Technology Implications for Teachers

What does the future of education look like? According to researcher Clay Christensen, education is on the brink of a major overhaul. Forces around technology, innovation, and change will alter the face of educational practices in parallel to the ways disruptions have altered other industries. Schools and the educational delivery system, as currently structured, cannot continue to serve the vast array of student needs and desires in classroom environments that exclusively rely on stand and deliver instruction, multiple choice standardized assessment, and textbooks. And as Christensen predicts, the growth in Internet based learning will increase until 2019 when he expects computer-based delivery of education to exceed 50% of all high school classes (Christensen, 2008).

While there is evidence that supports direct instruction, traditional teaching and learning needs a swift and immediate change. The dominant style and approach have become increasingly ineffective with a generation of learners who have immediate access to information, are connected socially with intricate networks, and have an attention and focus approaches that require the delivery methods of teachers to be vastly different than their current, traditional state. While there will be a continued need to ensure a guaranteed and viable curriculum that is well-articulated at all levels, the demands of the digital age will require that new strategies extend existing practices.

One such new method is challenge based learning – an “engaging multidisciplinary approach to teaching and learning that encourages students to leverage the technology they use in their daily lives to solve real-world problems” (Apple, 2008). Strong student engagement is a result of hands-on, collaborative activities where students work with classmates, teachers, and other experts in their community in real life and online. By a focus on problem-solving situations, students are able to research issues, ask questions, reframe their focus, gain deeper subject area knowledge, solve challenges, and share those experiences with others (Lemke et al, 2009).


Recommendations for teachers:
• Permit and promote collaborative student projects in conjunction with individual measures of achievement.
• Include meaningful feedback on challenge-based learning experiences as part of the assessment and accountability system.
• Engage students as active directors of learning, guided by the teacher, and utilizing the vast array of reference materials and social networking opportunities to answer essential questions and solve real problems.