Some reflections on digital learning:
Today is the 3rd annual Digital Learning Day. Actually, it was yesterday, but we were snowed in, so let’s pretend it’s today. Seeing that winter weather has wreaked havoc on the best laid lesson plans this week, rather than encourage you to try incorporating a new digital learning tool you’ve never used before into a lesson, I thought I’d make a different suggestion as a way to celebrate Digital Learning Day. And it’s easy. Just…think about digital learning.
That’s right, just think about it.
Think about how the term itself is redundant, considering the Digital Age we live in, where pretty much anything you want to know, like right now, can be found on the Internet. If it’s information that other people on the planet are curious about, this information has been posted and is probably being talked about right now in cyberspace.
Among other things, many not so good, the Internet is a place for learning, containing incredible troves of information…you just have to know how and where to search for it. A self-directed learner with the proper guidance could teach himself just about anything, if he cares enough to set his mind to it.
The Internet is also a place for fluid communication and real-time collaboration where geographic distance is irrelevant. As long as two parties each have a decent broadband connection and a computer, they can do business together. Heck, they could start and maintain a business together. Several people on different continents could address a problem together from their various perspectives and develop creative solutions they wouldn’t have thought of on their own. Or, they could simply learn together.
The Internet’s also got a lot of spurious content, not to mention some missing pieces and loads of bias. It was once naively thought that the Internet would actually make us all smarter…people would have unfettered access to information, we’d seek the truth and the truth would prevail. Ha! Instead, special interests reign and exploit our dumb, human tendency to want so badly for the world to be uncomplicated and reflect our own viewpoints that we receive important information about the world around us through a complacent fog of confirmation bias. As such, it is now more important than ever for us to think critically as a habit of mind.
And once you’ve thought of all this, think about how the jobs your students will be competing for in the not-too-distant future will likely demand that they be self-directed yet collaborate with colleagues in virtual spaces, curate and critically evaluate content from the Web, synthesize this content, and create new products or novel solutions to big problems. Then think about how you might help your students become more adept at navigating the Web as a vital learning tool by tweaking a unit of study to foster these skills and make it a little more inquiry-based, a little more student-centered.
Besides the Internet, we have great tools at our disposal like Finalsite, Google Apps for Education, and of course Wi-Fi. Just think about how you might leverage these tools for learning. Then hit me up with an email if you’d like to talk about some of your ideas. I am always happy to sit down with teachers and help them design technology-enhanced learning experiences. It’s my favorite part of what I do.
Happy digital learning!
Update: Since I originally published this post, I came across a great article by New York Times columnist David Brooks on the skills most needed in what he calls the Computer Age. I wanted to share it here as it really speaks to many of the points of my original post.