How IoT Modifies Education: 5 Modern Solutions for Schools and Colleges
The Internet of Things technology changes various fields, including education. In this article, we’ll discuss five solutions that can improve the learning and teaching processes along with successful projects.
Approximately all public schools located in the USA have access to the Internet. Additionally, the Internet of Things allows connecting all the devices in the ecosystem. Of course, these changes have brought many benefits to the education field.
Reasons to Use IoT in Education
The Internet of Things for education has various advantages for students, tutors, and administrators. We’ve decided to divide them into three main groups.
Advantages for Students
This group consists of pupils, scholars, and learners.
- IoT provides personalized learning that follows all learners’ needs.
- There is an opportunity to study everywhere since the variety of devices.
- Students are more engaged in the studying process.
- IoT allows for improving results.
Advantages for Tutors
College professors or school teachers belong to this group.
- A variety of tools provides an opportunity to explain the material better.
- IoT allows tracking attendance easily.
- The Internet of Things makes the education process more flexible.
Advantages for Administrators
To this group, we can add deans, provosts, and so on.
- The learning management system can be improved since IoT integration.
- The Internet of Things allows implementing a smart monitoring system like HVAC, lighting, and more.
Internet of Things Solutions in Education
The education field has some issues that IoT is able to solve. Let’s discuss them.
- Communication network. Teachers or professors have an opportunity to communicate with students via various messengers or video calls. It makes the education process easier and faster. Of course, it doesn’t replace personal interaction in the classroom. Additionally, the Internet of Things allows using different devices (e.g. digital pens, interactive boards) to display and edit the information in the real-time mode.
- Digital textbooks. It’s impossible to study without textbooks. With the development of new technologies, students started to use digital books on their tablets or smartphones. For instance, nowadays, public schools and universities provide students with QR codes for necessary textbooks. The student scans the QR code and downloads the required book. Additionally, such a solution allows making notes on the books that is convenient for students.
- Data collection. IoT offers to collect information about students’ attendance. To find out who attends the class, the teacher needs to do a roll call that is quite time-consuming. The Internet of Things applications offers to utilize special wristbands with RFID tags. As a result, the teacher can see how many students attend the class on the smartphone, laptop, or tablet. Additionally, tutors have an opportunity to mark the student’s progress.
- High-security level. IoT offers a biometric system that manages security tasks. For instance, it provides a facial recognition system to detect strangers. It’s possible to integrate such a solution not only in colleges but also on campuses. Additionally, students can use unique ID cards to come to the campus or college building.
- Advanced school management. It’s required for school administration to control various fields like equipment condition or learning environment. The Internet of Things technology provides a school management system and RFID tags. They can collect and send data about the equipment to the server. Additionally, IoT offers variants to reduce power consumption.
Examples of IoT in Education
We’ve chosen several successful examples of the Internet of Things technology in education. These projects improve the education process for students and teachers.
Edmodo
Edmodo is a service that can be used by students, teachers, and parents. This platform was created in 2008, and since that time offers various IoT solutions to make learning and teaching processes easier.
Edmodo provides various capabilities like communication, collaboration, and more. For example, teachers can share the necessary materials, tests, etc. Additionally, the platform offers a comfortable way for teachers to communicate with parents or learners.
C-PEN
C-PEN is a brand that focuses on portable pen scanners for students and teachers. Such scanners provide many opportunities. For instance, it’s possible to scan the text and send it to the teachers’ or students’ devices. Interestingly, portable scanners can work with mobile devices and desktop computers. Additionally, C-PEN offers to order the pen with the appropriate software. It’s vital to mention that educational app development requires time and preparation since you can face some challenges.
Nymi
Nymi wristbands are considered as one of the most successful startups lately. Several schools in the USA started to implement this technology in their everyday life.
How do Nymi wristbands work? Such wristbands can recognize the users’ heartbeating. After that, the system identifies the user. As a result, teachers are able to track the students’ attendance and see the statistics on their devices.
Pitfalls of the Internet of Things
Despite all the benefits that IoT brings to the education field, there are three serious difficulties — low financing, implementation difficulties, and security. Let’s discuss them more precisely.
- Low financing. Nowadays, the government can’t invest the required amount of money since IoT required not only software but also hardware. There are many expensive devices like wristbands, interactive boards, and so on. However, the situation can change since there are investors that are ready to give money to this field.
- Implementation difficulties. It’s a common problem for IoT integration since there are no standards to follow. As a result, it’s challenging to make devices compatible.
- Security. IoT technology connects a lot of devices and gadgets. However, there is a lack of security standards. As a result, if the hacker breaks one device, it’s possible to crush the system. This issue can be solved by implementing various authentication tools along with strong firewalls.
Wrapping Up
As you can see, the Internet of Things technology provides a lot of opportunities for the education industry. Of course, the primary purpose of integrating IoT is making the learning and teaching processes easier and faster. This technology offers students and teachers various ways of communication, along with capabilities to share and edit learning materials.
