The adoption of the Internet worldwide has undoubtedly affected all its users. Since the Internet became commonplace, our world has flipped upside down. The internet has completely revolutionized the way people approach tasks. Now-a-days, everything is completed online. All of our medical records are on computers used by the doctor’s office. We pay our bills online. We shop online. And, more now than ever, people are learning online. Rather than jump to a newspaper or book to cite evidence, people use Google to back up their claims or obtain new information. Youtube has become a hub for instructional videos ranging from here to the moon on content.
This shift has happened rapidly when you consider just how much has changed in so little time. In about 30 years, we’ve become completely reliant on technology in all aspects of our lives. While the societal changes happened quickly, government-level educational reform moves at a snail’s pace, as I’ve mentioned many times before in previous blog posts. Changes inside a classroom can happen as quickly as the next day. But the No Child Left Behind Act continues to bog down our education system and folks agree the policy is no-good and washed. The intentions of NCLB seem in the right place, but years of implementation have held back true learning. Instead, NCLB produces a one-size-fits-all approach to education when our world has become as customized as ever. Why do these educational institutions resist change in order to better service their students?
In a world where the internet allows us to customize our experience like never before, education should be no different. Educational institutions’ policies cannot keep up with the ever-changing technological innovations that can continue to support deep learning. This phenomenon has families scrambling in order to provide adequate services for their child and is inspiring the educational entrepreneur to pick up the scraps left behind by the one-size fits-all approach of the larger institutions. Personalized learning, in my opinion, is on the horizon as a new wave of educational reform.
As a teacher, I feel like I’m constantly told what to do, how to do it, when to do it, and in what way the task should be done. All from a top-down management style of passing the buck down to the teachers. I don’t think I’m alone in thinking that teachers are overworked, underpaid, and under-appreciated. Because of this, record numbers of teachers are leaving the profession in search of something else. It is tough to be told to teach in a way that is ineffective and outdated when brand new sparkly technological innovations are at our fingertips just ready to be used. This simple reason is a key reason why I moved on from my last job. Being handed a script for how to teach to students totally incapable of understanding such rigorous content was like banging my head against the wall. There was no room for creativity, flexibility, or deviation from the norm. Then, when our standardized test scores came out, we were curious why scores were so low. It doesn’t take a genius to notice the issue here. A curriculum designed for the intellectually elite given to students who come from a low socioeconomic status and also have a myriad of complications in their personal lives…no wonder they struggle! But to continue to roll out the same lessons year after year became too much for me. Now I work at a charter school where creativity and outside resources are encouraged is a huge relief.
But even now, I’m noticing some of the same trends. The decision-making at my current school can be head-scratching from time to time from a teacher’s point of view. Since I work for a charter school, I sometimes get the impression that the school is run by businessmen and businesswomen with a different agenda. A mile wide and an inch deep is a phrase that can sum up the expectations of our students. We expect students to be a jack-of-all trades, but a master of none. Pushing this type of learning does not allow students to totally immerse themselves in self-driven instruction or allow students to pursue their own interests while in school. Students need a customized curriculum adaptable to the students instead of asking students to adapt to the one-size-fits all instruction teachers have been providing for years.
The coronavirus pandemic has certainly flipped the education world on its head. Teachers everywhere were sent scrambling in order to figure out what works and what doesn’t. Some teachers found success, and others continue to drown under the resistance to change. An infusion of technology is imminent, and teachers better be prepared. As stated in the article on page 37, “Innovative and experimental ideas for schools are being fueled by new digitally enabled possibilities.” This quote shows the experimental nature schools are currently grappling with in order to figure out how to best service students. The digital possibilities are vast and administrations need to choose wisely. After all, you cannot just throw laptops at the situation and hope the situation resolves itself. Using the correct technologies plays a key role whether or not the learning will be effective. Sure, the Notepad app available standard on any laptop will work, but the capabilities are limited compared to Google Docs. The needs of teachers and students are never-ending and finding the proper technology to support their needs should be at the forefront of decision-making.
Software companies are beginning to get their taste through the gamified experience of educational aspects. Just in my context, I can share a program we use called Imagine Math & Imagine Math Facts. For the sake of discussion, I’ll be referring to Imagine Math Facts. When students log in to Imagine Math Facts, they are immediately assigned an avatar to choose from. From there, the embark on a quest in a gamified context in order to achieve mastery with their addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts. This is just one example of many of how education is becoming gamified based on inspiration from past successes of Pokemon, The Sims, World of Warcraft, and many many more.
In my opinion, I see the gamification of education as a key cog in revolutionizing education. I’m adamant about my stance on gaming that I’ve gone ahead persuing a certificate in E-Learning Design offered through Penn State. Furthermore, I’ll be working through a program called Unity and their course in order to learn how to create and build computer games. In my context, many of my students are enamored with video games. They will game before and after school. Some of the popular games include Fortnite and Among Us. Harnessing the addictive nature of these video games and putting my own educational spin on it, I hope, will become massively popular and financially lucrative for me. According to our reading, institutions exist that tailor instruction completely towards the gamified aspect.
Another aspect from the reading I found interesting, and have witnessed firsthand is the digital divide. Basically, students who stem from families of lower socioeconomic statuses lack the same access to technology their peers from a higher socioeconomic status would encounter. This problem is perpetuated throughout the globe. Poorer cultures and nations lack the same access to technology compared to users in more advanced societies.
21st century knowledge has moved away from traditional school teaching. Old-fashioned teaching includes knowledge acquisition and knowledge base building from an instructor appointed as the keeper of information. This differs from 21st century learning in the sense that 21st century learning includes collaboration, among many other elements. Collaboration in a Web 2.0 setting can be best illustrated by the invention and evolution of Wikipedia: an online encyclopedia edited and maintained by its users. Wikipedia places educators in a precarious situation as it pertains to students using Wikipedia material as reference material. On one hand, anyone can edit or post to Wikipedia, so it may be unreliable. On the other hand, anyone can edit or post to wikipedia, so it may contain the most peer-reviewed material to ensure authenticity. Further, 21st century learning should be synonymous with networked learning. With this, students can begin seeing the true value of their work if more than the instructor’s eyes will view the project. Students can approach projects differently when knowing their work can be shared to an open source with many viewers.
In order for 21st century learning to take shape, many changes and reforms are necessary. One such example includes the need to disperse necessary hardware to its users. Families from low socioeconomic statuses, improvised nations, and/or other factors potentially lead to a divide in access. Closing this gap is the first step towards working to a more connected educational community. Luckily, organizations have already begun distributing devices to users in need. The Mobile and Immersive Learning for Literacy in Emerging Economies (MILLEE) project designs story-based games for mobile phones in developing countries to help facilitate interactive language learning. The MIT Media Lab created an association entitled “One Laptop Per Child (OLPC).” The goal of the program is to develop and distribute reliable, low-cost, computers with applications to provide children in impoverished countries with learning possibilities. Both of these programs are taking steps in the right direction to adapt with the future of learning.
The future of education is bright, a silver lining amid the coronavirus pandemic. The need for readily accessible technology in order to keep moving forward is exactly the shake-up the education world needed. Now, my hope is that we collectively work to move education forward, rather than reverting to old habits that are a way of the past.