Yes, we’ve made predictions in the past about what 2020 will bring us in general and what it’ll bring to the field of education in particular. However, with the drastic worsening of the coronavirus situation, nobody knew what would happen over the coming months, not even mentioning a year.
So, this year, not a lot of people were concerned with how education will develop. People were more concerned about whether any actual education will happen at all. Nonetheless, the field of education adapted and brought interesting developments during the year 2020.
Now, let’s review what new things that 2020 brought to both K-12 and higher education.
Chromebooks Are Taking Over
Is Apple dominating the field of education? We guess that day will never actually come true. Over the course of this year, we’ve seen a great surge in the popularity of Chromebooks among students. They now dominate the majority of the student tech market, blowing Apple-based products out of the water.
When you compare the realities of students and the specifications of Chromebooks, all the questions answer themselves. Chromebooks are cheap, able to do a simple task on the go, mostly based on cloud services, light, and sturdy. Students who can’t afford the next big thing from Apple have no choice but to choose Chromebooks. Chromebooks even win out Windows-based machines when exclusively talking about education purposes.
When most of the education transferred to the online mode and many students immediately faced the need to buy something to allow their education to continue – Chromebooks became the obvious choice.
Teachers? More Like Educational Advisors
As distance learning quickly became the prominent mode of education in general, encompassing teaching and learning, the role of teachers changed quite a lot. Traditionally, teachers in classrooms were the only ones to look at as the source of reliable information. The ones you could ask anything, and they’d answer your question, direct you somewhere, or give you helpful advice.
Although with the advents of the mobile Internet that standing somewhat wavered, they still stayed the authoritative figures that would lead and shape the educational processes however they say fit. But, 2020 and coronavirus pandemic specifically made it so that everyone had to stay at home and do most of the learning independently.
This resulted in a major shift in the teacher’s role. Now they’re not the authoritative figures they used to be. Currently, they only guide and give pieces of advice on what to learn and how to learn it. Having the barrier of the Internet between them and students makes it impossible for teachers to make sure that the educational processes go exactly how they want it.
So, a lot of things now depend on the students themselves. If they want to use a nursing paper writing service – they can, and no one will stop them. If they decide not to complete all the homework because it’s repetitive – they can.
AI Is Getting Even More Ubiquitous
Due to the extra use of MOOCs and educational platforms this year, AI is taking on a bigger role in education. It’s expected to quickly seep into every aspect of education for both students and teachers. Why?
AI is extremely useful in the education sector. It’s a convenient tool that automates lots of boring and menial tasks by employing smart algorithms. For example, if you’re learning a new language and can’t remember one particular word from a topic. Then, the word will continue to resurface again and again until you can reliably identify it, translate it, spell it out, etc.
As for teachers, AI can take care of sorting students based on their performance, doing statistical analyses, and even grading them. All these points and more empower teachers to choose correct and more impactful methods of teaching, adjusting the pace of learning, and improve the student experience in general.
Accessing Education in New Ways
The classroom is finally not only confined to its physical space. Students can take their classroom wherever they currently are – be it at home, on a bus, at a park – it doesn’t matter. As long as the students have access to the Internet, they have access to education.
All this is possible, thanks to the swift popularization of free online video conferencing tools. The teacher assigns a lesson at a specific time, starts it, the students join in a bit before the specified time, and a lecture can be conducted as usual.
The Changes Are Here to Stay
As of now, there are no indications that the new trends in education will be going away anytime soon. It might possibly be that 2020 and the coronavirus pandemic have changed education forever.
