We live in an age where technology has provided us limitless access to in-formation and different ways to do things. In our day-to-day activities, technology, especially the internet, has transformed every aspect of our life in a positive and more informative manner.

In a way, we’re more connected to each other, and our ability to gather knowledge has been made easy by these tools. When working, socialising or collaborating with others we have tools in hand that make our lives much simpler and which are fun to work with.

Having said that, keeping abreast of technological advancements is a knack. Just yesterday, the Ministry for Education, together with other major players, launched an initiative involving an investment of more than €15 million, aimed at tools to enhance the technology within the educational sphere.

These tools are aimed at improving the educational experience of students by engaging them in a more interactive manner. Of the total, €7 million goes towards replacing over 4,400 existing laptops for teachers while providing both learning support assistants and kindergarten assistants with laptops for the first time.

Such equipment will enable educators to enhance the teaching experience and their ability to provide the necessary collaboration in preparation for a digital experience.

To better facilitate ICT, the government is installing a dedicated PC, an all-in-one workstation, in every classroom. The 3,200 interactive whiteboards will be equipped with a dedicated all-in-one PC so educators will not be hindered by connectivity problems in the class.

Teachers can prepare their digital lessons using their laptops and place this content in the virtual environment. This may be later presented to the students in their classrooms.

Furthermore, the Ministry for Education and Employment will be upgrading the current school infrastructure. It is our aim to provide the requested digital services centrally. This will include telephony, CCTV, access control, timekeeping and attendance, an intruder alarm, paging, Wi-Fi and other services that can reside on the same backbone, thus utilising a central infrastructure.

This is the first step to reshaping the classroom in the tech era and bringing it in tune with the digital revolution

The introduction of the consolidated communications exercise will also enable projects such as the nationwide rollout of the one tablet per child project.

The direct benefits of introducing 3D printers and scanners in State secondary labs range from student inclusion to inducing interest in tangible modern technology, a leap into what is being referred to as the new industrial revolution through digitisation and a reality that could be part of each student’s future everyday life.

However, the fact that addi-tive manufacturing has recently become so accessible and software to operate such machines is widely available and offers interaction with graphical interfaces that require minimum or no expertise in their use makes this technology the ideal bridge between the digital and the tactile or designing and doing. This is why the government has made it our task to bring on such technology.

Those working in the educational field will tell you that it is always getting harder to reach children. In an age where entertainment and content is readily available in a matter of seconds, the job for teachers is getting tougher by the day.

The distractions are limitless. However, we should use the technology we have to our advantage by turning the tables and use it as a means to relate to students. Without doing so schools, and the classroom in particular, run the risk of being isolated from the changes happening in our society.

Just as important is that those delivering through these tools have the necessary training and ‘upskilling’ to maximise the benefits of this potential.

From my experience, educators show a lot of positivity and are warm to these new concepts of learning. They see them as strengthening their role in the classroom and their ability to reach their goals.

These tools are not a magic potion. They are not the be-all and end-all of the education system, and there’s much more work that goes beyond the tools themselves.

However, this equipment is the first step to reshaping the classroom in the tech era and bringing it in tune with the digital revolution that is happening in our daily lives.

Joseph Mamo is chief information officer at the Foundation for Tomorrow’s Schools.