Thoughts on how learning is changing in the digital age.

The question has been asked: How is learning changing in the digital age? Here are my thoughts from the discussion forum.

"I’ll talk about one of the most obvious ways the 21^st century is changing education. The world is more connected now than ever. We as teachers need to believe this and plan our instruction as if our kids, even here in little ol’ Huntington, WV, are competing for jobs against young men and women in China, India and around the world. I like to show this video. It points out some interesting truths about how the earth is getting smaller, much small. Many of the today's most in-demand jobs did not exist only a few short years ago. And technology is in no way showing signs of slowing. So, lets face it, the content we teach will not likely be relevant to our students’ careers.

If students’ will be working in fields that do not yet exist, what should we be teaching? I believe the best way to approach this problem is to teach 21^st century skills. For example, let's say we are teaching biology and the assignment is to work with a partner to choose a disease, research it using the web and printed resources, then create a presentation to inform the public on the disease. The presentation could be a printed brochure, digital presentation such as a prezi or keynote, a PSA or even a music video. In this scenario, the teacher may be going a great job of covering content standards. But what is much more important in terms of 21^st century skills is the lesson they will learn while working with a partner, building communication and collaboration skills, problem solving and reasoning skills and skills in digital literacy as they create their presentations."

It seems like for the longest time, education did not change at all. The smartest thing a teacher could do is laminate their lesson plans. But now, education is changing more rapidly than we can keep up. And that leads to another problem. How can we stay current with technologies and still be effective teachers? One suggestion is to invest heavily in infrastructure and training staff. I love iPads, netbooks and flip cameras as much as the next teacher, but what good are they if our system runs out of IP address or bandwidth to run them? Teachers also need full time, building level, technology specialists / trainers. I'm not talking about tech support. (We need them too) I mean licensed and certified teachers who have technology and pedagogical experience and can train teachers in best practices and co-teach technology lessons. Im starting to see a few one-day trainings spring up in my area for an iPad. I have to say, that makes me crazy. How can we learn how to effectively and meaningfully integration this kind of technology in 6 hours? What I see happening a lot is the technology is loaded with angry birds and facebook and students never benefit from it. On the other hand, if we invest in building level trainers, then teachers can enjoy technology rich lessons with the confidence of having specially trained teachers at their side.

Photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/neodelphi/2045989901/sizes/s/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/robinkaspar/4566836176/sizes/s/in/photostream/