Lingua inglese III - technology and e-learning

Technology and e-learning

Technology has always had a significant impact on the way we communicate and socialise. In particular, the Internet is one such piece of technology that influences our lives. The World Wide Web (WWW or the Web) is the most popular part of the Internet that can bring great benefits in our lives. The web has a lot of advantages, allowing us to find information for jobs, schoolwork, or just to learn more about hobbies, sports, or current events. It allows us to know what is happening in the world in real time. It is much faster and easier to surf the net in search of information from all over the world than to find information in a book.

Impact on education

One of the areas of technology’s impact is in the field of education. Technology has had a large impact on the materials that are used and the way we use these materials to teach in schools. Most everything that is used in today’s classroom has been a result of technology. A new theoretical research concerning education, developed with the help of the web, is e-learning.

What is e-learning?

E-learning is a general term used to refer to computer-enhanced learning. It is a didactic method based on the Internet, which modifies the methods of classical distance-learning. This method integrates in an original way the physical characteristics of distance didactics with the psychological characteristics of attendance.

Advantages of e-learning

The most notable advantages of e-learning are flexibility, convenience, and the ability to work at home. E-learning allows learners to participate and complete coursework in accordance with their daily commitments. Other advantages of e-learning include the ability to communicate with fellow classmates from around the country, a greater adaptability to learner's needs, more variety in learning experience with the use of multimedia, and the non-verbal presentation of teaching material.

Benefits for students and teachers

For students of virtual classrooms, advantages primarily concern access, time, and cost factors compared to those incurred from attending the traditional physical classroom. For teachers of virtual classrooms, working part-time is a possibility because of the flexible nature of the classroom. Electronic content can be updated more efficiently than printed material, and at a lower cost, which saves the teacher time and money.