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
- Learning tools and technologies like social learning platforms make it easy for teachers to create and manage groups.
- The shift to digital learning can assess the benefits of tutoring while
- The shift to digital learning can free up time for teachers to address individual and small group needs.
- 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/ |
