The impact of technology on continuing education has been profound. Online learning has made it possible to take a course even if you can’t physically attend it, and has provided needed flexibility for students who can’t commit to specific hours and days to attend class. Video lectures have removed geographic limitations and allowed students to access the best teachers wherever they are.
These advances have changed continuing education, and technology continues to advance in order to bring even more exciting changes to continue education in the coming years.
New Realities of Continuing Education
Technology is making it possible to change the way students experience continuing education. Augmented reality takes your actual environment, puts it onto a digital screen, and adds interactive digital components. AR apps and software can allow students to put principles into practice in a digital environment to gain experience with particular skills that can help them learn better.
An example of AR is the popular Pokemon Go! app, which displayed streets, neighborhoods and landmarks within the app and allowed users to capture digital Pokemon within their simulated environment. Possible AR applications for continuing education might include practicing skills in a variety of fields, from nursing to education to computer skills and more.
Even more advanced than AR is virtual reality, which completely replaces your current environment with a different one, and can also be used to practice or simulate various skills. Virtual reality can also allow students to experience environments that are unfamiliar to them, such as a foreign city where they may need to function as part of their job.
Artificial intelligence, currently called machine learning, is another technology that can enhance learning and allow students to learn more, and learn it faster and better. Machine learning is useful in providing test material for students because it can adjust the questions it feeds to students in order to help them identify areas they have mastered and which areas need more practice or study.
Blockchain technology can help make continuing education more secure and easier to track and evaluate.
Another area for artificial intelligence in learning will be an improvement in problem solving and the ability to build new processes that have not been possible up until now. It will be so much easier to learn and understand complex information with the help of AI tools made for educators to use with students.
Blockchain technology will also have implications for continuing education that may not be seen directly but will work behind the scenes. Blockchain technology’s biggest impact right now is in making information more secure and easier to record and track. Some people avoid online education opportunities because of security concerns, which will be greatly reduced by the use of blockchain technology.
Most of these technologies are still too new to be widespread, but they will undoubtedly become much more prominent within a few years as they become less expensive and easier to implement. CCSU offers many cutting edge continuing education courses that make it easy to keep your skills current or learn new skills to advance your career.