Why video conferencing may be one technological component of a larger overall strategy to improve education in the United States and beyond.
Underfunded schools, overcrowded classrooms, and too few teachers are among the many symptoms of an education system that fails many students across the country. A recent Pew Research Center study shows that students in the United States score significantly lower, on average, than their counterparts in many other developed countries in the subjects of math, science, and reading.While shortcomings of the education system are obvious in many places, solutions usually aren’t. One person who believes he may hold at least part of the answer is Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Solutions in Science and Technology
In December of 2017, Mark Zuckerberg posted an open letter on Facebook titled “Lessons in Philanthropy 2017” in which he outlined some of the ways he and his wife, Priscilla Chan, are contributing towards philanthropic causes aimed at making the world a better place for their children through the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. Not surprisingly for a Silicon Valley CEO, Zuckerberg looks to advancements in science and technology for the solutions to some of modern society’s biggest challenges such as affordable healthcare and reforming the education system to better serve all students.
Is technology the answer to fixing the education system? Well, like most systemic challenges, there’s probably no one magical solution that will transform the education system overnight to drastically improve outcomes across the board, but it could be a good place to start.
Video Conferencing for Education in the 21st Century
Video conferencing technology has been around in one form or another for decades. Over these years it has been utilized by people in a variety of personal and professional capacities to communicate face-to-face . As a tool for education, video conferencing has a number of applications that can make educational programs more accessible, more universal, and more customized to the needs of individual students. As personal computers and smart mobile devices become more ubiquitous among young people, free, web-based video conferencing platforms are likely to play a major role in how teachers and students interact with each other in the 21st century.
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