A country’s future success in an increasingly technology-driven global economy (like the current one) largely depends on its ability to prepare its students not only for their future jobs, but also for their personal fulfilment and civic engagement in a dynamic and diverse world. As demonstrated over the past, it has become more vital for authorities concerned with education to set clear and ambitious goals in education in order to develop higher-order thinking skills among learners. However, goals and objectives alone have never been enough to set learners up for future success. The reason is that the whole learning experience of any individual comprises of support from family, emotional stability, self-motivation, and past achievement. Even the best teaching methods fail to fully address the diverse challenges that teachers face in classroom settings.
The emergence of digital learning has offered some unique opportunities for addressing some of these challenges. It provides students as well as educators with an unprecedented potential to assist in the achievement of some of the set goals and objectives through the facilitation of customized paths to success. Therefore, schools or any other learning institution need to embrace technology when delivering content or instructions to learners. Teachers in learning institutions need to learn how to combine face-to-face classroom teaching with computer-based activities.
Blended learning, whose definition could be distilled to the type of learning that combines digital instructions with face-to-face methods, could be considered as the “traditional learning method of the future” (Aitken, 2010, p. 76). It is a concoction of pedagogic techniques, which employs a collection of assorted lea...
... middle of paper ...
...necessary. In addition, blended learning has so far been proven to be a vital and viable model for the delivery of education. Today students easily get bored with the traditional slow-moving teaching methodologies, which in some cases have proven to be ineffective. Besides, students and parents still maintain higher expectations for instructors to deliver when it comes to learning. The use of technology to complement these traditional methods enables teachers and students to experience flexibility, easy management of the type of content being delivered, and rotational type of learning in which students can move from one learning station to another. Most importantly, such type of learning enable teachers to embrace adaptive assessment of their students, which helps them to identify who needs additional instructions and who could be ready for more advanced challenge.
Throughout many years, education has played an important role in improving our minds and society. However, what many people tend to forget is that our education is not at the best it can be. Education is defined as receiving or giving systematic instruction, especially at a school or university. Many people today questions whether or not our education depends on the people teaching it or if it’s the student’s responsibility to want to learn. "To what extent do our schools serve the goals of a true education?" Education helps people learn new things, but it can be changed. Although education helps students learn and plan for the future, it can be improved to help benefit students ahead of time.
It is helpful to connect the learning to a student’s prior experience. Teachers also need to consider the role of technology in their classroom.
With the advances in online and mobile technologies that have come about in the last decade, the contexts in which we teach and the way students learn have become more diverse. Classes can be taught completely online, face-to-face in the traditional format, or a blended mix of the two. Learning has become less about memorizing information. It has become more about knowing how to use, evaluate, and interact with information in our daily lives. Students have come to expect, and benefit from, a mix of learning content in their lessons: text, graphics, video, audio and interactivity. The inclusion of multimedia learning objects in online or blended course design often enhances how students process information by appealing to the multiple ways students learn and giving them opportunities to test or practice their understanding of content.
With the widespread use of digital technology, the classroom teaching approaches and practices went through remarkable changes. When compared to the past ten years, today the classrooms look entirely different in terms of programs and technical tools used to enhance the learning skills of students.
see that blending different ways of learning like face to face and using technology can be
Flipped learning involves leveraging e-learning technologies to provide students with content prior to the lesson so that in the group context more time can be spent in group activities (Johnson and Renner, 2012). This promotes a collaborative learning environment in the classroom (Jarvela, Volet and Jarvenoja, 2010, Stahl, 2012). The aim of flipped learning is to develop an active learning environment within the classroom without sacrificing the coverage of content (Strayer, 2007). The impact is to develop in the student active learning, social learning and creative learning skills (Miltbrandt, 2004).
Jonassen, D., Howland, J., Marra, R. M., & Crismond, D. (2008). Meaningful Learning with Technology (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education.
To achieve high quality digital learning students continually have access to the digital content and online resources. It is a fact that digital learning has no physical boundaries; therefore student can connect from any place and have 24 hours access to the enormous scholastic and learning resources available on Internet [2f]. Technology has its impact on teaching methods and the ways knowledge is acquired. Thus, the teachers and school administrators of the 21st century must understand that in present environment, it is essential to shift our focus from educating students to lifelong learning for
In less than a decade, computer use progressed from programming classes for a few of the better students, to literacy classes for all students, to the integration of computers and technology into the curriculum. Now, there is a goal for educators to use technology as a tool in efforts to teach more effectively by using a variety of strategies to meet different needs in a diverse classroom. This will take training and commitment to keep up in an area that changes quickly, but the benefits to teachers and students are greater that the effort it will take to stay informed; computers increase productivity of students and make learning a fun experience. They help students become better problem-solvers instead of just rote learners.
Technology properly used in the classroom has many advantages to a student’s learning. Technology can help students become more involved in their own learning process, which is not seen in the traditional classroom. It allows them to master basic skills at their own rate rather than being left behind. Teachers and students alike can connect to real life situations by using technology in the classroom; this can also help to prepare students for real world situations. Technology can be used to motivate students as well as to offer more challenging opportunities. It can also be used as a visualization tool to keep students interested in the subject that is being taught. When technology is used effectively, students have the opportunity to develop skills that they may not get without the use of technology (Cleaver, 2011). Assessing and monitoring students is easier on the teacher because of the ability to use technology in the classroom. When technology is used correctly it offers limitless resources to a classroom atmosphere.
Today’s generation is like no other. The nation as a whole has completely evolved from past times, with technology being one of the greatest improvements. Traditionally, schooling takes place in a classroom setting, but, with the many modifications in our world’s system, we are able to assimilate more modern means of education, such as online learning. However, with many changes comes differences and requires adjustments. The online learning system has proven to be just as effective as traditional learning, with some minor differences, however, nothing of great significance. A few of those insignificant differences include online learning being convenient, especially for the non-traditional students,
The introduction of technology into education has revolutionized the teaching quality and learning outcome in the last ten years. The integration of technology into lectures by teachers in classroom has become so natural that both teachers and learners consider computers and their related applications for instruction are “a routine component of the classroom and educational processes in general” (Nuldén, 1999 cited in Buzzard et al., 2011, pp.131-139).
With the world constantly evolving, it isn’t hard to see how in the past decade technology has taken over every aspect of our lives. It has become the center and main way to communicate, learn, and advance in this fast paced world. In this essay I will speak about the 21st century classroom and teaching, different technologies that can be used to teach, and how students can use technology as learners. Technology is becoming one of the main sources to excel and advance in our education system and it is important to stay up to date with these changes.
Computer technology is one the most innovative advancements in modern-day education. Technology has made its way into the world of teaching practice and principle by expanding the way we approach instruction in the classroom. We are no longer confined to pencil and paper, but have the ability to project and present knowledge in an enhanced way to capture the minds of a generation of students whose society is built around ever expanding world of computer technology.
Before going further we should know exactly what digital learning is. A company called Alliance for Excellent Education has the best definition. “Digital learning is any instructional practice that is effectively using technology to strengthen the student learning experience. Di...