With Stress Awareness Month now underway, the NCFE Innovation team have been reflecting on the complex relationship between stress and technology. Undeniably, our hyper-connectivity with technology often fuels stress and is a regular culprit in the media for our struggle to relieve stress. However, we’ve been reviewing how we can harness the power of technology to help prevent and better manage our stress levels.
Whether you’re an education professional, parent or student, a different approach to technology can mean better outcomes and reduced stress levels for all of us. Here are some of the technological solutions we’d like to share that could help reduce your stress levels, in the long term.
NCFE iObserve – Technology that reduces the workload
Examinations and assessments are just as stressful for teachers as for students. We‘ve partnered with iObserve to offer schools and colleges the ultimate observation and assessment tool that can help relieve the pressure of exam workload for teachers.
NCFE iObserve is a desktop and mobile app which can transform the assessment process from start to finish by digitalising observations, performance criteria, assessment and feedback. Not only does it save time but it also reduces paperwork and enhances quality control with its time stamp and data management functions.
Dubbed ‘an educational game changer’, NCFE iObserve shows how we can use technology to change our ways of working to help us achieve that all important balance to reduce stress for the long term.
StudyHut – Time saving technology for personalised learning
StudyHut is a free service which curates and moderates maths and English resources so that tutors don’t have to. StudyHut offers a quick and easy way to access resources that have been assessed against learning aims and delivery best practice. Tutors can share resources, assured in the knowledge that they align with maths and English curriculum irrespective of awarding body.
StudyHut utilises technology not only to save time for tutors, but to help increase learner engagement. The bespoke learner confidence test allows tutors and parents identify where learners feel they need more support. Tutors can then tailor what resources they share with each individual learner. This empowers parents to support their children with areas that they’re least confident in and then shows them progression with that confidence as they start to use different resources.
GoCalm – Technology for coping with Exam Stress
GoCalm combines mindfulness and thought field-therapy with Neurofeedback technology to help relieve the pressure of exam stress. This potentially ground-breaking approach to exam anxiety allows learners to see and understand their stress levels through measuring their own brain activity during guided anxiety relieving practices and brain training games.
Acting like a fitness tracker for the brain, GoCalm allows learners to track their ability to focus and stress levels during activity. Ultimately meaning that learners can better develop life-long skills needed for handling stress and anxiety by learning how to perform with calm and focus when under pressure.
Evidently, changing our approach to technology has untapped potential to reduce our stress level. Whether it be by choosing to utilise technology to lighten our workload, save time, become more efficient or improve our mental well-being, the possibilities are endless. Ensuring our attitude and approach to technology is proactive and practical is key. If more of us were to use this constructive approach more frequently, then perhaps technology wouldn’t be given such a bad name to begin with.
