The screen generation and the role of the teacher: How technology is changing education

Towards the digital transformation of education

It is predicted that by 2027 the value of the education technology sector in the world will grow by as much as 17.9 percent. and will reach 680 million US dollars. Meanwhile, representatives of the Lithuanian EdTech field set an ambitious goal of becoming the country that has made the greatest progress in the field of education.

According to I. Šuolienė, although it is noticeable that intelligent solutions are increasingly being used in the country’s educational institutions, and teachers are bolder in their determination to improve their information technology knowledge, they still lack the practice of filling traditional lessons with digital solutions.

“The integration of educational technologies into the country’s educational institutions is the way to a brighter and innovation-based tomorrow and a positive change in the Lithuanian education system. However, if we want education in our country to be the basis of growth and inclusion, we must use the latest educational opportunities and innovations, pay more attention to teachers, and strengthen their digital skills.

This is a path that can help create a modern education system, such educational processes that would be closer to the students’ future working environment, and at the same time – free teachers from routine work, give them more time for immediate and individual work with students”, shares the expert and reminds, that the digital transformation of the education system is the main goal of the EdTech Center of the National Education Agency.

Digital technologies help teachers create more engaging lessons, personalize learning, improve communication and reduce workload. They increase student engagement and motivation, provide access to information, improve research skills and prepare them for future work. Digital technologies can also improve academic performance.

In order to implement the digital transformation of Lithuanian education, the EdTech center provides opportunities for pedagogues to participate in IT studies, improve practical skills, creates new digital teaching tools, organizes local and international events, internships, introduces educational institutions to the most innovative educational tools, invites to try new, attractive digital learning solutions , helps organize the work of teachers in classrooms and carries out other activities related to the education sector.

“Today we already have more than 3 thousand this number of teachers who participated in various digital competence strengthening activities is only growing,” says I.Šuolienė.

There are also challenges to be faced

When talking about what innovations and solutions need to be implemented in today’s school, the head of the EdTech center singles out several priority areas: artificial intelligence, virtual and augmented reality, learning platforms, gaming, tools for identifying learning difficulties, personalized learning and solutions that facilitate the daily work of teachers.

Although the integration of educational innovations into the country’s educational institutions is one of the priority areas, a lot of effort is devoted to it, but changes in the education system and their tangible results are not always visible quickly. According to Airina Volungevičienė, director of the Institute of Innovative Studies at Vytautas the Great University (VDU), one of the reasons for the slow integration of innovations is the well-founded fear of harm caused by technology to the health of young people.

“The full integration of new technologies into learning processes would increase the time that children and teenagers spend in front of screens, and the constant use of digital devices can cause health problems, such as visual or brain dysfunctions, affect psychological health,” shares A. Volungevičienė and says, that the European Parliament is already proposing some measures to tackle digital addiction. For example, changing the design of online services that encourages staying on a certain platform as long as possible, limiting automatic scrolling, ensuring that all digital products are safe for children.

The expert also highlights the fact that educational institutions do not know how to effectively integrate digital technologies into educational organizations: “It is important to understand each other, talk and learn together. Here, Vytautas the Great University has a didactic laboratory, where we present all tools or EdTech solutions to teachers, tell about their added value for teaching and learning, we have a group of experts who teach on different topics, for example, they teach about artificial intelligence.”

The most important thing is close cooperation

According to A. Volungevičienė, after the pandemic, there was a lot of disappointment with digital learning tools, so one of the most effective ways to create a new EdTech culture is to study the benefits of educational technologies for education and at the same time look for suitable solutions. Some of the key steps, she said, could be selecting EdTech solutions based on evidence-based added value to education, researching learning problems and their causality, collaborating with educational leaders, and more.

“There are more ways to introduce educational technology into our country’s education system, but it is important to maintain a balance and not go to extremes, otherwise we will simply break.” Finally, I believe that none of this would be possible without the close cooperation of the education community, government institutions and EdTech companies. So I invite everyone to go on a hike, during which we will climb the mountains of EdTech together. Of course, before and after the pandemic, we certainly didn’t do everything right, so I know that during this trip we will see everything – both schools that have almost reached the top and schools that still need a lot of work, we will hear many stories, teachers’ fears and apprehensions. However, I believe that everything will be fine – we will bring water and, if necessary, fire and we will heal all the wounds”, says A. Volungevičienė in a positive mood.