New Educational Era

   Students’ progress depends on a wide range of social and developmental competencies, such as the ability to monitor one’s own learning, persist at challenging tasks, solve complex problems, set realistic goals, and communicate effectively in many kinds of settings.

   This is a new educational era, where learning may become disassociated from age groups. Education can now be individualized and self-directed; educators become supporters who are primarily facilitators and mentors rather than lecturers. Educators work on distributed sources of content (virtual) and take place in a variety of physical settings.

   Teachers now days are looking for a different assessment, a different teaching method, documented by a portfolio of digital badges and real-world projects, rather than traditional grades or certificates. Yet, most schools continue to use standardized achievement tests, focusing exclusively on reading and math, as their primary means of gauging student progress with the existing K-12 education system.

   The world of education is currently undergoing a massive transformation as a result of the digital revolution. New technologies create learning opportunities that challenge traditional schools and colleges which allow all ages to pursue learning on their own terms.

   Educators should be able to adapt and incorporate the new power of technology-driven learning for the next generation of students. To be effective in this changing environment requires that the builders of the new education system understand the customization, interaction, and control of the technologies driving the changes in education. Education must provide people the knowledge they want when they want it and to support and guide them as they learn. Develop the ability of computers to give learners immediate feedback and to engage learners through simulation in accomplishing realistic tasks. And put learners in charge of their learning, so they feel ownership and can direct their learning where their interests take them.

   The vision of an educational system that can integrate all the different elements we see developing, is the key for the new educational era. But computers can carry out all the algorithms taught through graduate school, and yet mathematical reasoning is more important than ever. Therefore we should spend time teaching students to solve sophisticated problems using computers rather than executing algorithms that computers do well. Memorizing information is becoming less important with the web available, but people do need to learn how to find information, recognize when they need more information, and evaluate what they find.

Source:

A New Educational Era: http://vibrantlearning.aam-us.org/resource/resource-2/

A New Era for Educational Assessment: http://www.jff.org/publications/new-era-educational-assessment

Rethinking education in the age of technology: the digital revolution and the schools: https://llk.media.mit.edu/courses/readings/Collins-Rethinking-Education.pdf

Teachers: Keep making a difference!

Teachers should be looking forward to make a real difference in our students' lives... leave a lasting impact on them even if they are the one causing us the most trouble. 

Growth takes time... but we plant the seed in our students’ young hearts and minds so it will grow and bring fruits (although sometimes we might not see it). There are students who actually care, students who are grateful; learning and growing even if they never let us know.

Those long hours and the shed tears we have to deal with... our biggest frustrations and our deepest hurts, and still... we put so much thought and effort into doing our best for our students and being the best teacher we can for their sake. We, teachers, should emphasize the kids’ needs above our own.

In the midst of the busyness, the frustration, the chaos, we should take a moment and remember the real reason why we are teaching; that satisfaction of awake the joy in creative expression and knowledge, the inspiration we become for the students.  We work to influence our students and we live for that moment in which they will tell us “because of you, I didn’t give up”.

It doesn’t matter what’s happening around us.

Teachers, don’t give up, don’t quit, and keep making a difference.

“A teacher takes a hand, opens a mind and touches a heart”

The new so called generation...

 

The new generation that has grown within this technological revolution is lonely, with lack of empathy... but behind the hedonistic, consumerist, amoral, irresponsible image this new generation reflects, there is a very strong silence. 

Through the most exciting stage of life, the young ones are facing adaptation, acceptance, adventures and misadventures, joys and sorrows, hopes and concerns.

The new generation owns the technological revolution, and faces a very broad universe of distraction. They are more likely to travel and interact with others... to learn more and develop their own conclusions of life, and even though they have access to this amazing world of opportunities and information, they feel lonely, insecure, and incomplete. It’s becoming an era of consumerism, with no sense of duty and sacrifice.

They need affection sustained in time, someone who actually listen to them, accept them and understand their uniqueness.

Now days, these young adolescents are being diagnosed with anxiety, stress and depression, insecurity, attention disorders, low self-esteem, and so on. 

Families today overprotect their children, and teens react by trying to prove they are older adopting risky behaviors such as drinking alcohol, taking drugs or having sex at earlier ages, just to reaffirm their maturity.

The generation that is currently taking place has a high level of knowledge and thousands of opportunities to become productive, but still there is a need of sharing, friendship, trust, empathy, love.