Can Schools afford to avoid Digital Education

Each day students come to school bringing dreams hope seeking inspiration

Ideally a 21st Century Education should provide every learner with:

  • A personalized, student-centered learning environment
  • Research-based digital learning strategies implemented by caring and qualified teachers
  • A learning experiences that prepare students for an increasingly technology-driven workforce and world
  • Learning that taps into passions and interests for deeper engagement and agency
  • A clear pathway to post secondary success through which every child achieves his or her potential

Digital learning is replacing traditional educational methods more and more each day. In the rapidly changing classrooms, it is best to forget past practices and start thinking about newer teaching and learning techniques. Techniques that are based on digital learning tools and technologies.

The inclusion of digital learning in the classrooms can vary from simply using tablets instead of paper or using elaborate software programs that measures a learners progress and maps a way forward for the learners development.

LMS – Learning Management System – Online Learning Platform

A learning management system is a software application for the administration, documentation, tracking, reporting, automation and delivery of educational courses, training programs, or learning and development programs. The learning management system concept emerged directly from e-Learning. (Wikipedia)

Even social networks and communications platforms can be used to create and manage digital assignments and agendas.

Irrespective of how much technology is integrated into the classroom, digital learning has come to play a crucial role in education. It empowers students by getting them to be more interested in learning and expanding their horizons. Here is how digital learning is a step up from traditional education methods.

A learning management system (LMS) is a software application for the administration, documentation, tracking, reporting, automation, and delivery of educational courses. Learning management systems were designed to identify training and learning gaps, utilizing analytical data and reporting. LMS’s are focused on online learning (Wikipedia)

 

Students using digital learning tools and technology become more engaged in the process and more interested in growing their knowledge base. They may not even realize that they are actively learning since they are learning through engaging methods such as:

  • peer education,
  • teamwork,
  • problem-solving,
  • reverse teaching,
  • concept maps,
  • gamification,
  • staging,
  • role playing and
  • storytelling.

Reorienting Students for A World Where Technology Is Omnipresent

Digital learning is far more interactive and memorable than voluminous textbooks or one-sided lectures. They provide a greater viewpoints and more engaging activities. In this way students connect more actively with the learning material. Digital tools often offer a more interesting and involving way to digest information. This is reflected in retention rates and test scores. Further, by tracking their own scores and progress it can improve motivation and accountability.

Some benefits of digital learning

  1. Learning tools and technologies like social learning platforms make it easy for teachers to create and manage groups.
  2. The shift to digital learning can assess the benefits of tutoring while
  3. The shift to digital learning can free up time for teachers to address individual and small group needs.
  4. Learning now becomes customized for individual learners. The opportunity to customize learning for each student will make education more productive. Learners will progress at their own pace.

By closing the learning gaps in this way progress can accelerate. The chance for working together and peer-to-peer interaction increases, dynamic grouping, workshops, and project-based learning can add lots of collaborative learning to the already present education model.

For the Teacher

There are many online platforms like Panworld Education that provides lesson planning tools, worksheets, assessments etc. for educators. This makes their tasks easier. Educators can also join online professional learning communities to ask questions and share tips and stay connected with a global educators’ community. They can keep themselves updated with the most relevant content for their curriculum using such learning tools and technology.

These help teachers teach better and students learn better through engagement and enjoyment.

Parents can easily monitor their child’s progress which can serve as an extension to what they are learning in their classrooms. Digital learning tools and technology provide enjoyment for kids as well as numerous benefits in terms of developing a child’s well-being. Everyone benefits with the digitization of learning.

GAME BASED LEARNING

There is nothing as encouraging as instant gratification. A child’s interest in learning is enhanced since gamification makes the process much more enjoyable and interesting. This also provide instant results.

Digital Learning Tools and Technology Is Rapidly Increasing Information Sharing

Do not forget that this is not the first change in media.  Six centuries ago, the printing press transformed formal education and increasing learning opportunities by providing books for all. The recent shift from print to digital has NOT only change the medium but has impacted how we learn. Digital learning allows students to access more and more information while ensuring that the information customizable and suited to their personal needs.


The opportunity to help every student learn at ‘the best pace and path’ is the most important benefit of digital learning.


Increasing Students’ Employability with Digital Learning Tools and Technology

Technology in the workplace.

Before technology reaches the classroom, they are first employed in commerce and the workplace. So, it is essential that learners are comfortable with this medium.

Entrepreneurship

With the ongoing employment crisis, it is crucial that if young people are unable to find jobs, they should have the ability to create their own and ideally even generate jobs for others. For this purpose, newer methods of learning and education need to be incorporated into the school curriculums, starting right from elementary school. Digital learning tools and technology in elementary, secondary, and high schools prepares students for higher education and modern careers by helping them acquire skills including problem-solving, familiarity with emerging technologies, and self-motivation.

Traditional Education Methods Have to be Replaced – Some things change while others remain the same

Traditional lectures may still exist along with the new-age learning tools and technology, but the lecture materials should be provided as a supplement to classroom activities and moved online for students to reference outside of the classroom. Classroom time is better used for discussing the curriculum, engaging in activities with teams and completing class projects. Students often have the option to pace their learning and even study ahead with a digital learning tool if they wish to do so. By helping children think outside their typical learning modes, digital learning inspires creativity and lets children feel a sense of accomplishment that encourages further learning.

Digital learning tools and technology fill the gaps where traditional classroom teaching falls behind. In fact, some of the efficiencies such tools bring are simply unmatchable by traditional learning techniques. From

Then there is the environmental impact recognized by the need for less paper for handouts and books to

saving time with quick access to information and the ease of research,

digital learning provides an effective way to cut costs, maximize resources

and heighten both reach and impact for students and educators alike.

Traditional lectures may still exist along with the new-age learning tools and technology, but the lecture materials should be provided as a supplement to classroom activities

Resources for the Digital Classroom
https://teachfromanywhere.google/intl/en/

Taking advantage of a child’s readiness to learn

critical periods for a child’s development occurs around age 2. What children’s experiences in this phase have lasting effects on their development

Reading time: 7min30sec.

 There is electricity in the brain

neurons in the brain connect

Children are born with almost a full quota of neurons – white spaces (blanks) – in the brain. Through experience these spaces are connected to increase mental development.   From birth to age 5, a child’s brain develops more than at any other time in life. And early brain development has a lasting impact on a child’s ability to learn and succeed in school and life. The quality of a child’s experiences in the first few years of life – positive or negative – helps shape how their brain develops.  

This EXTRACT is taken from: “Benefits of reading to your child”

Read more

https://imacademy.co.za/wp-admin/post.php?post=4094&action=edit

Children’s brains develop in spurts called critical periods. The first occurs around age 2, with a second one occurring during adolescence.

At the start of this period (two-year-olds), the number of connections (synapses) between brain cells (neurons) doubles. The connections between brain cells are where learning occurs, twice as many synapses enable the brain to learn faster than at any other time of life. What children’s experiences in this phase have lasting effects on their development.

It also provides a prime opportunity to lay the foundation for a holistic education for children.

Here are four ways to maximize learning during this period:

  • encouraging a love of learning,
  • focusing on breadth instead of depth,
  • paying attention to emotional intelligence, and
  • do not treat a young child’s education as merely a precursor to “real” learning (play school). 

ENCOURAGE A LOVE OF LEARNING

Instead of focusing on performance, Young children need to enjoy the process of learning. Educators and parents can emphasize the joys of trying new activities and learning something novel.

This period is also the time to establish a growth mindset. Talents and abilities are developed through effort instead of being naturally fixed.

Educators should avoid labeling children or making universal statements about their ability like “You’re so smart” these are counterproductive. Instead, emphasize perseverance. Children will learn to love learning if we show enthusiasm over the process. Do not fixate on results.[i] 

FOCUS ON BREADTH, NOT DEPTH

Expose children to a wide variety of activities. It is a time to develop skills in a range of fields. Engage children in music, reading, sports, math, art, science, and languages.

Avoid focusing on results during this phase of development as to emphasize the breadth of skill development over depth.

People who thrive in our rapidly changing world are those who first learn how and then draw from multiple fields. They think creatively and abstractly – this forms well-rounded individuals.

Well-roundedness is especially important for children from ages 2 to 7. Their developing brains are ready to soak in a wide range of skill sets. DON’T OVERLOOK EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

Yes, we want children to read well and learn the fundamentals of math. But we should not disregard emotional intelligence. The advantages of learning during this first critical period of brain development should extend to interpersonal skills such as kindness, empathy, and teamwork.

Empathy begins with acknowledging one’s feelings. Therefore help children label their emotions (“I feel sad”) and then tell the story about what made them feel that way (“I feel sad because I wanted ice cream and you said no”). Once children practice labeling emotions, educators can start asking questions that encourage them to consider others’ feelings.

One way to encourage care for others is to include children in what adults do for others. Even allowing young children to help with chores can make them more helpful and considerate people.

DON’T TREAT YOUNG CHILDREN’S EDUCATION AS MERELY A PRECURSOR TO “REAL” LEARNING

Children’s brains can uniquely absorb information during this critical phase.

Research shows that children in this age range are best suited to learn the patterns of language development, enabling them to master a second language to the same level as a native language. However, once children reach age 8, their language learning proficiency decreases, and second languages are not spoken as well as native ones. The same age effect is found when learning musical ability such as perfect pitch.

It is tempting to think of early childhood education as a precursor to “real” education. But these may be the years that matter most. 


[i] https://www.edutopia.org/article/why-ages-2-7-matter-so-much-brain-development