Leadership magazine Nov/Dec 2015 V45 No 2 | Page 30

Steps to a
learner-centered
environment
• Define what “learner-centered” will
look like in your school/district.
• Create opportunities for educators
to observe new environments and
redefine instructional models.
• Provide professional learning
opportunities to foster a new
learner-centered culture.
• Take risks to play with furniture,
lighting, and paint ideas to see what
resonates with students and staff in
your school/district.
• Integrate technology and digital
resources.
• Empower administrators to design
similar collaborative working
environments for teachers and
support staff
• Celebrate and share
accomplishments with parents,
school boards, community.
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Leadership

active simulations.
In 2012, the Alliance for Excellent Education developed “The Digital Learning
Imperative: How Technology and Teaching
Meet Today’s Education Challenges.” The
report points out that digital learning has
many complicated facets, including professional development, learning management
platforms, tools and devices, digital content, and data and assessment. What it also
points out is the way digital learning can
better meet student needs than traditional
lectures, research and note taking.
Technology and digital access can better support diverse learners, reduce dropout rates, improve attendance, and reduce
the achievement gap (Alliance, 2009). For
example, in rural areas, digital content can
help students access courses where offerings
might not be as plentiful. In rural Northern
California’s East Nicolaus High School, digital content and access has provided opportunities to support underrepresented students.
The digital content has made a significant
impact on learning, particularly in the area
of STEM. Supported by Project Lead the
Way, students are exposed to engineering
principles, robotics and technology resources
to support their interest to pursue careers in
the STEM field they would not otherwise
have had without access to digital tools.
Superintendent Karen Villalobos said,
“Feedback from the first year of implementation was that students enjoyed the handson approach to teaching and the cohort had
no attrition as the students move on to year
two. In addition, ENHS now has ownership of the curriculum from year one and
is able to provide STEM courses to future
students. We are pleased to provide students
with these future forward skills to move
them into the 21st century.”
At Oxnard USD’s Rancho Campana
High School, all students have their own
devices and access to wifi the moment they
step on campus. Classes are designed not
only for students to have daily face-to-face
time with teachers, but also to interact
with teachers and classmates in a learning
management system.
“When students are out, they have immediate access from home or any other place
in the world to the lessons taught each day,”

Principal Roger Adams said.
Developing first-hand experiences and
allowing students to create products is another strength of digital resources in 21st
century learning environments. When we
buy things on Amazon or make a family web
page on Facebook, it’s not an act of being
“techie,” it’s the norm.
“Our students teach themselves how to
cook and do gymnastics with YouTube,” said
Jon Corippo, academic innovation director
at CUE. “Our students are makers and coders at home, and FaceTime with their parents. It’s now time for schools to take the lead
in developing our students to their fullest
potential. Technology, fully embedded into
teaching and learning, can move students far
away from the constrained learning potential
of a worksheet dependent classroom.”

Becoming learner centered
Learning environments are in the midst
of significant change in order to engage students in collaborative activities and innovative practices. Yet they are not just about the
design, the furniture or the spac K