Today in class we watched a video called “Future Learning”. This video had inspiring information about technology and teaching in the 21st century. Some important topics were brought up in the video having to do with students and how they learn with technology. The world is evolving with technology and, and we must embrace it to its full potential! Students can no longer sit for an hour and listen to a teacher ramble on about topics that don’t apply to them. Instead, students want interactive work that they can clearly see will apply to the real world. With technology improving every day, we need a way to integrate technology and education in our student’s classrooms.
A big question today is still lingering in people’s minds, and that is if technology will truly benefit our education system. Today children are more disengaged in school than ever before. For the most part students are thinking about their electronic devises. By bringing the devises into the learning process we can only hope to bring the focus of our students back to learning. Young children today will be learning how to use a tablet rather than reading in most cases. So why would we remove something so key like technology while in school. Technology is what younger generations know, and quite frankly, this is what they should know. The use of technology in society today is overwhelming. To find a job that doesn’t have an employer using technology at any point is extremely rare.
Sugata Mitra had brought a PC around to third world countries. What happened next was truly surprising. The children with access to the PC had taught themselves how to browse the internet. This shows us the power of interactive technology exposed to groups of aspiring learners! We are finding that self-guided education is more beneficial only when truly being able to work without barriers imposed by teachers. Sugata Mitra said “There appears to be no limits to this, which children can teach themselves almost anything given the internet, given permission to interact with each other, and even the abundance of a teacher can become a pedagogical tool”.
Learning happens when the mind is relaxed. Children will be able to learn more if they are not stressed. A way to accomplish this would be by familiarizing students with games that incorporate learning. The video “Future Learning” hones in on specific future learning strategies, one being video games. Video games are interesting to children today, and will keep them motivated to learn. While playing a video game YOU have control of what you are doing. Isn’t this what we all want for our education, to have control?! Video games in the future education system will not be mindless entertainment, but instead they will be teaching mechanisms for memorization. Sugata Mirta said “If a child plays a video game they will keep trying to succeed even if it takes 100 times to do so”. This will not necessarily motivate our students to further their education, but it will help our students learn on their own.
The time has come where traditional methods and strategies of teaching do not create an engaging classroom enjoinment for students. It will be a continuing challenge to have a balance between advancing technology and education in a way so that children want to learn. This era has brought upon the question of whether or not technology is truly helping our youth or instead disconnecting them. No matter what it is hard to see future learning not involving some form of technology in classrooms. We must look to create a system of education in which generations to come will prosper.
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