Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Preparing Students for Success in the Digital Age.



Who Owns the Learning?
This is the key question that Alan November, an internationally recognized leader in education technology, asks about 21st century learning. He argues that before we add more technology into the classrooms, we need to look at the culture of teaching and learning. 

Does this apply to school districts with a long and strong record of academic excellence I wonder? Given our MCAS and SAT results here in Westford, we must be providing high quality teaching to our students. So why do we need to change anything?


Well, Alan believes that the culture of teaching and learning needs to change in all schools and the reason is not connected to test scores. 'We have a lot of kids who are over confident in their use of technology.' In this video he provides examples of what he means by this. He refers to: 
  • Global empathy skills 
  • The necessity of thinking critically about information 
  • The need for teachers and students to understand how to design searches that offer results from multiple perspectives 
  • The neced to redesign assignments so the answers are not able to be Googled or found in WolframAlpha 
  • The critical need for students to learn how to ask creative questions
According to Alan November, the traditional classroom where the focus is the transfer of content from the teacher to the student is out-dated by the age of the Internet and the power of information.

So when we are planning our 21st century, technology infused classrooms, we need to firstly consider the culture of teaching and learning. We should ask ourselves: Who owns the learning in our classrooms? 

Further reading on this topic....

1 comment:

  1. Thanks for sharing the blog! ISDE is best to learn better and to work better. Education is the pillar that keeps various standardized economic, social and political matters together.

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