If you're a parent reading this, you may be curious about what your kid is up to in school or just wondering how classrooms are going to be changing over the years. There's a relatively good chance you remember a day of chalkboards, a time where backpacks were bursting—and not with tablets.
A lot has changed in the last fifteen years. Where technology in schools was once a luxury rarity, it's now a mandatory component of modern education. In this article, we take a look at how tech literacy is changing the way people learn.
Shaping Modern Education
Before we get into the meat of this article, it's worth acknowledging that there is some controversy surrounding tech integration in the classroom. Various points have been made in this regard over the years. People have worried about the impact of excessive screen time. There's also been a conversation around accessibility issues. For example, can a school justify homework assignments that require internet access in a world where not everyone has the internet?
These reservations have, at the very least, been—if not completely overcome—at least mitigated by various solutions. The so-called digital divide (i.e., the number of people who have access to digital technology at home versus those who don't) has shrunk enormously, even over the last few years. And schools have been able to provide students who don't have the internet with study hours after school or even portable hotspots that they can use at home.
Even still, there is a great need to integrate digital technology safely in classrooms. There are internet privacy concerns that many students might not be fully prepared to handle responsibly. There's also just the question of what we're achieving with digital technology integrations. Are we changing things because we can, or because it's pedagogically supported?
If you've taken a particular interest in that last question, it probably means that you're either an educator or someone who aspires to a career in education. Teachers all have their own thoughts on computers and tablets in the classroom.
Those with strong enough opinions may consider getting graduate degrees in education. While a master's is not necessary for teaching, it does open the door to influential administrative positions that allow you to take a more strategic role in things like how a school district uses computers in the classroom.
With these considerations in mind, let's explore how technology is actually being implemented in today's classrooms. The reality is that tech integration has moved far beyond simple computer labs and is now woven into nearly every aspect of the learning experience.
No Longer Just a Skill
If you're a byproduct of a tech skills classroom, you may be slightly jarred to realize that while kids today do still learn technology skills, much of the work they are doing in the classroom hinges on a native ability to use certain devices. No, kindergarteners don't need to be able to code, but they are expected to know how to use a Chromebook or a tablet. This is the new normal for learning.
People are still taught specific skills with technology, but no longer is technology used only in specific contexts.
More Personalized Learning
One of the big benefits of technology in the classroom is that it integrates adaptive learning models that would be simply impossible for even the world's best teacher to handle on their own. Educators work with rooms filled with twenty-plus children while trying to suit individual preferences as best as they can. There are very clear capacity limits. Computer programs do not have these limits.
There are now many adaptive learning software that will interact with children based on their ideal learning methods and their skill level. For example, if a student is getting a lot of questions wrong on a reading comprehension quiz, the questions will adapt and scale downward to meet them where they're at. The idea is not to make school work easier or to lower the bar, but rather to get a much more accurate and specific dataset.
If a kid gets every question wrong on a pen-and-paper quiz, all we've really learned is that they didn't connect with the materials as they were presented to them. On the other hand, an adaptive learning software can say, "This child is at a second-grade reading level." In that way, it not only makes learning more engaging, it provides better data points.
Technological Literacy Opens New Doors
STEM has been a major focus in academics—really always, but particularly over the last few decades. This is in recognition of the simple fact that the best career options in the future are probably going to be in some way related to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
Regular tech integration within the classroom helps kids develop STEM skills during every subject because they always have a computer or a tablet nearby. They are always learning in different ways. Not just history, but computer research and so on.
There are, of course, downsides to constant computer use. There have been studies that indicate that excessive screen time, even in a productive context, can have negative impacts on a person's mental health and even their ability to sleep at night.
However, more recent research has indicated that the way you use your screens makes a big difference on how you are impacted by them. Kids who are using computers and tablets to learn are much more likely to experience the positives of digital technology than kids who are using them for social media.
