The Internet is not something new. And today, it can be used as the main link between two devices through the Internet of Things, including how it can be successfully applied in education.
How IoT is beneficial
How is IoT good for students? It has the following advantages:
- Individualization. It means that students can learn more deeply what they are interested in, and IoT will help them choose a more personal learning system;
- More opportunities to learn. Virtual personal assistants help students learn at any place or region without any troubles;
- Engagement. IoT makes it possible to increase the interest from student towards a new subject;
- Results. Finally, as a result, students improve its learning progress.
Teachers can use IoT in the following ways:
- Advanced tools. All material can be provided to teachers using special tools, and they help them give new material to students in a more high-quality way;
- Tracking. Using IoT, teachers will know who attends their class and who is absent, and it will be done automatically.
- More freedom. IoT helps teachers makes educating process more flexible.
Administrators also can make use of IoT and apply it to school management:
- Monitoring of building, ventilation systems, heating systems automatically using special devices;
- The security level can be increased significantly;
Capabilities of IoT for education
When IoT is applied in education, it is going to solve many problems and break main barriers that existed before.
When teachers and students work together, they can use tablets, smartphones or even VR helmets. Or even they can arrange teaching-learning process remotely, using a webcam, Internet connection, and relevant messenger. But IoT opens much larger perspectives for educating process. Using special digital pens and digital boards, a teacher can write something on board with a pen, and it will be displayed on student’s board, no matter how far a student can be.
All people remember paper textbooks they used to learn something at school or at the university. But with the development of modern technologies, such textbooks are not the best way today. Digital books and QR codes become a replacement of paper textbooks. Scanning a QR code in a library, for example, you can download a textbook you need and start reading it. Everything is simple.
It is very difficult for teachers to do a roll call every hour, especially when class numbers of more than 30 students. But teacher needs to collect information about the attendance. That is where IoT comes in. Special bands on a wrist of each student will automatically send the information to the teacher and it will help him see who is absent and who is present today. All data will be sent to the smartphone or tablet of a teacher.
Administration in each educational establishment wants it to be secure and protected from any unwanted visitors. But specialists that are involved in security guard, they cannot monitor every corner of the school. That is why IoT can help administration fix it. Facial recognition systems can be installed all around the school or college, and it will scan faces of all people and find them in the database. Also, when all students wear bands, special beacons can read this information. That is how the Internet of Things works and how it may be useful.
The downside
Unfortunately, there are some drawbacks that IoT in education may bring, and it can become the main barrier why it is still not used.
Cost is a serious issue that should be taken into account. The matter is that government is not ready to provide all educational establishments with a range of devices that are rather expensive. Of course, in future, the situation can be changed, but the problem is taking place today.
Different devices are manufactured by different manufacturers. There is no monopolistic company in this field. That is why various devices can be not compatible with each other. And this problem is still not solved.
Since IoT network can be very long and it has many links, it is very difficult to secure each link in this range. That is why it can be a tidbit for hackers that will plan to hack the system and damage it. So it is highly important to keep it in mind.
About the author: Nataliia Kharchenko is a Technical Writer at Cleveroad. It is a web and mobile app development company in Ukraine focused on helping startups, small, and medium businesses create competitive and winning software. She enjoys bringing a digital world closer to people and writing about technology, mobile apps, innovations, and progressive management models.
Edited by
Ken Briodagh
