Technology has significantly impacted education in the 21st Century. Technology is more accessible than it has ever been. The digital divide that once existed between the digital immigrants and digital natives is quickly diminishing due to mediums such as social media. Schools, like industry, must adapt to the change to engage and retain students. The focus must shift from accessibility of technology to how will the technology be used to effectively teach children.
In a study examining how teachers leverage technology with what we know about how humans learn to enhance learning, researchers identified many significant strategies and implications for teaching and learning (McNight, O’Malley & Ruzic, 2016). Research supports a learner-centered approach that adapts the technology based on human learning processes (McNight, et al., 2016).
Learning has expanded beyond the brick and mortar walls of the classroom. Students have access to learning around the clock. Some significant trends in instructional technology are the flipped classroom, adaptive technology, and blended learning. There are a plethora of quality apps and tools available for teachers to integrate digital skills in the classroom.
The teacher is responsible for setting the environment for learning. Students need the teacher to maximize the potential of their learning with technology. Therefore, teachers must have the skills necessary to effectively teach with technology. An implication for leaders is to move beyond the basic operations and how to and move toward the skills to move students toward the 21st Century skills and digital literacy skills such as compose, evaluate and synthesis (http://mozilla.github.io/webmaker-whitepaper). Teachers need a new set of skills to effectively teach technology; skills for guiding, questioning, and facilitating students to construct and find their own knowledge (McNight, et al., 2016).
Engaging the digital native requires a different educational system. The traditional system of teaching and learning will not prepare students to compete in the global marketplace. “If children are motivated to learn, and if we enable each one to learn effectively, we will have an education system with a great performance record” (Christensen, 2011, p. 161).
References
Christensen, C.M, Horn, M.B. & Johnson, C.W. (2011) Disrupting class: How disruptive innovation will change the way the world learns. New York: McGraw Hill.
McKnight, K., O’Malley, K., Ruzic, R., Horsley, M. K., Franey, J. J., & Bassett, K. (2016) Teaching in a digital age: How educators use technology to improve student learning, Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 48(3), 194-211, doi: 10.1080/15391523.2016.1175856
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