Education is of the highest importance in Filipino culture. It is ingrained in our belief system that the best thing for us and our children is to secure a better future through education.
As we all are aware of now, the only thing constant in this era of digital transformation is change. This holds true in the Education Sector as well. While it is no secret that the Philippines is still lagging in the e-learning industry, more and more schools have adopted technologies over the past years to help students develop 21st-century skills.
Gone are the days when students sit in the classroom and rely solely on listening to lectures to learn. Today’s education must be collaborative and interactive but the question is, “how can schools achieve an engaged learning environment for their students?” That’s where the right technology solutions come in.
In this article, we’ll talk about the benefits of an E-Learning environment and how principals, school administrators, and educators can help make a holistic learning environment using smart solutions.
Benefits of E-Learning:
1.) Scalability – Create and communicate new policies, trainings, ideas, and concepts easily with Online learning to as many educators and students as possible.
2.) Personalization – Each student has a unique way of learning. Digital Learning makes it easier to cater to each student’s individual needs. It allows students to choose what and when to learn at their own pace.
3.) Better learning retention – The modern student prefers interactive learning materials. They would rather choose to watch a video or listen to a podcast than read through tons of pages of a book. With the right tools, educators can design their curriculum to be more interactive. The more engaging the learning material is, the higher the retention of knowledge. Refreshing and updating the learning materials can be done easily too.
4.) Saves time and money – With e-learning, students can access learning materials anywhere and anytime. It also reduces time away from the workplace/classroom and eliminates the need for travel.
How to achieve a holistic learning environment:
1.) Connectivity – Securing a fast and consistent network connectivity coverage throughout the classroom and campuses can be a challenge for school administrators. That’s where a reliable backbone and a future-proof network comes to play. A reliable cabling infrastructure ensures a faster and more efficient connectivity operation while a network paired with advanced wireless capability can facilitate day-to-day functions while being ready for the future.
2.) Cybersecurity – With your students going online, cybersecurity becomes a huge priority. Parents may not be at ease about their child’s online learning environment knowing that the online world is filled with a wild mess of content. An integrated, preventive, and responsive cybersecurity solution can provide the highest level of protection in an ever-changing threat landscape, protecting your most valuable asset, your students.
3.) Physical Security – Every campus should be a learning environment that is safe for both the learners and educators. Employing robust end-to-end security that contains most vulnerabilities in the infrastructure is vital.
Benefits of E-Learning:
While there are tons of benefits that Digital Learning can give, there are also drawbacks like students and educators become so technologically dependent and of course, the start-up cost it entails to go digital. Despite these, Digital Learning continues to grow in popularity and is considered as an effective learning delivery method. We are not saying that traditional teaching methods should be obsolete, academic institutions just have to be more open to new educational opportunities. To ensure balance, the blended approach is the optimal way as there are certain types of curriculum where traditional methods work better.
With everything said, we are one with the government, advocacy groups, and the academe sector in building a nation where no learner is left behind. After all, continuous learning and education are still the greatest investments we could give to ourselves and the future generation.