Apart from its world-class semiconductor manufacturing technologies, Taiwan is also known for its innovative approach and rapid growth for EdTech. While the COVID19 pandemic has somehow an unintentional catalyst for countries around the world to quickly adopt EdTech to ensure uninterrupted education during the crisis, what we have here in Malaysia are mostly online classes that many still struggles to adapt to the changes.
Our visit to SmartCity Summit & Expo 2023 Taipei this year is yet another eye-opening experience and here are some of the EdTech which can help to accelerate and improve the situation for those who are struggling to adapt and keep the education process interesting for the learners.
The Administration For Digital Industries Pavilion is the main area where the new EdTech is being showcased to the public. In the past, we’ve seen various innovative applications of EdTech in a smart classroom such as interactive whiteboard which can be shared to the display on the student’s desk, student’s attention monitoring system to help monitor the status of the learning environment, and more. Though, it doesn’t stop just there yet.
While students no longer need to carry heavy books thanks to the digitisation of information, there are still some that struggles with walls of texts and can sometimes causes the lost of interest in learning. In order to improve the situation, participating companies are focusing on bringing these information to life with interactive educational materials.
Through interactive educational materials and the supporting equipments, students can be exposed to more information and knowledges that are usually cannot be performed in a normal classroom.
Take hazardous or volatile chemicals and materials for example, students can learn about the characteristics of these objects and observe its behaviour without any risk to their health thanks to the content that is designed according to the actual thing. This can also help the educators to save costs that are usually used to acquired these materials that can only be used one time for educational purposes.
There are also materials for language learning assisted by AI, which not only gives you the accurate pronunciation but also the correct sentences that can be used in a proper conversation. It can also help companies to create materials used to train employees according to the content that is aligned with the nature of the industry.
As the equipment designed are very easy to use, educators can also pre-record the first session and reuse the material for future sessions or as reference to improve their teaching methods. Students can also refer to the recorded materials from time to time while learning at their own comfortable pace.
We can see how fast EdTech is advancing throughout the years and what we’re seeing here is only a small part of what EdTech can really bring to the Education Industry, especially developing countries in the Southeast Asia region. With the technology and relevant materials being more accessible than ever, it’s only a matter of time for us to see the better utilisation of EdTech to improve the teaching process by educators and student’s learning experience in the region.
Of course, in order to utilize these new technology in Malaysia, we still have a lot to catch up, especially the current state of the technology and communication infrastructure we have.
