual Reality
65% of people are visual learners, meaning that listening to a professor lecture them about a topic or reading it over and over on their own isn’t helpful. This is why the first idea on our list when it comes to improving student life through the use of technology is to use virtual reality in the classroom.
This is a way to get students engaged in what they’re learning and take an active front-seat role. In virtual learning, you can take most scenarios and force students to react to the things happening in the virtual reality set.
For instance, this could be useful for nursing students because they can participate in medical procedures without being there. It allows for extra practice without putting patients in harm’s way during the process.
Another way to think of virtual reality to improve student life can be when students are taking courses online. Using virtual reality will help students feel like they’re still in the classroom and not just attending from their bedrooms.
It can help increase connectivity and collaboration between classmates but can be strained because of the constantly changing COVID-19 rules and regulations that vary based on the student’s school.
Lastly, virtual reality can be a way to help students that have social anxiety become a part of the classroom. It eases the anxiety they feel when they have to come to campus and go into the classroom.
Without doing any of these things, students can still be a part of the same atmosphere as their classmates.
Caption This
Students’ attention spans aren’t as long as they used to be. Everyone wants the information they’re looking for to be given to them as quickly as possible. Because of this, it can be easy for students to be distracted and overlook information that is being shared with them.
In the classroom, outside distractions can cause students to miss important information they might need to know for a future test or assignment. As a teacher, before you begin lecturing your class, we recommend you caption the recording.
If a student misses what was said during the initial lecture, they can rewind and read it at the bottom of the screen. People think captions are meant for students who have difficulty hearing or visual problems, but this isn’t true.
Instead of waiting for a student to ask you to include captions in the videos you post online, it’s best if you do it anyway. Your students will thank you, and you won’t waste too much time repeating yourself or answering questions recorded in the lecture.
Using captions also gives students a chance to take more detailed notes and learn in the way that they want to learn, at their own pace.
Provide Students With Laptops
You never know what could happen; now that COVID-19 is somewhat under control, students have returned to school. But, it doesn’t mean that things couldn’t change, which would cause students to have to take their classes from home again.
There are several ways to be prepared. One way to help improve the lives of students no matter what happens is to be one of the online colleges with free laptops that students can sign up to receive. This will give students one less thing to stress about and won’t stop them from taking their classes if they do have to go virtual instead of in person.
We understand that this isn’t something all colleges can do, but if possible, it should be something that is looked into. At least for the students who struggle financially, it should be an option they can opt in or out of.
Of course, students will need to understand that the laptops they are borrowing will need to be returned at a later date when in-person classes begin again.
Make Virtual Tutoring a Thing
Many students that need additional help to understand topics in school might be ashamed to ask for the help. This means they will go to lengths to avoid in-person tutors because they don’t want to be ashamed and, in some cases, don’t have time to go to the student center.
This is why you should make virtual tutors a technology resource that students can use. When the student realizes they’re struggling in class, all they have to do is visit the tutoring resource for help.
Most virtual tutors aren’t people that are connecting with the student. Instead, they are AI-powered tutors that can be used for any type of assignment and topic. The AI tutor will still interact with the student that needs help, but it will take some of the edge off that comes with asking for help from an in-person tutor.
Some schools are using AI not only for students but also for teachers. The teachers can interact with the AI-powered bots and improve the techniques they’ll use when teaching students in the classroom.
Improving Student Life Through Technology
There are several ways that technology can be used to improve the lives of students. Students could participate in virtual reality classroom sessions or have access to online tutors when they struggle with specific classes or topics.
Whichever decisions your college chooses to make, you need to do so for the benefit of your students. When your students thrive, the college with thrive too, which draws the enrollment of other students in the future.
Want to know more about technology and how to combine it with student life? Check out our other posts for more information.