Like almost any sector, technology has transformed the educational sector by leaps and bounds, especially post the COVID19 pandemic in the year 2020.
Out of all the technologies, the focus on how the Internet of Things impacts education is huge.
But first, what does the Internet of Things technology (IoT) mean, and how does it fit into the educational world?
IoT is a network of interconnected devices embedded with sensors, software, and other technology to exchange information between themselves and a central computer via the internet.
IoT can add a lot of value to any educational system if integrated properly and make learning immersive, effective, and fun for the students with these practices:
1. Smart Classrooms
Smart classrooms – IoT-enabled classrooms where lectures have digital components like virtual reality presentations, videos, and other interactive digital features for learning are the future of education.
Smart classrooms also have other digital administration features like a facial recognition feature that automatically takes attendance, acts as a student tracking system, and monitors students’ activities. IoT also evaluates the teachers’ performance to tailor their lectures to suit their students’ needs.
2. Attendance monitoring automation
One of the most interesting features of an IoT-enabled smart classroom is the student attendance management system.
It spectacularly calculates student attendance without wasting time in a lecture. This can be done either through smart cameras that are capable of identifying a student through facial recognition using IoT or by using eye-scanners or RFID readers that can collect and store unique data from each student to mark their presence or absence during a class.
IoT also takes care of administrative tasks like organizing students’ records by segregating who is and who is not present during the lecture, calculating weekly attendance data, and calculating the percentage of students who attend lectures in a week.
You can also integrate students’ biometric ids and help academic administrators with special features like seeing which teacher or administrative staff is on leave and whether it is on duty or sick leave.
3. Personalized Learning
Every student has a different way of learning and absorbing information, and this is where IoT shines – it helps students customize their learning in a way that best suits them.
IoT stores a huge amount of educational data, which, when combined with machine learning and artificial intelligence, makes sure students can have access to smarter lesson plans, alternative learning methods, and advanced study tools.
IoT can help educational institutions shift their focus from a traditional grade-based educational system to a more outcome-based learning system by ensuring each student gets a personalized education that contributes to their overall learning and mastery.
4. Helps differently-abled students
IoT can help hearing-impaired learners by translating sign language into speech and text and vice versa to better communicate with teachers and fellow students.
5. Enhanced security of the educational institution
IoT can help ensure that the educational institution is a safe space by monitoring CCTV cameras in real-time around the space and taking action in emergencies.
IoT can also help safeguard the educational institution against cyber attacks and hackers since it has AI that can detect a breach in the system and alert the authorities before any significant damage is done.
6. Help with remote learning
After the COVID19 pandemic, many in-person classes have become virtual. This means that students and teachers have to adjust to the new normal of giving lectures on online video conferencing platforms like Zoom and Google Meet.
IoT can help teachers with online attendance and help students with automated notes and recorded lectures that they can access later after the lecture.
7. Help increase efficiency
IoT, with its automated student attendance management system, enhanced security measures, and its ability to help teachers and students with more personalized learning methods, means teachers and students will be able to concentrate more on learning and its outcomes, and consecutively this will increase the efficiency of the educational institution.
IoT can help make education more accessible and efficient for students and the staff of educational institutions. Though most educational institutions are only taking baby steps towards integrating IoT solutions, the positive response is making more and more institutes embrace IoT and implement it, so they don’t have to worry about time-consuming administrative duties.
Instead, they can focus on what really counts – providing outstanding education to their students.
