Internet Learning Volume 7, Number 1 • 2018/2019 | Page 20

Preparing Teachers for the 21 st Century Classroom
Throughout the history of American
education, the typical public
K-12 school classroom tends to
have students sitting in desks, usually
in rows or clusters, with their attention
focused on the teacher. This stereotype
is entrenched in the minds of students,
families, and other constituents. It is
the reason the cycle of lecture-based direct
instruction continues to be so difficult
to break, especially in secondary
classrooms. However, two centuries of
compulsory education in this style have
been overturned within the last couple
of decades as technology is prompting
today’s 21 st century-infused classrooms
to be different.
Schools are changing as traditional
neighborhood schools have
slowly given way to home schooling
and magnet, charter, and, more recently,
virtual schools. Virtual schools that
deliver coursework online have had an
important impact on education because
they more easily allow students to make
up credit for failed courses, earn credit
for additional courses or courses not
available within their local schools, and
learn on a flexible schedule if the traditional
school system is not the best
fit for their personal lives. As the world
becomes more global in its interactions,
so does the model for learning as the
Internet allows students to enhance
their learning through more people, resources,
and information.
The Khan Academy (2017),
which brought video-based instruction
into popularity, was founded in 2006.
Since then, its instructional videos have
grown into free, open, online courses.
Public school systems, universities, and
other organizations are increasingly
designing online and hybrid courses
through which students can earn online
degrees and certifications. During the
2013–2014 school year, 33 states had
full-time virtual schools that enrolled
close to 262,000 K-12 students (Miron
& Gulosino, 2016). Several states, including
Michigan, Florida, Virginia,
and Arkansas, have passed legislation
that requires high school students to
take at least one virtual course to be eligible
for graduation (National Conference
of State Legislatures, 2017).
World technologies advance and
brick-and-mortar schools continue to
change as portable electronic devices
enable learning to be differentiated, individualized,
and personalized and provide
quicker access to information. The
quickest way to learn the answer to a
question or find out more about a topic
of interest is to Google it. That is becoming
the instinctual response to learning
new information, whether using
a computer, portable tablet, or phone
voice recognition system. Education has
moved from the rote memorization of
facts to the need for literacy skills, metacognition,
and critical thinking as necessary
means to promote lifelong learning
in a rapidly changing society. World
Economic Forum (2016) states that:
In many industries and countries,
the most in-demand occupations
or specialties did not
exist 10 or even five years ago,
and the pace of change is set to
accelerate .... 65% of children
entering primary school today
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