Today’s students have been raised on digital devices—digital engagement is a part of their DNA. It seems like a “no-brainer “ that instructors, especially at the high school and advanced educational levels, should embrace digital technologies to facilitate more interaction with and by their students. The new digital learning opportunities available to students—such as hybrid courses, personalized instruction, and new collaboration tools—are driving a new class of education.

High School and Collage level youth are voracious consumers of digital content and are expected to understand and be able to create digital media, while demonstrating competencies and communicating ideas through digital storytelling, visualization and content management. In other words, by the time an individual reaches the high school and certainly the collage level, they are expected to be able to use, manipulate and curate all kinds of digital media and assets.

The makeSEA suite of tools for education provides a place for students to enhance their learning experience by providing the resources to store assets, track the evolution of designs and projects, collaborate with team members, and showcase individual or team projects. In addition, it can teach and reinforce the lost art of documentation.

The question is often posed about the effectiveness of digital learning in the classroom. Here are just a few of the reasons technology is improving education over all:

Technology has provided expanded access to education. 
With access to the internet, digital devices and new technologies, education is accessible to almost everyone, everywhere. Today, opportunities for online formal learning abound and personal enrichment and exploration is provided by everything from blog posts to video-conferencing, from Virtual Reality (VR) to Augmented Reality (AR). 

Technology is making it easier for teachers to create engaging, relevant instructional materials.
Instructors now have the opportunity to create all kinds of materials (from instructional videos to learning games) that can be shared online and in many cases enhanced and viewed using AR or VR technology. Content can be updated and refreshed on-the-fly to keep students current and always engaged.

Technology has expanded opportunities for communication and collaboration.
As a simple example, with the use of AR technology based tools, students in a classroom in the US can share and collaborate on a group project with students in another state or another country. Changes to the project can be made, documented and viewed in real time. Students have the ability to work with others no matter their location.

Technology is changing the role of teacher and student.
In a traditional classroom the teacher is the primary source of information. In the new era of learning, teachers can function more as a “guide” that encourages students to gather their own information on a topic and share with students in the classroom and with other individuals and teams no matter where they are located. Technology has encouraged more individual learning and exploration, keeping students more engaged.

As traditional education evolves, educators will adopt and adapt to new technologies that can enhance the learning environment. Students will also have to adapt, learning new skills along the way. More sophisticated and complex technologies will require a better way to track projects and store assets, as well as track project contributions and changes.

makeSEA can provide a set of tools to track the evolution of designs and projects across teams, classes, curriculums and disciplines including the Arts, Architecture, Health Sciences, Engineering, and Additive Manufacturing. AR is a part of the makeSEA for Education SaaS. If you’d like to see how makeSEA for Education can enhance your curriculum feel free to reach out to us for a free demo or trial.

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