E-learning and the future of Education

Esraa Ashraf Introduction: Education is one of the most important factors of poverty alleviation and economic growth in the wo...

Esraa Ashraf

Introduction: Education is one of the most important factors of poverty alleviation and economic growth in the world, as technology is rapidly growing and developing and old means of Education are becoming less and less sufficient over the years. An ongoing study by the world economic forum's new vision for education project has identified that basic education needs to expand from its current focus on math's and writing to include soft skills, such as creativity, communication and critical thinking.

E-learning, however is the way for Governments struggling to meet a growing and demand for better education while escalating shortage of teachers, as modern society require people to develop high level of creativity and imagination skills as well as innovative competencies needed to become competitive in the global economy and that can be accomplished through the adoption of low cost ICT and E-learning technologies.

E-learning, however is the way for Governments struggling to meet a growing and demand for better education while escalating shortage of teachers, as modern society require people to develop high level of creativity and imagination skills as well as innovative competencies needed to become competitive in the global economy and that can be accomplished through the adoption of low cost ICT and E-learning technologies.

What is E-learning ? In earlier days it was thought that bringing computers to classrooms would remove that human element and communication between teacher and student which some learners need, but as technology has developed now we embrace Smartphones and PCs in classrooms and offices as a mean of efficient learning.
E-learning is the system where learning is based on formalized teaching but with the help of electronic resources while teachers can be based in or out of the classrooms. The user of computers and internet forms is a major component of E-learning.

Types of E-learning methods:

• Text driven method: In this level, the content is simple and includes text graphics, some audio or simple text questions. The down side of this method is that it's lack of interactive components.
• Interactive method: An interactive E-learning course is very similar to the text driven method with the exception that there has been more consideration placed on the interactive component to enhance the learning process.
• Simulation: it is a highly interactive method and relies heavily on graphics, videos, audios, and some level of gamification. This method heavily emphasis on portraying concepts through varies mediums.

Ways E-learning is improving education:

• E- learning can be an effective way to reduce the time and the cost of learning as students can learn from anywhere and at any time.
• It prepares them for their careers in the future that involve using technology.
• Using means of fun education like epistemic games that put students in roles like city planner, journalist or engineer and asked to solve real life problems.
• E- learning provide a more efficient way of keeping up with assessment as models and simulations, beyond being powerful tool for teaching concepts can also give teachers a much richer picture of how students understand them.
• Collecting real-time data through probes and sensors has a wide range of educational applications. Students can compute dew points with a temperature sensor, test pH using pH probe and so on.

How should the educational system be changed? This approach will allow teachers to spend classroom time more effectively by integrating active-learning principles and focusing class room time on the more challenging aspects of a given subject or group activities designed to promote the development of creativity.