An Investigation into the Effects of Technology on Education in UK

This report examines the effects of technology on education within the UK, with a specific focus on the disruptions and adaptations necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The research investigates the types of technology utilized in the education sector, particularly within schools, and analyzes their impact on learning environments. The study explores how technology aided UK education during the pandemic, identifying both the benefits and the major challenges faced by the education industry. The report includes a literature review, research methodology, results, conclusions, and recommendations. Furthermore, it features a reflection on the research process and potential alternative methodologies, along with appendices containing a questionnaire and other relevant materials. This comprehensive analysis aims to provide insights into the evolving role of technology in education and its implications for students and educators.

An investigation into the Effects of
technology on Education
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Table of Contents
Title .................................................................................................................................................3
Introduction .....................................................................................................................................3
Overview of the research ............................................................................................................3
Research aim and objectives .......................................................................................................4
Research questions ......................................................................................................................4
Rationale of the dissertation.........................................................................................................5
LITERATURE REVIEW ...............................................................................................................6
What types of technology used in education industry, especially in Schools?............................6
What are the impacts of technology on UK education in COVID-19 situation?.........................8
What kind of ways helps UK technology in education during pandemic situation?...................9
What are the major challenges faced by education industry during COVID-19? ....................11
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY...................................................................................................12
RESULTS......................................................................................................................................17
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS..........................................................................28
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................28
Recommendations......................................................................................................................29
REFLECTION ..............................................................................................................................31
Reflection...................................................................................................................................31
Alternative research methodology.............................................................................................32
REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................33
Appendix 1.....................................................................................................................................36
Questionnaire.............................................................................................................................36
Appendix 2.....................................................................................................................................40
Signature ...................................................................................................................................40

Title
‘An investigation into the Effects of technology on Education”
Introduction
Overview of the research
The COVID-19 pandemic has created the biggest disruption of education systems in
history, affecting nearly 1.6 billion learners in more than 190 countries and all continents
(Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on information management research and practice:
Transforming education, work and life, 2020)(Franchi, 2020). Closures of schools and other
learning spaces have impacted 94 per cent of the world’s student population, up to 99 per cent in
low and lower-middle income countries (Policy Brief: Education during COVID-19 and beyond)
(Nickerson, 2020). The United Kingdom offers world-class education, an international reputation
and a strong presence within global markets (Multidisciplinary research priorities for the
COVID-19 pandemic: a call for action for mental health science, 2020)(Susilo and Sudrajat,
2020). Higher education institutions are among the most renowned as well as prestigious in all
over world. And providers and schools give international benchmarks for safeguarding and
choice (Papadopoulos, Baltas and Balta, 2020). The situation of pandemic has immense negative
impact over the working of schools (Omar and Ismail, 2020). Technology is only the medium
that helps in this situation to again start educating students. The situation of pandemic has
immense negative impact over the working of schools (The socio-economic implications of the
coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19): A review, 2020)(Yu and Leng, 2020). Therefore, the
COVID 19 has influenced the entire globe and also having an immense influence over the
education sector, thus the government of each country has their major concern over handling the
situation via developing norms and legislation which are effective in rendering suitable support
to the people and the country situation as well. The situation in UK are also critical as the
government has build some policies which are effectively followed by the schools of UK and
maintaining the safety and security (COVID-19: 20 countries' higher education intra-period
digital pedagogy responses, 2020)(Sintema, 2020). Therefore, on 7th march the government of
UK has announced to keep themselves isolated for 7 days who are having any kind of symptoms
related to Corona virus. As per the view point of Sintema, (2020), On 16 March, the Government
also shielding for the most vulnerable and called on the British public to cease non-important
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interaction and travel. In addition to this, after recognizing the bad situation on 18 March, the
Government has also declared the closure of schools, institutions and other education sector
where students are gathered in immense number. On 20 March the facilities of entertainment,
hospitality and indoor leisure venues were also closed. Therefore, the government was very
critical to provide such guidance as these are only for the benefit of people. However, the
working with the devolved administrations, the Government had to take drastic action to protect
the NHS and save lives. Rendering the idea was the basic form of the Government’s response,
and because of this the extraordinary sacrifice of the British people and the efforts of the NHS,
this first phase has suppressed the spread of the virus. Here, technology provides an opportunity
to all different schools that with the aid of internet and video calling connect with students at
their home and start educating again (Singh, 2020). The success of this process depicts the power
of technology behind building of connection within different parties which have presence at
different locations (Sintema, 2020). The use of internet is most effective in this time period that
allows coordinating with large number of students over single platform. It has impacted and
affected the way things are taught and presented in the classroom to the students. It has mainly
affected on the materials which are used as well as the way tutors use these materials to teach
students in the schools. There are many schools in the United Kingdom, both graduate as well as
post graduate (School closure and management practices during coronavirus outbreaks
including COVID-19: a rapid systematic review, 2020). The schools are generally located in the
main city areas that are easily accessible for the local people.
Research aim and objectives
Research aim
Main aim of this dissertation is to identify the effects of UK technology in education
during Covid 19.
Research objectives
 To determine different types of technology that will be essential in educational industry.
 To determine impact of the technology on UK education in COVID-19 situation.
 To examine the way that UK technology helps in education during pandemic situation.
 To identify the challenges faced by education industry during COVID-19.
Research questions
 What types of technology used in education industry, especially i n School?

 What are the impacts of technology on UK education in COVID-19 situation?
 What kind of ways helps UK technology in education during pandemic situation?
 What are the major challenges faced by education industry during COVID-19 in UK?
Rationale of the dissertation
The main reason behind conducting this research is to identify the importance of
technology in education sector during Covid 19. This is a pandemic situation and in this, all
education sectors are provided online education, which is important for the growth and
development of students. This situation proof that technology is important part of each and every
life. Therefore, this dissertation or topic is important at academic and personal level. At
academic level, this topic support student by increasing their understanding about the role of
technology in education (Iyer, Aziz and Ojcius, 2020). At personal level this research will also
assist in increasing research skills of researcher. These skills are data collection, time
management, data analysis, literature review etc. These skills support them in completion of
entire dissertation systematically. The study is imperative in exploring idea and recognition
about the aspect of online learning and how it provide benefits to the students in gaining
significant knowledge within the pandemic of COVID 19. The is also valuable for the teachers in
analysing the need of online classes and how education can be provided with the help of using
digital media.
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LITERATURE REVIEW
It is one of the important section that allow investigator to gather detailed and in-depth
evaluation on the basis of specified research topic and area as well. Mainly, a literature review is
a scholarly paper that includes all the current knowledge along with substantive finding that help
researcher in analyzing topic in theoretical manner. In addition to this, it is type of secondary
method in which detailed information can be gathered from different sources such as books,
journals, articles, magazines and many more. All these sources can be effective in acquiring
valuable and authentic content that support researcher in taking right decision at the end of the
investigation. Furthermore, literature review is also based on the previous researches that is
already being used in other studies. The main purpose of undertaking literature review is that it
provides theoretical framework that may assist in determining as well as analyzing the
qualitative information through which investigator can analysis the particular topic in detailed
way. Current literature is based on the topic of effects of UK technology in education during
Covid 19. In this, researcher includes viewpoints of different authors that may contributes in
evaluating the theoretical analysis. With the assistance of this, valid conclusion can be easily
drawn by researcher within the research and make it more successful. Today, education has
become a distant thing for students. And online learning is very different from the traditional
ways that were opted in order to teach the students like a blackboard or a white board etc. But
online learning includes lot of different advantages like it provide pedagogic opportunities as the
students as well as teachers do not have to commute from their places every day and the classes
can be taken online with the help of a computer or a smart phone as well as with a decent internet
connection(Fehrenbacher and Patel, 2020). But this has affected the poorer areas because people
do not have access to a smart phone or an internet connection that is stable.
What types of technology used in education industry, especially in Schools?
According to Loveless (2020), technology is becoming a necessary part of the education
because it support in enhancing of relationships between teachers and students because it refers
to the two way communication wherein both teacher and students share their views points with
each other’s. It has given a common platform to develop the communication for the teachers as
well as students. The hardware and software is becoming necessary in order to improving
process of education. In regards to this, education technology is necessary technological tools

use in the learning (Azevedo and et. al., 2020). The schools were closed due to COVID-19
pandemic situation. The national and large scale efforts to use the technology in support of the
online learning and distance education during COVID-19 are evolving as well as emerging
quickly (Franchi, 2020). COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in the schools shut in all over the
world. The education has dramatically changed with rise of the e- learning where by the teaching
is mainly undertaken on the digital platforms. There are different technologies given below
which used in education in context to school in COVID-19 pandemic situation:
Synchronous and Asynchronous- The learning can occur out or in classroom. This can
be asynchronous learning, self- paced and instructor guidance. The educational tools may be
asynchronous or synchronous. The synchronous learning may occurs in the real- time with all the
participants which interacting at similar time (Nicola and et. al., 2020). On the other hand,
asynchronous learning is self paced and also permits the participants to engage in exchange of
information or ideas without dependency of the other involvement of participants at similar time.
The students are work effectively and the synchronized learning is helpful for students to
develop open mind because they have to learn and listen from peers (Tolsgaard and et. al., 2020).
It helps in fosters the online awareness as well as improve the writing skills of several students.
Asynchronous learning may use the technologies like email, wiki, web- supported textbooks,
video courses and others. The students of school can have the access to incredibly variety of the
enrichment courses on online learning(Chougui and et. al., 2020).
Child-centered learning is an effective and essential approach of education focusing on
the student's interests, rather than those of others involved within the educational process, such as
administrators and teachers (McCarthy, 2015). The Child-centered learning approach has many
implications for the design of the curriculum, course content and interactivity of courses. For the
implementation of child centred learning environment the attention should be given to these
aspects of learning teacher's goal, student's goal, interaction of students, assessment. It is mainly
focused on the abilities, needs and learning style of the students.
Linear Learning- The computer based training is self paced learning activities that
delivered on hand held or computer device like smart phone or tablet. Computer Based Training
delivered the content through CD-ROM and presented content much like reading online book.
Computer Based Training is mainly used to teach the static process like completing the
mathematical equations (Ferdig and et. al., 2020).
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Collaborative Learning- The Computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) uses
the instructional methods that mainly designed to be encourage students to work together on the
learning tasks. (Papadopoulos, Baltas and Balta, 2020). Main reason for usage stated is that this
is breeding ground for the creativity as well as engaging the educational endeavour.
Collaborative tools prepare students with the technological skills which are essential.
Cloud computing- This has changes way that students share as well as work with the
materials. The cloud technology assists in classes how changes way students can tackle projects
because earlier they were studying face to face and now the technology has taken its place. The
information and data can be saved to cloud that is helpful when the students require to
collaborate on group assignment. When student complete the part of project then it can save to
cloud location. It can be done through uploading the saved documents to cloud location or
through using cloud- based services like Google Docs and Word processor.
What are the impacts of technology on UK education in COVID-19 situation?
According to Dwivedi and et. al., (2020), in the current scenario, technology plays a
significant role as majority of people depend over the technology and it also affect their everyday
activities. Along with this, individuals are using tablets, smart phones and computers because it
contributes in shaping how they communicate with others. In this context, technology have
evolved as its adoption in on higher rate especially in educations as well. In addition to this, the
use technology in education during Covid-19 is put positive impact over the students and their
learning because it can be integrated into everyday life (Papadopoulos, Baltas and Balta, 2020).
With the help of modern technology, education has gone from passive and reactive in relation to
interactive and aggressive. Use of technology also assist students in understanding as well as
retaining concepts in effective way (Sahu, 2020). In context to this, there are some positive
impact of technology over the students during Covid-19:
Enhanced teaching and learning: At the time of pandemic situation play a significant
role as it provide a platform to students to learning something and at the same time also improve
their skills as well. It also help them in participating more in the classroom activities and provide
them chance to make their class more interactive and interesting (Hare and et. al., 2020).
Technology make online learning more easier through which students may interact with their
teachers and ask with them effectively. Technology is essential for teachers and students because

it will support them by increasing their teaching and learning. But there are also some
disadvantages such as network issues, glitches, connectivity problems, bugs etc.
In addition to this, use of technology at the time of Covid-19 situation help in making
students more active and excited to learn as it helped in improving their learning capability and
at the same time also develop their concentration to acquire various learning activities because
they saved the time of travelling as well as it made them less tired(Franchi, 2020).
According to the Sahu, (2020), it also support students along with busy schedule and also
get freedom to work at home as per their own time and schedule. Furthermore, it also train
students in order to learn skills related with new technology through which they can easily use
later at working area. Freedom is a good thing for students because it will helps them in its
learning (Sintema, 2020).
Apart from this, use of technology also assist in reducing the paper work and at the same
time also promoting the concept of green revolution (Barnes, 2020). Online learning is also a
significant part of technology which has been shown to enhance of retention of information as it
also take less time (Azevedo and et. al., 2020). This can be beneficial in keeping students safe
and secure in the pandemic situation. Mainly, many online learning platforms also provide free
access to students so that they can easily lean and attend their class.
On the other side,according to Nicola and et. al., (2020), there are also have negative
impact of technology over the education in Covid-19 situation as it directly affect the learning
activities of students. This can be understood by following points:
Lack of focus: Use of technology in education is also affect negatively over the students
as they reduce their concentration at the time of online learning(Halldorsdottir, Thoroddsen and
Ingadottir, 2020). Being connected to the online world influences negatively as it resulted in lack
of focus or concentration (Sahu, 2020). This will directly affect their learning activities as they
fail in acquiring proper learning (Chougui and et. al., 2020).
Declining writing skills (Paragraph and sentence construction): Use of technology also
affect on the students writing skills as it have declined quite tremendously. Their skill of forming
paragraphs and sentences have declined. As students are active on online learning in which they
have totally forgot their writing skills and also reduce their command over their writing skills. In
this regards, they also don't know the spelling error and different words. This can be put negative
impact over their writing skill (Crawford and et. al., 2020).
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What kind of ways helps UK technology in education during pandemic situation?
Ahmed (2020) stated that Corona virus has brought the new challenges for the education
sector. From this, government of United Kingdom take decision to close the schools across
country in effort to contain spread of Corona virus. From this, education of the children are
impacted. Top priority of schools has been to assure that the academic progress does not stall
while they are mainly prioritize well being and health (Blut and Wang, 2020). In order to
resolving the situation, several educational firms are searching the new ways in order to facilitate
the distance learning and develop positive outcomes for school students by integration of array of
digital technologies (Nickerson, 2020). Mainly, United Kingdom was leading way in order to
facilitating the distance learning before COVID-19 made this essential, with 58% of students
using the online learning materials and 29% enrolled in the online courses (Blut and Wang,
2020).
As per the view presented by Mian and Khan, (2020), COVID-19 has provided schools
Microsoft Teams, Zoom etc. In addition to this, technology turns laptop screen where the
teachers and students see to each other and also can question to each other in the collaborative
online learning. Other than this, COVID-19 is forcing the governments around world to search
the practical as well as the innovative approached in context to learning and teaching.
Unprecedented surge in the online learning gives the opportunities for re imagine the new and
effective ways of teaching as well as studying(Mian and Khan, 2020). On the other hand, in
pandemic situation many of the school has switches to the remote learning and teaching
overnight. The remote classes is one of the main element of learning in digital age.
According to,Tolsgaard and et. al., (2020), There are several platforms which have
eminent among crisis that caused through pandemic for an instance Zoom. It is effective for
hosting the conference video calling for the large groups and also provide the convenience to
teachers and students both. Google Cast for Education is a free Chrome extension that permits
students and teachers to share their screens wireless from anyplace in the classroom. Cast for
Education carries video as well as audio across Wi-Fi school networks, has access controls for
teachers, and works seamlessly with Google Classroom. As per the view of Sintema, (2020),
Coursera is another educational platform where collaboration with the schools and students can
able to learn the additional topic in context to up skill them. There is not any surprise to see that
many of schools are stamping presence in digital world by the mobile applications (Sintema,

2020). Mostly schools can launch own mobile applications that will encourage the smooth as
well as quick communication among students and schools (Brown, 2020). Mobile application is
a better platform in order to add the short view able content in videos, interviews and live
sessions. This can be used to provide the students quick updated as well as latest information.
On the other hand Ferdig and et. al., (2020), Mobile application helps students by saving
their time and also providing online learning that results in higher knowledge and skill about the
specific field. The Onset of Corona virus pandemic has been clashed with commencement of
process of admission for academic. Instead of starting the schools, schools have been forced to
be switch to process of digital application.
What are the major challenges faced by education industry during COVID-19?
As per the view point of Sahoo (2020), COVID 19 is a pandemic situation that effects on
entire education sector. The uncertainty will have a direct impact on the students, which will also
impact on the revenue generation of schools within United Kingdom, in turn impacting the
financial situation of the educational industry and also impacting the salary flow of teaching as
well as non-teaching staff in the long run. There are some major challenges faced by education
industry of UK during COVID 19. These are:
Reaching out to students: It is a main challenge for educational industry on how to reach
students and make sure continuity of education via remote learning (Sintema, 2020). There are
millions of students from different economic class of the society as well as most of them not
have accurate access to internet or computers (Andrade and Andersen, 2020). Some students do
not have access to phones. Therefore, in COVID 19, where isolation is the only redress to not get
impacted by the virus, making sure the education of student has become a real challenge.
Therefore, it is a biggest and major challenge of COVID 19 on educational industry (Bao, 2020).
Completion of course: Different schools had to close out after some classes only
(Azevedo and et. al., 2020). The course of study needs to be addressed soon. Therefore, this issue
is also biggest that directly impact on educational industry.
Conclusion: From the above mentioned information collected for literature review, it has been
concluded that technology is important for educational industry in pandemic situation. There are
different types of technologies such as synchronous and asynchronous, linear learning,
collaborative learning and cloud computing. These are useful technologies that will be essential
for students in its learning during Pandemic situation. Along with this, there are different
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challenges faced by educational industry during Pandemic situation such as reaching out of
students, completion of course and potential technological barriers. These challenges impacted
on educational industry in COVID 19.