school app Archives

Posted on July 5, 2017 by Edsys

“Teaching in the Internet age means we must teach tomorrow’s skills today.” – Jennifer Fleming

Over the past few decades, influence of technology upon children and education has been immense. Education was once equated with money, but things have changed. Great education for your children is no more a dream. It’s affordable. Even average families can afford a mobile phone in which applications can be downloaded.

While there are a lot of applications available at the app store, choosing the right one for your child can change the way they look at the process of learning. Educational apps are making things easier for children to understand. Books are often found to be tiring and boring for children while replacing them with colourful pages and moving animations can make learning fun to the core.

Benefits of Using Mobile Applications in Education

1. Enhanced Interaction

Experts say that apps in education can make children more interactive and activate better engagement between parents and children. The most effective way is to engage with the children while they are using applications. Interaction tendency in children is enhanced by mobile applications.

2. Novel learning techniques

Thoughts of traditional methods of learning accompany a generic feeling of boredom. They do not favor drifting from the monotonous learning patterns of restricted and upright book learning, thus dissipating the engagement factor.

Technology in the guise of apps is helping those looking for some newness in the universe of learning. In addition to the feel of novelty, apps add an element of fun and involvement to the learning process. Through games, puzzles or other challenging tasks, app learning stimulates the brain cells to actively metabolize the input unleashing a new perspective.

3. Parent-teacher communication

The ideal concept of frequent parent teacher interactions finds its space in the articles and books regarding performance enhancement but not in reality. Owing to the tight schedule of both the parties, it is just not possible to maintain the rapport through physical interactions. But now, we have apps. Teachers can attend to the queries of the parents anytime and anywhere through an ominous device called the phone. This fosters transparency regarding the child’s growth at school.

4. Online resources

The power of digital world lies in the ginormous amount of resources that fill its nooks and corners. The wealth of this platform implicates its popularity among knowledge seekers. The reach of this platform makes it a favorite to people who cannot afford the luxury of full time courses in schools or colleges. Mobile applications help them access a compendium of ebooks and pdfs and other online materials and the freedom to access it beyond the boundaries of time and space.

5. Entertainment

According to studies, mobile apps promote entertainment. Learning is no more a passive activity, it’s active with applications. Lessons transforming to games can change the face of education. Children will enable a kind of interest in learning. Level based apps instil determination to pass each level. Apps without doubt enhance education. No more boring home works and tough class lectures.

6. Availability 24/7

Unlike school, mobile applications are available round the clock. No need to be worried about schedules. Anywhere can be a classroom. App learning is not time-bound learning, its relaxed learning.

Most of the apps promote child-friendly control. Children should only need to reach out for the device when they feel like learning. Little ones can operate it without much effort.

7. Leisure Hours Utilization

No responsible parents want their kids to get addicted to the “idiot box”. Too much internet usage and talking over the phone for hours are not wise options for killing time. This is where mobile apps prove their worth. Mobile app learning is one among the wisest choices of utilizing your free time actively.

If a child has lots of leisure time, it can be utilized to learn something new with the help of a learning app. Entertainment guaranteed without wasting time.

8. Routine tasks

It’s a relief to get all the mundane tasks done with a few taps. Be it tasks like fee payments, other transactions which require us to stand in a queue for hours or the laborious job of marking attendance that drives teachers crazy with the amount of paperwork smiling back at them each day. All this drudgery has been put to an end simply by having apps in place. The life of each individual associated with the ecosystem is now simple and functioning, more efficient.

9. Filling in the gaps

The wheel of time has spun to drive the progress to land us into the world we live in today.

The advancement that schools have seen eliminated a lot many glitches that prevailed in the education system. A major one being the lack of interaction between the teachers and the teachers. Apps and websites have been created to help reduce the gap not just between the students and the educators but also among parents and the teachers. Students and parents can be kept in the loop of every event, schedule change or announcement.

10. Better Earth

While millions of trees are cut down for making papers for the traditional method of learning, mobile apps in education requires just a download. It means a greener earth for future generations.

Mobile learning process has sustainability. Completing a lesson with an app is much more effective as it is learning from experience rather than from compulsion.

11. Systematic Learning Activated

Smart learning is one thing and systematic learning is next. App based learning enables both. Mobile apps help in systematic learning. Apps are arranged in such a way that, it promotes not only a craving for learning but systematic learning.

The apps are arranged in a systematic way that it becomes possible for students to go with the flow without even realising.

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12. Portability

There are no constraints for mobile phones.. They can be constant companions of parents and students. Thereby, apps are available to children anywhere, anytime. Learning will not be confined to the classrooms alone.

13. More Than Just Children

It’s a misconception that only children are benefited out of the apps. Teachers and parents also benefit from using educational apps. Teachers can make use of apps in classrooms. There are apps that help teachers to plan teaching materials. App based learning allows teachers and parents more time to discuss lesson plan for better interactive classes. While selecting apps for children, parents and teachers can contribute a lot.

14. Sustainability

Using mobile apps for learning is more sustainable compared to the traditional learning methods which include papers, pencils, and pens. Getting reference notes is very simple in mobile learning- just download it. This results in a lesser number of trees being cut down every year.

15. Instant Updates

There are some apps which are not only meant for learning but also to stay updated about campus events, timetables, alerts and other important information. Soon apps will allow you to do the educational related payments such as tuition fees, library fines, etc. They also provide opportunities to interact with students throughout the life cycle of prospects, enrolled students, and alumni.

16. Track Your Children’s Progress

With some apps, you can track your children’s progress which is one of the important things that every parent wants to know. Along with the progress, you can visualize how each app is helping your children to improve their skills such as reading, maths and much more.

17. Staying connected

Educational apps are the best way for children to stay connected with their teachers. Though the way of learning through apps is entirely different from the traditional learning method, it adds value to the entire process.

Apps for Betterment All The Way

Over 20 million students use Google apps for education
The use of Google apps for education has increased 100% by 2 years
Opting Google apps for education can save up to $1.5 Million per year in classrooms
72 of the top 100 universities in the United States use Google apps.
73% teachers access digital content from their handheld mobile device
Mobile networks are accessible to more than 90% of the worlds population

Posted on August 18, 2015 by Edsys

The concept of make-over is getting much attention these days. “Flipped classroom” is a buzz word related to classrooms and learning methods. It’s a classroom closely knitted to technology.

Integrating technology in classroom needs special care. You can’t just introduce schools apps to the children and say, “Now we have got technology”. How technology is used is the relevant question.

Smart apps for preschoolers and schools apps are creating revolution in education with its charm. All you need is a smart phone or tab to download the most breathtaking school apps.

Levels of technology integration

The usage of technology and tools are classified into different variations.

Sparse: Technology rarely used by students
Basic: Technology is available for students occasionally
Comfortable: Students are comfortable with technology and is used often in classroom
Seamless: Through various technologies, students employ technology in classroom

Recap: How can school apps promote creativity in students?

Tips to consider before introducing technology in classrooms:

Better Plan

“Failing to plan is planning to fail”

– Alan Lakein

Alan Lakein said it right. You cannot ignore the importance of a proper plan in anything you do. Without a clear strategy, introducing anything to students won’t work. A good teacher never fails to plan better.

Be involved in the planning session. Before integrating technology into classrooms, be sure about the goals.

Find answers to three relevant questions:

How can teaching be improved with technology?
What technology will be used?
How much time will be invested in technology?

These questions have relevance once you have decided to mix education and technology. You cannot blindly go without plan when it’s about the future of your students. A steady plan from the initial stage is important.

Participate

“It is better to participate and fail than fail to participate.”

– Debasish Mridha

Teachers should involve with the students when they are exploring devices. Don’t be a passive observer, be an active participator. Be organized. Never leave children with devices and allow them to manage alone. Creating a web page for the class is a good idea. You can exhibit the activities of your children in the page. Divide children into groups and allot a device per group. Students with limited knowledge on technology can mingle with students with better knowledge.

Schedule

“The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities”.

– Stephen Covey

Assign special schedule for the usage of devices. Students should not get addicted to technology; this can have adverse effects. Pre-plan the tasks and arrange them. Never give extra time for completing any task. Extra time is equal to extra distractions. The use of technology must be strictly limited.

Nothing Personal

“You affect the world by what you browse.”

– Tim Berners-Lee

Use of devices must be public. Don’t permit personal usage of the device to students. The sole purpose of introducing technology in the classrooms is to award an overall learning experience. To use it personally is no less than misusing it. Fixing a password that can only be accessed by teacher helps to secure the device. No child must be allowed to use any device without the supervision of a teacher.

Online Learning

“Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change”

– Stephen Hawking

Traditional teaching methods have lost their charm. To engage children in studies, it’s vital to introduce new and fresh ideas. Technology can help teachers achieve this goal. Fascinating facts excite children towards studies. Teachers can consider taking a short online course for better management of the software. Recording lectures is possible with technology. Students absent in the class can gain out of them.

Recap: Smart Apps for Preschoolers to Learn Phonics and Letters

6 Reasons to Embrace Technology in Classrooms:

“The whole intention of Digital Learning Day is to really celebrate teachers and good instructional learning practices,”

Says Sarah Hall

Technology used correctly enables students for their future careers.
Children mix up more with their classmates
Prepares children for the real world
Students become more excited to learn
Teachers and students become more active and responsible
Children take control over their learning

Change Is The Need:

“The measure of intelligence is the ability to change.”

– Albert Einstein

Never hesitate to adopt new techniques in classrooms. From smart apps for preschoolers to internet, everything serves a purpose. All you need to take care is to maintain technology properly.

Posted on April 16, 2015 by Edsys

Technology in classrooms has become a necessity. They have simplified tasks involving classroom management and also, the lessons in the form of school apps inspire students to keep learning.

But, there are some barriers that schools or teachers have to face while introducing technology to classrooms. Some schools may find it a difficult task to integrate technology to the existing curriculum. But, to change the curriculum as a whole is much more difficult. Not to use technology cannot be a solution either. With criteria such as computer knowledge becoming a must for various jobs, not using technology in schools mean denying students of their right to compete in future for the best opportunities. Hence, integrating technology in education is a must and the best way for schools is to find suitable solutions to overcome the barriers.

Now, what are the barriers that schools or teachers face while implementing technology in education?

Unwilling to develop professionally

For most schools that have not yet integrated technology with learning, this may be the problem they are facing. Teachers refuse to lend support and they don’t care about professional development at all. They may not be prepared to handle the various gadgets or to integrate technology into classrooms. Meanwhile, their students may be well versed with using the same gadgets. The schools may not be providing training to familiarize the teachers with the apps or mobile devices that can help them simplify their jobs. If teachers are not technically updated about the technology, how can they impart the same knowledge to the students?

Shortage of innovative ideas

Those with a creative mind find it easy to deal with technological tools than the non-creative ones. Some people tend to learn the usage of technological tools on their own and they may even try to implement them into solving a problem. Technological tools keep on getting updated from time to time and therefore, you have to keep learning to integrate them to your challenges and also how to use them. It’s nothing that others can teach you but you have to find out on your own. Most of the technological tools support multitasking and therefore, to figure out how to work with them and integrate the, to your needs require new ideas.

Lack of facility

This is another challenge some schools tend to face. They may not have access to the technological tools such as projectors that make visual learning possible. Some schools don’t even have a proper computer lab with enough computers and Internet facilities.

The list of barriers does not end here. But, to find solutions to them requires lots of thought.

What can be done to overcome the barriers?

Overcome your fear of being introduced to unknown technological tools

You are not born with knowledge of each and everything on the planet. You have familiarized yourselves with them with time as part of a natural process. Teachers can form small communities where they can discuss the challenges they face while integrating technology with education and share their knowledge of the technological tools they are familiar with. Also, schools can hold training sessions for teachers to have a better understanding before they go on to introduce the technological tool or school app into their classrooms.

Be innovative with the tools you are familiar with

Take the risk. Even if it is a PC with Microsoft Office and Internet connection that you are familiar with, put it to good use by assigning projects or assignments to your students that they can complete using these tools. You can start with familiar tools and then go on to use newer ones. This can boost your confidence.

Look for free easy-to-use digital resources

There are many user-friendly digital resources like online applications available that you can use on your own. You may not need any one to guide you. After you learn to use them, introduce them to your students. Also, this is cost effective.

Learn with your students

Teachers can learn the working of technological tools along with their students. They can discuss about various ideas that they can implement to create projects and learn. This technique works better than one day workshops and training sessions.

The benefits that integration of technology in education offers are plenty like-easy access to any subject-related information, expansion of knowledge at a global level, visual learning through school apps such as smart apps for preschoolers etc. Therefore, schools must make sure that they integrate technology with learning.

Posted on April 16, 2015 by Edsys

‘Blended learning’, they say is the new mantra in education. But the concept is alien to most schools, even for the ones in the developed countries. The next positive step in education can be achieved only by embracing technology. Blended learning is the love child of education and technology. So it definitely is the future.

Some schools have already implemented blended learning in the form of smart apps for preschoolers. They have found success with this innovative type of education model that it provides. Even though the implementation of blended learning through school apps requires vast transformation of the existing educational model, the benefits that it gives are in plenty.

What is Blended Learning?

As the name suggests, blended learning is an innovative type of education model that integrates online learning with face to face interaction to create personalized learning opportunities. The rise of Internet within the past decade was something beyond the expectation of even its creators. Coupled with this, the simplicity of the devices such as mobile phones and laptops has made the Internet access ‘child’s play’, literally!!!

The fact that a substantial amount of Internet and mobile device users are school going kids has shown how much they are mesmerized by the technology. This has paved way to implement blended learning by developing smart apps for preschoolers in educational models. As we move away from an industrial era to an age of knowledge workers, we need a workforce that can adjust to the latest innovations in technology and blended learning is the way to do it.

Benefits of Blended Learning

Makes students self-directed learners

With blended learning, students can be assigned with learning core concepts through online school apps as homework and later learning how to apply them to solve problems can be done in the classrooms. This makes students self-directed learners, where they are free to use their imaginations on what they have learnt. Students also find it easy learning online since they can refer the resources again and again.

The vastness of the Internet would ensure that students will never experience a shortage of information. This may not be the same when a teacher is involved in the teaching process. He/ she may lack the knowledge to clear all the student’s doubts.

It was initially felt that the students being completely plugged into their devices and the teachers being mere passive monitors would have an adverse effect on the learning process, but the results say otherwise. What blended learning has done is it has improved the student-teacher relationship than what it was before.

Improves student-teacher relationship

As said before blended learning has greatly improved student-teacher relationship. But how has this been possible when everyone thought that combining education with technology was a bad idea.

Blended learning has freed teachers from their administrative and instructional roles. Now it is possible for teachers to give basic instructions to online tools or resources which will take care of what the kids need to learn. This gives them more time to develop the critical skills of students and also contribute to their character development.

Teachers can spend less time on lecturing and more time for creating high-value learning experience through monitoring and coaching. Moreover they can now address each student’s unique learning needs by customizing instructions.

Better learning space

As the student-teacher relation improves, the schools will become a better learning space. No more rushing to complete the syllabus. Students will no more learn just to score high marks in exams, but to fit better into the 21^st century working environment.

With less workload on the teachers they find more time to spend with the students, allowing them to understand the students at a more personal level. Also with extra time on hand, teachers can focus on each student individually, giving equal opportunity to all children. Blended learning also helps teachers to learn from students, on what mode of teaching to adopt or how to make teaching more effective.

Challenges of Implementing

The task of implementing blended learning is not that simple as it requires tons of research, planning, collaboration and perfect execution.
Just purchasing high quality devices and licensing the best online learning software won’t work. Students and teachers have to be educated about it and should be made to feel comfortable.
Blended learning might require a complete change in the classroom management strategy, physical layout of the environment, teaching methodologies, current educational models and the role of teachers and their responsibility.
Even now, an apt model by which we can implement this technology is being researched and since it mandates a lot of changes, it will take some time before we can completely reap its benefits.

Posted on July 28, 2014 by Edsys

While GPS School Vehicle Tracking System have been around for decades with numerous benefits, most people have a lot of myths or misconceptions about them. This prevents them from implementing the technology for their school bus fleet. Below given are some of the common misconceptions about GPS School Vehicle Tracking System.

Misconception #1

GPS tracking is about monitoring students’ every move and intruding their privacy.

Truth

It is not about tracking every move of students or intruding their privacy. Rather, it is about providing safety and security to the children and also about reducing operating costs and tackling on field inefficiencies. It has been proven time and again that GPS systems can be used to reduce fuel consumption and maintenance costs. This is done mainly by efficient planning and routing.

Misconception #2

All drivers will quit if GPS tracking system is implemented.

Truth

The system makes the job a lot easier for drivers. In fact it gives them additional security too. If a child has failed to get into the bus at the designated stop, the information gets reported to the concerned authorities and parents. The system helps to provide roadside assistance. It also reduces the amount of paper work they are required to submit.

Misconception #3

Installation and use of GPS Tracking Systems are very complicated.

Truth

The GPS Tracking System has basic hardware installation and simple, easy to use web interfaces. Moreover, if the GPS provider is reputable, such as Edsys, then they will provide you with skilled experts to install hardware and the software. These technicians will be available at all times to cover service issues as well.

Misconception #4

My mobile phones are enough for me to track my fleet. GPS systems are unnecessary.

Truth

They might have ushered in a communication revolution, but GPS tracking systems are far ahead of tracking just by mobile phones. They provide real-time vehicle location, valuable statistics such as history of stops and stop times, mileage, fuel consumption, or speeding patterns. With handheld devices, it is possible to track the location of people, but then they may not remember to switch on their mobile device, and moreover, students profiling becomes very difficult.

Misconception #5

GPS Vehicle Tracking Systems are all the same

Truth

If you are not aware of the additional features provided by a GPS tracking system, you might tend to think that GPS systems are all the same. But the truth is completely different. There are systems that simply show the location of the school bus on the map to systems that provide valuable details that provide insights to make your fleet more efficient and effective.

There is difference in the equipment too. In the case of Edsys, the hardware is provided by Taximeter, one of the leading providers of taxi meters and fare meters in India. But even if the hardware is the same, experienced people know that it is the relationship with the provider that makes all the difference.

Misconception #6

GPS Tracking Systems are expensive

Truth

While these systems were expensive a few decades ago, they are relatively affordable nowadays. Moreover, the savings they bring in by means of dealing with reckless driving, inefficient routing, excess overtime, side trips, excess engine idling, etc are far more than what they cost school managements.

Misconception #7

GPS Tracking is a relatively new, unproven technology

Truth

GPS technology has been around for decades now, and has found applications in several fields. In fact, the era of the reliable standalone GPS systems that were so helpful for travellers are now being replaced by handheld devices. But handheld devices fall short when it comes to tracking vehicles including school buses, and hence GPS Vehicle Tracking Systems become vital for schools and parents looking for a reliable student safety system.