Education in a literal sense means the process of receiving or giving systematic instruction, especially at a school or university, and with IoT, it is a more fun process. In simpler terms, it is an enlightening experience. Although traditional teaching may not have required anything more than a notebook, pencil, board, and chalk; in today’s world, especially in 2020 with the Covid-19 situation, IoT is playing a major role in the Educational sector.

How was Education without IoT?

IoT has been introduced very recently in the educational sector; so before we know more about IoT in the sector, we need to be well-versed with the issues faced by the Educational sector without IoT.

The most common drawbacks of the Educational sector without using IoT are:

1. Curriculum: Most schools to date teach and repeat the same previous curriculum which is at most times is outdated. Most people, parents, and teachers fail to understand that along with the traditional teaching, they need to create more room for the skillset of students; the most important yet basic thing for the future of this technical world. A lot of schools don’t acquaint the students with skills like creativity, logical ability, problem-solving, ethics, and many others that are the basic requirements for surviving in the competitive world. This results in the student not being able to keep up with fast-changing jobs etc.
2. Standardized exams: The basic objective of exams is assessing the students’ skills and competency. But these are not always the outcomes we have come to achieve. In fact, a lot of times, this results in unreasonable pressure, fear of failure, and also does not really evaluate the mail skillset of creativity and problem-solving, etc. Many times, these tests may not always be enough to give feedback to the students on their learning.
3. Low Classroom Engagement: Outdated teaching methods lead to a lack of attention or interest of the student. It also prevents the teachers from adapting to the trends and making the teaching more personalized, hence better. Along with the knowledge being delivered, the teachers also need to make sure that their teaching methods are interesting enough for the student to learn.

Has this changed?

While these above points may not always be true, it is true in many cases. Teaching methods have improved over the years where teachers started taking full advantage of the technology. This has led to not only better connectivity between students and teachers but also giving the students the full experience of hands-on learning. With the help of IoT, students can go beyond their books and gain more knowledge and develop their skill set. While IoT helps in easier monitoring of class, it also helps and provides extra support in teaching the disabled.

How is Education with IoT?

IoT has made everything right from our classrooms to our libraries smart hence leading to smart schools. The benefits of using IoT in Education are:

• Improved School Management Efficiency: IoT provides a faster and risk-free solution to filling paperwork, tracking supply management, and distributing funds properly. It also helps with an interconnected decision-making framework where all students, teachers, parents, etc are engaged in improving the facilities.
• Real-time Data Collection: With IoT, the processing of larger amounts of data simultaneously is possible. This paves the pathway to opening many more applications for the institutes; including safety tracking, progress monitoring, keeping up with the teachers and knowing their specialties, etc. This can also help with improving the testing and grading system all the while developing new ways to improve classroom engagement.
• Improved Resource Management: IoT helps reduce operating and storage costs all the while increasing efficiency. IoT can also help with tracking energy, power consumption as well as water consumption.
• Global Interconnection: IoT helps teachers in creating uniform teaching standards and maintaining them. It also gives them the platform to share material and exchange tips and improve their teaching practices.

Technologies used in IoT in Education?

IoT or Internet Of Things is a system of interrelated, internet-connected objects. These objects are capable of collecting and transferring data over a wireless network without human intervention. IoT has already been introduced in Education and the technologies of IoT used are:

Smart Boards:

The traditional blackboards have now been replaced with Smart Boards. Smartboards not only allow the teachers to write and teach, but also illustrate with pictures, audio files, and videos. This not only makes the interaction much more fun but also engaging and interesting. This also closes any room for confusion there maybe while studying on a regular blackboard and textbook where the students can’t understand the illustrations that well. The teachers can also share these notes/illustrations and teachings very easily.

Tablets and Mobile Applications:

Tablets have been in use as a replacement to textbooks in many places now. Along with being a replacement for textbooks, tablets also help with being a replacement for giving tests and assignments. This shift is a great deed to the mother earth since the consumption of paper reduces. Tablets are also providing a great link and communication between students and teachers. The one biggest disadvantage of this only happens to be the addiction and more screen time.

In today’s generation, almost every other child has a mobile phone in their hand. The IoT experts took this to their advantage to convert the games filled phones to educational themes and purposes. This also helps bring together people of similar interests from across the globe, need not be only school-related. This also improves communication between students, teachers, and other students as well.

Attendance machines:

Attendance monitors are now present in many institutions, for both teachers and students. This not only records the attendance but also allows everyone to keep track of their per subject/overall attendance. This also makes sure students attend classes because there is no way of putting any sort of fake attendance or proxy here. This gives the institute a properly maintained record as well which is used for official purposes.

AV Technology:

AV or audiovisual technology has now been in existence for a long time. Originally AV was not IoT but in recent times, Pro AV has been introduced which is being integrated with IoT. AV rooms have been very common in schools for the last few years. Teachers use AVs for either teaching or maybe even assessing the students’ work as he/she presents. Though AV doesn’t seem like its IoT, IoT and AV go hand-in-hand, not only now, for the past couple of years in schools and outside as well.

AV finds its use in schools and colleges, corporate organizations, retail stores, security purposes and so many more. The most major role of IoT in AV comes at the point of interfacing the AV with the building. There are many ways to control the AV using multiple IoT tools. Some may be as simple as operating it using a simple remote and can go as complex as operating it with a touchpad etc.

Superior Safety Features:

As already known, the internet, be it, however, useful, always comes with the threat to the safety of our data. IoT solutions provide superior technology, which includes emergency indicators, audio enhancement, Wi-Fi clocks, and hearing impaired notifications. This provides a security blanket, giving a feeling of safety to every user. This can also help in contacting specific students in a case of emergency and also has special emergency tones, live bulletins, a couple of bell schedules, and pre-recorded instructional messages.

C-Pen:

C-pen is an extremely handy technology for students. It is a portable scanning tool that helps the students share any content written or even any smartphone picture. This is extremely easy to use and using this in the classroom ensures that no notes will be lost or left out. This also provides the meaning of a specific highlighted word, creates memos, and can translate almost 40 languages with the absolute correct pronunciation.

LocoRobo:

LocoRobo is an IoT application for programmers and coders. This application helps students design Python, Java, JS, or C apps much faster. This connected tool learns from its student interactions and optimizes itself. Using this, any student of any grade and even college students can learn about robotics and its coding methodologies. This coding platform can be used by teachers as well to give worksheets or even monitor the student’s progress.

Magicard:

Magicard collects and consolidates all the information required to provide school attendees with. Currently, implemented in the UK, this card helps monitor attendance, provide any sort of medical or transportation facility. It also allows students to make payments in the canteen without having to carry cash around. This card also comes with a tracker using which the student location can be tracked easily.

EdModo:

Edmodo is a completely connected platform. Here, the teachers, students, and parents can share advice, learning material, or just stay connected regarding the child’s performance. It helps keep a track of the students’ progress and makes the teaching process so much more efficient in and beyond the classroom.

Kajeet:

Kajeet is a tool for school bus safety. This platform allows the drivers to monitor student behavior, and the Wi-Fi enabled buses to help students turn in assignments or do any last-minute work/revision. It also allows parents to track the students’ location giving them the security blanket that their child is safe.

Microsoft Teams/ Zoom:

In recent times of Covid-19 where education has shifted completely to online mode in a few places, applications like Microsoft Teams and Zoom have played a huge role. They allow teachers to take classes via video chat for as many students as possible (generally no upper limit). They also provide assignments and notes and other audio/video files that are accessible to the students at all times. The meeting/class conducted is also recorded and saved for the students to access later. There are chat options and many others present which according to the institution settings may or may not be available to the students.

There is still more continuous development going on for all these platforms where more and more IoT features are coming into play in regards to security and also better teaching experience.

Advantages of IoT in Education

Obviously, IoT has made the process of learning much more efficient and fun using what children like the most – Gadgets. The major advantages of integrating IoT in Education are:

Adjusting Disability:

Adjusting Disability is the biggest advantage IoT in education has given, especially to the disabled. Using IoT tools and technologies, disabled students can also read, write, and learn like any normal abled student. Using verbal tools, special gloves, or even sign language converters, IoT has made the learning experience for disabled students great.

Significant Safety:

Enabling schools with IoT has significantly increased safety features in schools. Emergency indicators, IoT sensors, and hearing impaired notifications help generate safety. The sensors sense for any emergency like short-circuit etc and give the entire school the warning in time. Many times, this warning or case of emergency can be viewed by the parents as well using the online platform where they track their children.

Attention to Attendance:

Since the students and parents can now track the attendance subject wise and overall, the student becomes more aware of what or how many more classes he/she needs to attend to attain the attendance criteria. This helps students prevent the situation of not being able to sit for a specific exam.

Hand-on devices for Hand-on learning:

IoT has made the one bane of gadgets into a big boon for students. Thanks to IoT, mobile phones and other hand-held devices are no more a curse to society. IoT has shifted the focus from time-waste and objectifying things to educational purposes. Since this also happens to be the children’s favorite device, it increases their interest in studies.

Increase in Student Engagement:

Gadgets always entertain and surprise students. They always have the hunger to explore more and learn more. This makes the process of teaching and learning much more fun, engaging, and interactive. The curiosity levels in the students happen to be the biggest advantage to the teacher teaching.

Reduction in Teacher’s Workload:

The teachers can now very easily generate reports etc which would have been very time-consuming and hectic previously. Reduced workload always means increased efficiency in the delivery of knowledge. The process of assessing and grading also becomes much easier and efficient, cutting out on any errors that could take place. A better and deeper analysis of the assignments and tests helps the teacher also understand how and what the students have been able to understand; hence improving the delivery of the subject.

Handing out assignments, notes or any other work also becomes much easier with deadlines. The teacher is now also able to understand every student and what his/her weakness would be, without bringing it to the knowledge of the full class. The teacher-student connections and interaction even after school hours are also possible. This gives the teacher a satisfactory feeling in her job as well while giving the happiness that her students now interact and want to learn much more than before.

Challenges faced by using IoT in Education

There are always two sides to a coin. No matter how many pros and benefits it has, it always comes with cons and challenges. The challenges faced while implementing IoT in education are:

• High implementation cost: IoT in education specifically requires extensive hardware and software power. To set up a custom and common platform in the school/college, the management/heads need a skilled technical team, whose basic job would be to take care of all the software development. Alongside, most hardware and software require licenses which generally aren’t cheap. Maintenance costs for the hardware is also a big add-on to costs. IoT may require just a few more factors than this which isn’t always easy to implement in every school/college.
• Class ethics: While IoT introduces new ways of giving assignments and tests, it also comes with the drawback that monitoring students cheating or following any inappropriate means becomes difficult. Hence, before the specific system is handed over to the students, it needs to have the capability of fighting frauds and making sure that the information is tamper-proof.
• Lack of data-processing infrastructure: The data storage and processing infrastructure in many institutions are out of date and many times unstable to handle the IoT solutions. Thus, while implementing IoT solutions, the workers and heads need to ensure that they choose reliable data tools and computing platforms.
• Privacy concerns: Collecting digital data of many forms and processing it makes the institutions vulnerable to hacking threats. Thus, before the implementation of any IoT solution, there needs to be an emergency plan for security attacks, data breaches, and many other threats. Alongside, the students should also be given proper knowledge and training to be able to handle any such circumstances.

Future of IoT in Education?

IoT is still developing and is going to bring better outcomes in the aspect of education. The few problems/challenges that may be present today will be sooner or later gone enhancing the learning experience even more. The students will be more engaged while the teachers will get a little more relaxed and the overall interaction will become better.