The future of education is all about learning whenever and wherever you are because the future of education is digital! Online education has been at the forefront of innovation from the start. Whether we’re preparing students for jobs in technology, the medical field, business, or any other industry, the future of our students’ career paths will guide the focus of online education. The future of online learning will look a lot like the future of jobs.
Benefits of Tech
Technology in online learning has moved education from a teacher focused institution to a student focused opportunity. In online learning, the teacher becomes a resource or tool rather than the primary instructor and decision maker for students’ education. Giving students this autonomy and chance to individualize their learning is all thanks to technology that was only imagined and hoped for fifty years ago.
Students’ ability to grab their laptop and learn online makes life mobile and allows young people and families to have a balance of experiences. No longer held in one place by the brick-and-mortar school experience, they have the chance to live a flexible, individually paced academic life.
Online learning provides students with interactions with the technical skills they will need in the workforce, preparing them for the future of work. Learning how to embrace video learning and engaging in online simulations gives online students experiences that create more enthusiastic online learners.
Additionally, with more and more online platforms creating apps for micro-learning experiences, the benefits of technology add up to more accessibility and a well-informed, well-educated world.
AI As A Teaching Tool
Educational software and using tech as a teaching tool isn’t new. In fact, technology has revolutionized education in the form of computers in classrooms: iPads, Macbooks, laptops, tablets, Chromebooks, Smartboards, online lessons, online gradebooks, plagiarism software, speedy grading tools, and so much more.
Education has always taken time to step back and learn so that they can embrace technology and pass on their innovative ideas and knowledge to help the next generation of leaders tackle the problems of the future. So how will online education embrace AI as a teaching tool?
The initial phase of AI – with its imperfect facts and often plagiarized information – is perfect for encouraging critical thinking among students. Since widespread use of the internet came into society decades ago, educational groups used the technology to teach their students essential critical thinking skills. The advent of AI focused business like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Microsoft’s Azure AI Platform, and Google AI provides plenty of opportunities for education to use AI to teach these essential life skills as the field rapidly spreads. With the well-advertised repeated mistakes that AI has made and will continue to make in the beginning of its development, educators can immediately start using it to teach students how to read information and be skeptical, how to fact-check the information they read, how to evaluate information they read online for plagiarism, and how to recognize bias in the information they read.
Online education, like in-person education, will have opportunities to create more personalized lessons for their students as AI develops and grows. The opportunity to identify students’ weaknesses very quickly and be able to provide them with immediate and specific interventions, is like a beautiful dream for most educators. In the future, online education hopes to see AI capable of helping our students achieve even greater levels of academic success whether we’re talking about students who are struggling with foundational concepts or students who need to be challenged more.
In the end, people will drive the success of AI – it will only improve as human beings push for improvement. The young people in elementary and secondary classes today will be at the forefront of helping AI come up with those ideas and improvements. AI doesn’t come up with ideas humans haven’t already thought about, so by encourage students to embrace AI, to think critically about the information it is giving them, and to think outside the box, we’re helping the AI of the future today.
Personalized Learning
As technology is developed, online learning platforms provide students with the chance to personalize their learning. With online education, students don’t have to worry about whether or not they can “get into” any of the classes they want to take. Online education already allows students extreme flexibility in their scheduling: online students can take any of the classes they want regardless of schedule.
Students can also spend as long as they need on individual lessons, using interactive experiences on repeat until they’re clear about various concepts and skills. Online students have the chance to watch videos multiple times, take clearer and more organized notes, and arrange for help around a much more flexible schedule than those students in a traditional academic setting.
Because online students have more flexibility, they provide the chance for curious students to do individual research diving more deeply into their own understanding of anything they want to know about. This is an exceptional opportunity for naturally curious learners or for those students who want to explore their career options. Without the flexibility of online learning, students struggle to find time to be curious, active learners.
Online learners also have the chance through technology to schedule 1:1 help through tutoring sessions with experts on their own time, not a teacher’s schedule. No longer do students have to try to catch an instructor at exactly the right time to schedule a time to get help. Tutoring session with professional tutors provide online students with all the help they need, when they need it, wherever they are.
Finally, moving toward mastery sets within courses can allow online students to demonstrate mastery of skills and information and move more quickly through their educational pathway. This is especially important for adults pursuing their diploma after years away, for homeschool students who need an accredited diploma, or for adults who no longer have access to their transcripts. They can more quickly move through their courses using the technology available to online schools and head straight into the next phase of their lives.
Education has been at the front of the line to embrace technology, and online education is an innovation of that positive attitude and relationship with technology. Online education will continue to adapt and grow as technology does so. We’re exciting to see what changes the future brings!
About Excel High School
Excel High School is an accredited online school that offers many different academic program options for students grade 6 through graduation. Our fully online, self-paced programs fit around your family’s schedule, and our support team is here to help you along the way. If you’re not already a student with Excel High School but would like to learn more, feel free to check out our programs on our website. Still have questions? Feel free to reach out to us by text at 952-465-3700 or call us at 800-620-3844. Our staff will be happy to answer any questions you have and guide you to the best program for your individual needs.
