Creating Effective Digital Learning Environments For Higher Education

Digital Natives entering institutions of higher education expect ICT to be effectively integrated into their learning experiences and they want to be able to access it all from anywhere, anytime. To meet this need, many colleges and universities are now providing ICT-enriched courses for students who are required to bring student-owned mobile devices with them for classroom use. Additionally, institutions of higher education are now offering courses that combine elements of online learning and face-to-face instruction, known as “blended” courses. Read the rest of the story here.

Funding IT in Higher Education – The Power of Partnership

More and more HiEd leaders are recognizing that integrated technology truly empowers faculty and staff. Learn how HiEd institutions are creating technology-rich learning environments that accommodate the needs of today's "Digital Natives."  Read the rest of the story here.

How Educators Use Pinterest for Curation

According to KQED San Francisco, the social network Pinterest, which was launched just two years ago, already has over 10 million users. This uniquely visual, topic-based, curation tool is increasingly being used in higher education by professors and their students to gather resources and to curate and generate conversation around content topics as well as educational policy issues. By sharing Pinterest posts via Facebook and Twitter, colleagues remain aware of one another’s Pinterest activities, are able to easily join in the work, and can spread Pinterest interconnections across and through other social media platforms and environments. Read the rest of the story here.

I never teach my pupils; I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn. – Albert Einstein

Interestingly, it seems that it is the influx of Digital Natives into our schools that is providing real impetus for needed educational reform these days. Educational leaders, pressed to find ways to meet the unique needs and expectations of their 21rst century students, are working hard to implement ubiquitous computing programs designed to support the creative use of ICT throughout the students’ academic preparation. Thanks to their efforts and the visionary ground work laid by Seymour Papert and other educational pioneers like him, the old schoolhouse model is slowly giving way to new collaborative learning environments where teachers and students together decide what to learn, how to best create this new knowledge, and what technologies they should use to support the process.

Many of us have experienced first hand the magic that can happen in these exciting new technology-supported learning environments. Educators and students are being given opportunities to co-discover creative ways to leverage the unique skills, attitudes and interests of today’s digitally savvy learners in ways that maximize the potential that technology brings to the teaching-learning process. Research in neurobiology, social psychology, and learning science shows that integrated technology programs have the power to provide learning opportunities that vastly improve today’s students’ achievement, advance digital equity, and enhance teaching and learning across the disciplines. Information and Communication Technologies—always accessible but rarely the actual focus of learning—enable each member of the learning community to get connected, construct knowledge in personally meaningful ways, and demonstrate their intellectual competence and creativity using a variety of modalities.

Simply put, ICT provides the essential conditions in which Digital Natives learn.

Promoting Technology-Rich, Anytime-Anywhere Education Programs in our Schools

I think it is safe to say that, if given the choice, most primary and secondary students today would come to school carrying their own laptop computers or tablets ready to connect to the campus wireless network so they could get about the business of thinking and learning. Visionary educational leaders today understand this and  genuinely would like to meet the needs and expectations of their students by implementing technology-rich, anytime-anywhere education programs in their schools. And to my experience, it seems that most, if not all, of the pieces are now in place to make this a reality for our children.

Current research from multiple disciplines shows that digital natives thrive in technology-rich learning environments and that 24/7, anytime-anywhere access to ICT increases Digital Natives’ achievement, has the power to advance digital equity, and can enhance teaching and learning in every subject. 

NCLB’s Enhancing Education Through Technology Act was put in place way back in 2001 expressly to provide assistance to States and localities with the implementation and support of a comprehensive system that effectively uses technology in schools to improve student academic achievement. 

And while there have always been inspired educators with dreams of these new possibilities for learning, these dreams could not until very recently be turned into practice because of a lack of suitable technology. Fortunately, technology tools are now available that are affordable, durable and portable enough to make it possible for teachers, administrators, staff, students and parents to all have access to ICT whenever and wherever they need it. 

Wireless environments can be established throughout the buildings where classes are conducted, giving educational leaders the capability to transform the entire school into one large “computer lab.” And on top of all that, case studies indicate that when carefully implemented, teachers and students really love this stuff.

Okay.

We know that many of the children who are attending our schools today have been clicking a mouse since they were very young children. These kids think and construct knowledge in ways that are greatly enhanced through the use of information and communication technologies. Indeed, to varying degrees, Digital Natives depend on ICT to think and learn. Almost any teacher will tell you that increasing numbers of Digital Natives attending our public schools are oftentimes bored and restless in class. And while it can certainly be argued that fidgety students have been attending class since the early days of the one room school house,  I believe it is of special interest today because the traditional, widely accepted system of education that is the norm was not designed to meet the educational needs of the 21rst century student. Things have changed. These kids need something different. And ironically, in many cases, the kids can’t wait to get back home to their computing devices so they can think again. 

Educational Leaders at all levels—from the schoolhouse to the Whitehouse—recognize the need for comprehensive educational systems and programs that effectively use the technology that has been proven to increase student academic achievement and advance digital equity. Technology tools are now cheap enough, durable enough and portable enough to be practical and appropriate for large-scale academic use. School principals, college deans, and district superintendents understand the need for immediate and deep reform and they want to make changes in their schools to better serve the Digital Natives.

So, given all of this, what I really want to know is… Where is the revolution?!

What can we all do to promote more technology-rich, anytime-anywhere education programs in our schools today? Is "Bring Your Own Device" part of the answer? Do we need more computer labs in schools or more Computers on Wheels? Do teachers need more technology support and professional development?

How can we empower administrators and teachers to adjust the structure of our schools to meet the educational needs of the students who are attending them today?