learning experience. Students will be in control of creating content
for learning using smartphone apps. This approach intends to put
students at the forefront of molding their learning experience,
resulting in stronger student engagement and therefore better
outcomes. The Nellie Mae Education Foundation notes that a
student-centered approach can “only be successful if [it occurs]
within a cultural context that demands continuous improvement
and engages collective processes that foster understanding and
broad ownership of decisions. This should be driven by vigilant
consideration of assessment results that help illuminate the extent
to which particular interventions are working, and who is benefiting
from the changes in what ways.”
THE HOW
Mobile and Digital Learning
Digital learning made a slow entrance into mainstream
education, but with the use of tablets and mobile devices, the
number of teachers using game-based learning in the classroom has
doubled in the past six years. “The explosion in teacher interest and
usage of videos and game-based learning could be a harbinger of a
new awakening for digital learning,” Julie Evans, the CEO of Project
Tomorrow, says. In a 2015 survey conducted by Project Tomorrow,
48 percent of K-12 teachers and nearly two-thirds of K-5 teachers
reported adopting the use of games in their weekly lessons.
According to Education Week, 23 million devices were purchased
in 2013 and 2014 alone. More recently, tablets are taking over as
an affordable option for bringing technology to each individual
student. One-to-one computing hopes to provide teachers with the
time to give each student more personalized attention and time to
work at his/her own pace.
New Learning Spaces
Gone are the days of sitting head-behind-head, avoiding eye
contact with your teacher, hoping she won’t call on you for the
answer to her question. Student-centered environments in colleges
and schools breed creativity and innovation through small-group
learning and instruction. “In a personalized learning classroom,
technology frees up time for teachers to do what they do best: teach
students in small groups and customize instruction,” Facebook
founder Mark Zuckerberg says. Zuckerberg along with the Bill and
Melinda Gates Foundation and many others are seeing the positive
outcomes of personalized learning. Reinventing learning spaces is a
subtle approach that will make sure the student population is served
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