In lockdown or out, it cannot be refuted that this year brings with it certain challenges and opportunities. Facilitators have imbibed the strength that came from teaching during an immensely challenging year. Likewise, school leadership has had cause to reflect on practices during the pandemic and how they must transform going forward. The three primary stakeholders who need to get on board with managing values and expectations are the students, parents, teachers, along with management.
Values influencing expectations
New values to be taught explicitly
Social and Emotional Learning has played a crucial role in urging students to persevere through hard times of loss and adjustment. The values that we want to infuse in our children have transcended the four walls of homes and need to be taught explicitly in every facet of life. Traditional values such as duty, working hard, and following authority without question have been replaced by resilience, self-care, and cultivating an inquiry spirit. Whenever I introspect on what we are teaching our students, there is a glaring disparity in what we used to emphasize in a pre-pandemic era.
It’s obvious that knowing more than one language can make certain things easier — like traveling or watching movies without subtitles. But are there other advantages to having a bilingual (or multilingual) brain? Mia Nacamulli details the three types of bilingual brains and shows how knowing more than one language keeps your brain healthy, complex and actively engaged.
Society functions much differently than it did prior to the advent of the digital revolution. New tools, ranging from social media to digital transaction management, have re-contoured the ways in which people interact and do business. The digital age also notably influences how we learn. In fact, the classroom has become one of the most rapidly growing markets for new technology.
Here are 13 of the Latest Trends in Educational Technology.
1. Greater access to STEM materials
As technology has become increasingly central to all aspects of modern life, schools have put more focus on science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) subjects. To take advantage of this shift, companies can develop engaging curriculum for robotics, coding, and programming.
2. Privacy for students
Cyber-security and digital privacy rank among the top concerns of all consumers, including consumers of education. As a result, there is a large market for improving the efficacy of existing products and creating new ones that will help manage student data and protect the privacy of these young individuals.
3. “Flipped learning”
A new approach to education is called “flipped learning,” and as the name suggests, it involves turning traditional teaching methods upside down. In a “flipped” classroom, students take advantage of new technologies to absorb content at home through videos and other digital content and then complete their “homework” at school in small groups under the teacher’s supervision.
4. Virtual education
Closely related to the concept of flipped learning is the idea of remote, or “virtual,” education, which takes place outside of a physical school building. With this method, students complete courses at home using online content, including videos of instructors in front of an actual class. Another benefit of virtual education is that teachers can utilize video conferencing and social media technologies, as well as a variety of subject-matter experts to convey information and check for understanding.
5. Digital and media literacy courses
As students spend more and more time online, there is a growing need for a curriculum that teaches digital literacy — systems to help students harness the technological tools at their disposal. This includes developing guidelines for how to interact with others (for more than social and entertainment purposes) and how to process information they encounter online.
6. New utility for wearable technology
Wearable technology can help keep kids safe. Not only can these devices track the locations of students at school, but they can also monitor the whereabouts of campus visitors. These items can even facilitate paperless transactions in the cafeteria, thus reducing waste, and quite possibly, bullying and theft.
7. Game-based curricula
Schools are more frequently adopting game-based curricula as a means for creatively engaging students in their lessons. Many kids appreciate the challenge-reward concept of video games, and these digital platforms can incorporate a wealth of problem-solving and social skills.
8. Improved parent-teacher connections
As schools continue to incorporate Ed Tech into the classroom, communication between teachers and parents will flourish. Teachers will take advantage of programs that track assignments and report student progress to all involved parties. Therefore, businesses will do well to supply new and better communication channels.
9. Better open resources for educators
A vast array of educational resources exists for teachers looking to incorporate digital content into their lessons. However, many of these are of low quality. Tech developers, therefore, can profit from developing intelligent, polished, and well-researched digital materials.
10. AI and VR
Artificial intelligence (AI) has gained a lot of traction in the market recently. Tech companies can use this technology to provide educational facilities with virtual mentors and teaching assistants, as well as improved automated grading systems.
Virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) is a popular gaming technology that entrepreneurs can use to enhance student learning. At some schools, students are already taking “virtual” field trips with a VR headset. Estimates project instructional AI and VR expanding into a multibillion-dollar industry in the near future.
11. Paperless textbooks
School districts today must decide whether print textbooks or tablets for every student are more expensive. Over time, the latter usually proves a better financial investment because schools can easily upload new and better classroom materials to the same devices, but they must spend thousands to replace outdated traditional textbooks.
12. Big data analysis
Just as big data helps businesses obtain a better grasp of their consumer base, it can help teachers learn more about their students. Technology-assisted learning can yield valuable information about how children learn and in which specific areas they are struggling. For example, a student might fully understand the material but get confused by the format of a test.
13. Social media
Educators have recently embraced the utility of social media for organizing group projects. Moreover, online conversations and homework-related hash tags can help students build their own peer community. It can also encourage new ways of learning.
Teachers often wrestle with two big questions: How do people learn, and how can they do it better in a constantly evolving context? Therefore, what are 6 channels of 21st Century learning?
1. Dialogic Response
Learning is a conversation–whether personal, local, and direct, or more general, global, and digitally-based.
2. Community Interaction
Communities–including local physical communities, and digital, niche communities–nurture relationships and frame content.
3. Abstraction & Creativity
Creativity isn’t just art and whimsy, but the overlap between the macro thinking and micro details to solve the challenges of daily living.
4. Media Literacy
Digital media evolves constantly in both form and function, from text, images, hyperlinked documents, and interactive video (the ‘form’ part) to communicating, curating, duplicating, citing, attributing, grouping, and sharing (the ‘function’ part). Understanding the nuance of individual platforms–and how they work together to serve human-focused needs and opportunity–is ‘media literacy.’
5. Play
This is the opposite of compliant response to teacher-centered environments. In play, learners freely experiment, show ambition, follow curiosity, and take risks to create, design, evolve, and connect in ways that are otherwise impossible under compulsion.
6. Self-Directed Learning
Play is a big part of self-directed learning, but more broadly can include academic response, project-based learning, game-based learning, and other ‘school-like’ learning forms while students hold themselves and one another accountable to their own criteria of quality.
“Don’t take work home” and “don’t work outside of contract hours” sounds like great advice. However, it’s not feasible for many of us. Let’s face it, most of us wouldn’t be able to do our jobs, which is to effectively teach our students, without bringing work home sometimes.
3. Lunchtime is for me.
4. Students and parents don’t get my personal contact info.
They have my school email address and school phone number. That’s it. My social media is on lockdown and I don’t give out my personal phone number. I learned this the hard way after parents and students were constantly calling, texting, and messaging on Facebook at all hours of the day and night, seven days a week.
5. “No” is a complete sentence.
“No” isn’t a bad word, and, in fact, it’s a complete sentence all alone. I’ve learned to use it – and let me tell you it was hard and scary at first! But it gets easier. You can say no when:
An admin asks you to head the planning committee for the spring fling
The PTA president wants you to be a speaker at the next meeting
Students ask for a slime day and you’re not up for the mess
Parents ask for just “five minutes” right then instead of scheduling a conference
The new teacher asks you to drop what you’re doing and help her with yet another paper jam
Extend it to, “No, thanks” if that makes you feel more polite.
Setting teacher boundaries takes time. Keeping them takes lots of practice. But I’m so glad I’ve put in the work! Start with just one at a time like I did if the idea of boundaries overwhelms you. I’m a better teacher, parent, partner, and individual person because of it.
As a teacher, I think these tips are important for teacher’s wellbeing and have a higher quality of teaching. I am especially am picky about what work I do after hours. I hate working overtime! It makes my life inbalance. As to lunchtime is for me, I usually hid in the staff lounge eating my lunch although people know where to find me. Then, students and parents don’t get my personal contact info. It is a school policy, so I am lucky that I have no problem with this. Last but not least, “No” is a complete sentence. It is super difficult! I will need to try this with “No, thanks” I have other commitments…..
