SPECIAL SECTION: TECHNOLOGY IN THE CLASSROOM
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 studentcentered 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-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
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do best: teach students in small groups
and customize instruction,” Facebook
founder Mark Zuckerberg says. Zuckerberg
along wi