Wireless Technology Implications for Teachers, Essay Example

The trend of online education gained steam as educational institutions and corporations realized that computers and internet have become a commodity and thus, classroom is no more the sole option for teaching and training. Now wireless technology is becoming a commodity due to the introduction of wide variety of technological products such as smart phones, tablet devices, and net books. Thus, the educators and the trainers have to take into account their audience’swireless internet habits when designing lectures and learning materials. It may be also be possible to educate or train larger batches because gadgets with wireless capabilities are becoming increasingly affordable. This means the course participants would be accessible even if they are not home or in the classroom.

The widespread adoption of wireless internet will provide several opportunities to the educators and the trainers. A combination of a tablet device and wireless internet means a zoology lecture could be delivered as effectively in a natural garden setting as it is in a classroom or a corporate trainer will be able to freely select a place that he considers most appropriate to a particular training session or lecture.Other potential benefit of the wireless technology will be a replacement of traditional books and paper material with e-books which could prove more effective since interactive features such as videos, animations, and audios can be incorporated into them (Cole). Internet, personal computers, and eBooks have been here for a while but eBooks were never considered a potential alternative to traditional books due to practicability reasons until the emergence of eBook readers and tablet devices.

Tablet devices and eBook readers will emerge as the most important cognitive tools because they are now powerful enough to perform computing tasks, are practical due to size, weight, and other function features, and most of all, have been widely embraced by the general public. It’s no surprise that the world’s largest computer manufacturer HP decided to quit the PC market and its CEO at the time Leo Apotheker stated, “The tablet effect is real.” (Bosker). The downside of wireless technology may be that the learning process may not have the same interaction between the teacher and the students as happens in live class room sessions. Moreover, the batch size may be too large for instructors to give appropriate attention to the progress of a single student. In addition, there will be a probability that the attendees will simply login online and then won’t pay attention to the lectures.

References

Bosker, Bianca. Why HP Is Killing Its Phone, Tablet Businesses. 19 August 2011. 12 October 2011 <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/18/hp-killing-phone-tablet-businesses_n_930958.html>.

Cole, George. Will the eBook finally replace paper? 4 October 2006. 12 October 2011 <http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2006/oct/05/guardianweeklytechnologysection4>.