SPECIAL SECTION: TECHNOLOGY IN THE CLASSROOM
PLAY + FUN = LEARNING
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 gamebased 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.
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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 adequately,
allowing teachers to spend more personalized time with each student
in a group. Through technology, students are provided access to
24/7 learning, allowing them to take learning outside of their typical
classroom setting and work on their own time. This means a cultural
shift in the use of mobile technology in the classroom.
STEM Integration
The United States is pushing for young people to become scientists,
engineers, and innovators to shape tomorrow and to continue to
be global leaders. As a common buzzword in recent years, STEM –
science, technology, engineering, and mathematics – continues to
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