Gearing up students towards the digital future

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Hello Everyone,

 In the globally well-connected world that we are living today where technology plays a vital role and becoming more and more efficient and essential, the question that pops up in my mind is “Are we preparing our children for the future? There are many speculations with respect to the preparation of the children for the future but how do we get there? I believe that the current educational model needs to be rationalized to understand and achieve the skills and characteristics which will be very important for our students in the future.

 

I think most of us agree that the major trend in the education today has one or the other means of entanglement with technology integration. As schools explore different ways to embed technology into the classroom, educators are trying different methods for effective incorporation that promotes student success and knowledge gain. Technology has provided students with many vibrant learning tools like smartphones, tablets, laptops etc and these tools are the most adaptable learning tools in the history of education where our students have immediate access to enormous

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amount of information which is both informative and collaborative. In this digital era students are equipped with tools and technology which enables them to travel and explore the world even without stepping out of their house, see the trending things happening around the globe by their fingertips from their smartphone, speak and collaborate with people from different countries instantly. The world today is open to them and waiting for them to discover it and we as educators must ensure that they are well prepared to encounter the various challenges they might face and safely sail through the digital world.

As I was going through this week’s reading materials I found many interesting articles to support my views on this blog post, 2020 Future Work Skills article from this week’s readings particularly intrigued me to explore a little further, and I think It portraits the skills our children need in the near future and It also greatly inspire out teaching practices. The article categorizes the top 10 skills our children need to know as they advance further in the digital world. In the present education world, everyone is talking about the word” Digital”, Digital immigrants, digital natives, digital learning and teaching, digital citizenship, digital literacy, digital curriculum etc and I think it is pretty safe to say that digital world has arrived and will continue to flood every part of our lives in the future and education is no exception and as educators this is the world that we should be preparing students for. Digital learning which is facilitated by direct or indirect use of technology or digital tools will be a likely game changer for educators to boost student learning and teaching moments in the classroom. Students who will be entering the future workforce will need various skills such as collaboration, tech knowledge, critical thinking, ingenuity, problem-solving etc. and as educators, it is our responsibility in getting them ready for the digital community and digital future.

As my fellow classmate Amy discusses in her blog post, we are preparing students to be a better part of a community that they are already part of. We must ensure that they must be an effective and efficient digital citizen and as educators, we have a unique opportunity to shape our students (digital natives) use and engage with digital tools and technologies in positive ways that can help them become successful digital citizens. I completely agree with Robyn D. Shulman while she addresses her concerns on digital citizenship in her article by stating “Digital Citizenship is more than just a curriculum to be taught in a classroom; it is an ongoing process to prepare youth for a society immersed in technology, personally and professionally” By making our students digitally literate and an efficient digital citizen we can prepare them to not just to excel in the schools, but also in the future workforce. Digital literacy is not just putting smart devices in student’s hands, though. Today’s students (digital natives) are born in the digital era but they are not equipped with efficient digital literacy skills, I agree the fact that they may be very comfortable using these digital tools but their understanding is always limited and this is where we as educators come in.

Finally, it leaves me with a question that, what challenges lies ahead for us as educators in this digital era to gear up our students towards the enhanced digital future? And is our current education system adequately prepared and equipped to direct our students for the digital world ahead?

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