Technology, in one form or another, has gone hand in hand with the education process for as long as technology has existed. The tools available in a particular time go on to shape how those that grow up in that time develop their understanding of the world. This makes sense, as anyone who is striving to make a name for themselves in their chosen field will need to ensure that they have a strong understanding of any advancements that may be required to work effectively, but it’s more than that.
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As technology has connected us with each other, so too has it expanded the number of options we have in learning from others and gaining a more robust understanding of the world around us. It has been a vital piece of the puzzle in terms of transforming our society and allowing us to reach levels of comprehension and understanding that would have been impossible in years past.
So, with the understanding that technology has enormously impacted the world of learning and education, let’s take a closer look at what that impact has actually been.
The Advancement of Geographical Accessibility
Issues with access to information and learning opportunities continue to exist in our society to this day, but one thing we rarely associate with inaccessibility is geography. In a time before the internet, if you happened to not live near a highly-ranked university, and didn’t have the high level of funding required to move for several years and dedicate yourself to your studies in a new place, your options were quite limited. However, as time has gone on, internet access has become the norm for many countries and areas. This has allowed for a swell of online learning opportunities to arise, giving those that were once unable or not wanting to physically attend a university a chance to take on many potential educational pathways from anywhere in the world.
More theoretical and information-heavy courses such as an online MBA, or a master’s in education, have translated flawlessly to online platforms, with the best online MBA courses offering a streamlined approach to learning practices that don’t necessitate the more hands-on approach often associated with traditional academia.
Advancements in Disability Accessibility
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Inevitably, face-to-face lectures within study halls can prove far more difficult for some than for others. Whether this be due to large lecture halls posing issues for hearing-impaired individuals or those with near-sightedness, or due to older buildings being poorly equipped for those with mobility issues, there are many reasons that certain students may experience difficulties that others don’t.
Online learning has, over the years, found ways to tackle these accessibility issues in ways that are unique to the platform of digital resources. Lectures can be subtitled, either manually or by auto-generated text, students with mobility needs can access learning without having to navigate spaces that don’t meet their needs, and especially in the time of COVID-19, those with preexisting immuno-compromising conditions are not put at risk by being placed in densely populated learning spaces.
None of this is to say that the online learning process has been made perfect for those with particular needs. However, given the alternatives that have historically been available, access to online learning has provided a more reliable means for those who struggle in classroom environments to seek higher education and learning resources.
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The Archival of Information
In a time before the easy sharing of data, especially audio and video, lectures were often one-off talks that were unlikely to have a genuine record once they had ended. Cut to 2023, and the internet has allowed for the archival and storage of thousands of lectures from across the world, providing information that spans fields, disciplines, methodologies, and even eras, with recordings from as far back as the 1800s now digitised for people to learn from and discover.
For academics, this is an invaluable source of learning and reference, allowing students to compile ideas from some of the great minds of history and develop a far more complex understanding of the world from the perspectives of innumerable people throughout the last several hundred years. Whilst digital archival is still an ongoing issue and one that has become far more pressing at a time when remnants of the early internet are beginning to disappear, we must be able to appreciate the amount of information we now have compared to every other time in history.
Technology has changed everything for academia, and with online learning effectively becoming the norm as of the 2020s, we are sure to see more advancements to better cater to this growing body of remote students.
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Everything is shaped by accessibility, and for those of us that benefit from these movements towards a higher availability of information, nothing could be more exciting.
