SPECIAL SECTION: TECHNOLOGY IN THE CLASSROOM
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-behindhead, 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
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