Special section: technology in the classroom
just behind hardware. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Pearson,
previously known for their paperback publishing, are pushing out the
most digital lessons in math, English/language arts, science, business,
and fine arts.
Students
No student is the same. Each has a different family life, upbringing,
ability to communicate and learn, and yet these students are all being
taught the same way. Schools across the country are shifting from
a one-size-fits-all approach to a personalized learning approach. A
current buzzword in education, personalized learning allows students
to become part of their 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 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.
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 –
Continued next page >
Mars Area | Fall 2016 | icmags.com 25