Making Education Software a Priority

In a year of major advances in the use of technology in education, giant Google is pushing to get more educational software in its online store. Officials from the company are in talks with software manufacturers in order to offer educational games and instructional programs as part of its online platform, the Google Apps Marketplace. The Marketplace, which opened in March, offers an additional revenue stream for Google.

Google's push comes after huge gains in the social networking and apps industry over the last several months. Educators are beginning to see that Twitter and Facebook are no longer just the tools of bored college students or celebrity fan groups.  Social networking tools can be used to empower students and teachers to foster new relationships between classroom material and new media.  Oft cited as tools that students use to pass time instead of doing their homework or concentrating on course material, Facebook and Twitter can actually be positive responses to the changing way in which students receive and process information.

In the modern education system, there is a mismatch between what teachers expect and what students deliver.  This can be attributed, in many ways, to a gap in technological know-how.  Students want (albeit need) instant information.  They find this through social networking sites, through Wikipedia, and through Google.  Teachers, on the other hand, generally want their students to take time digesting information.  An individualized response, as a best practice, bridges the gap between the technological generations, but doesn't necessarily fix the problem.  Teachers will survive by being innovative in delivery of instruction and quality of technological integration.  E-books, online chat forums, and digital presentations will lead the wave of the future classroom.  This response will enable instructors to meet students where they are and will consistently improve student performance.

Empowering students to take responsibility for their own educational experience begins with teachers educating themselves on how students these days think and behave. The challenge won't be in finding new ways to teach old information, but rather to engage (and entertain) students by utilizing the social networking tools they so readily access anyway.

Photo Credit: webtreats