The shift from print to digital is a profound transition in how human beings learn, it is more significant than the development of the printing press and
its benefits are spreading much more quickly. Like the printing press six centuries ago, this transition is transforming formal education and spreading
informal learning opportunities.
Digital learning is powering seven benefits that are changing the opportunity set for teachers. There are three additional benefits that are proving to be
game changers for educators.
1. Personalized learning. The opportunity to help every student learn at the best pace and path for them is the most important benefit of digital learning.
Hundreds of next generation schools are prototyping the benefits of
customization.
A diverse group of 28 practitioners, advocates, and business and union leaders recently came together to reimagine education given the new opportunity of
digital learning. They noted that personalized, relevant and contextualized learning can increasingly be tailored based on the learner’s own passions, strengths, needs, family, culture, and community.
One on one tutoring is a good example of personalized learning, but it is expensive. The shift to digital learning can approximate the benefits of tutoring
while freeing up time for teachers to address individual and small group needs.
The opportunity to customize learning sequences for each student will make education more productive. Special needs will be more quickly diagnosed,
learning gaps will be addressed, and progress will be accelerated.
2. Expanded learning opportunities. Digital learning is extending learning opportunities worldwide. Education Reimagined celebrates open-walled learning
and acknowledges that, “learning happens at many times and in many places and intentionally leverages its expansive nature in the learner’s development of
competencies. learners with authentic, rich, and diverse learning opportunities.”
Access to full and part-time online learning means that every student, state policy permitting, has access to many world languages, college preparatory
curriculum, and advanced studies. It is remarkable that thousands of university courses by the best professors are available for free to anyone with a
broadband connection.
3. High engagement learning. The shift to digital can boost student motivation. Anyone who has witnessed the engagement of game-based learning can
appreciate the potential to create learning experiences that boost persistence.
Kristen DiCerbo
, the lead at Pearson’s Center for Learning Science & Technology, is similarly passionate about the many possibilities that games offer education -
better engagement, invisible assessment, deep learning,
High agency learning recognizes learners as active participants in their own learning and engages them in the design of their experiences and the
realization of their learning outcomes in ways appropriate for their developmental level. Evidence that encouraging student agency will produce better
learning outcomes is central to Most Likely to Succeed: A Film About What School Could Be.
In Getting Smart (2011), I argued that customization would lead
to productivity (more learning per hour) and improved motivation would lead to more learning time each day and across each year. Next generation schools
appear to be bearing out these predictions.
4. Competency-based learning. Students show what they know and progress based on demonstrated mastery. Competency-based learning is possible in paper and
pencil (I saw it in Chugach Alaska in 1999) but it is hard to monitor and manage
an individual progress model at scale.
Flex blends
support individual progress. Dynamic grouping, workshops, and project-based learning can add lots of collaborative learning to an individual progress
model.
Because competency-based learning changes everything about school, the transition from age cohorts to individual progress models will take longer, this is
a generational shift.
5. Assessment for learning. Digital learning powers continuous feedback from content-embedded assessment, games, simulations, and adaptive learning. When
students can track their own progress it can improve motivation and agency.
6. Collaborative learning. Digital learning powers collaboration. Social learning platforms like Edmodo make it easy for teachers to create and manage groups.
Collaborative authoring environments like Google Docs make it easy for teams (near and far) to co-author documents and presentations.
7. Quality learning products. Digital learning tools allow students to produce professional quality products and to share them with public audiences. The journalism program at Palo Alto High School is a great
example of what kids can do when empowered.
Presentation, publications, and portfolios change the classroom culture from turn-it-in, to production for public audiences. Digital tools means more and
better writing.
8. Sharing economy. There has been an explosion of free and open content and tools. Schools can save money while
ensuring equitable access.
Common standards and sharing platforms have made it
possible for millions of educators to share tools and resources across state lines.
9. Relevant and Regularly Updated Content. Regardless of age or content, students have more access to relevant and regularly updated content. Next
generation instructional systems that includes print and digital options with online adaptive skill building allow teachers and students to personalize in
new and exciting ways. The ability to update easily, means access to updated material and features on a regular basis. As Mickey Revenaugh, Co-founder of
Connections Education, and Director of New School Models at Pearson notes, “All of the users of Connections Learning and GradPoint courses -- whether
they’re studying 2nd grade reading or AP Calculus or something in between -- benefit from real-time, dynamic updates of the content. In fact, the
Connections curriculum team is constantly monitoring user feedback through the StarTrack five-star rating system to make incremental improvements on the
fly that all users benefit from.”
10. Next-gen learning for educators. Blended, personalized and competency-based learning is for educators too! As discussed in Preparing Leaders for Deeper Learning, preparation and development
are increasingly based on a competency map (what educators should know and be able to do), many personalized ways to learn, and multiple opportunities to
demonstrate learning. Teachers can also join online professional learning communities, like Teachability, to ask
questions and share tips and stay connected with a global community.
Digital learning is changing the world. It is connecting billions of young people to the idea economy. It is improving working
conditions and career opportunities
for educators.
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This blog post is written in partnership with Pearson Education. Are you making the shift to digital? Show us what it looks like in your schools using Twitter and instagram #ShiftToDigitalEd #IMadeTheShift. For additional resources and opportunities to engage in conversation around the shift to digital learning, click here!