What Did I Learn and Why Is It Important?
Students constantly use digital devices for entertainment, communication, and expressing themselves. Tapping into these abilities can be a great thing for teachers to use to engage and motivate their students, which can lead to achievement gains if done well. The downside, however, is that many students are not digitally literate when it comes to cybersafety and analyzing content. Teachers need to provide opportunities for students to both use technology and to develop digital literacy. This literacy includes creativity, innovation, communication, collaboration, critical thinking, evaluation of content, digital citizenship, and being able to select the appropriate technology for the task (Wilson et al., 2017).
Educators also need to be aware of how much screen time students are exposed to because excessive screen and social media time may exacerbate mental health issues like anxiety. When using technology during instruction, teachers need to consider these things: 1) which tool to use, 2) who will use it, 3) when and how it will be used, and 4) how it will be evaluated (Wilson et al., 2017).
Adidas developed a training program for their employees, which could easily be applied to the education sector. Their program was interactive, collaborative, and web-based. Their framework was based on the premise that 70% of the learning would happen on the job, 20% would come from social interactions, and the remaining 10% from classes. This framework could be beneficial for school settings because it has been shown that within an hour, 50% of what was learned in a classroom is forgotten. By shifting the role of the teacher from being the deliverer of knowledge to the teacher being a facilitator who encourages students to develop and use their knowledge in more authentic and complex ways , retention would improve. This facilitation would also include encouraging students to collaborate and use technology to enhance learning (Wilson et al., 2017). This is something as educators that we need to embrace if we are going to prepare our students for success in the real world. Students need to see how the content they learn is applicable to the real world, and if we adapt education to make it look more like it does on the job, they will be better prepared.
Using multimedia in the classroom is beneficial because it connects the Dual Coding, Cognitive Load, and Multiple Intelligences theories. It allows students to process information through both the verbal and non-verbal channels. When done well, multimedia can deliver a lot of content without producing cognitive overload, and it can be used to accommodate different learning styles. It is important to remember, however, that technology is only a tool in a teacher’s repertoire. It does not replace good instruction (Wilson et al., 2017). This last statement is one that teachers need to hear often. Technology is being pushed so heavily that it is easy to feel like expertise in pedagogy is not as valued. Just using technology by itself without giving thought about how it is used can lead to very ineffective teaching.
When considering using multimedia, it is important to consider how different generations relate to the technology. In his speech, Rosen (2015) compared the different generations as follows:
When looking at this chart, it is easy to see that technology is a huge part of life for the younger generations (Rosen, 2015). Understanding how the younger generation uses and relates to others with technology is vital to how we approach education in the future. As educators, we must give them opportunities to use the technology in ways that they prefer, but we also need to help them recognize that they need to also step out of their comfort zones and work on face-to-face communication with their teachers and each other, so they learn the non-verbal communication skills, which are vital to success in the real world (Rosen, 2015).
While teens use technology for their preferred means of communication, they are often distracted with the many technological devices at their fingertips. They try to multi-task and flip back and forth between many tabs and apps. However, according to Rosen (2015), multitasking is not really possible. Instead the brain works on one task, and then switches to another. This is called continuous partial attention, and it prevents students from focusing on any one thing in detail. This can be problematic because they may be making decisions based on very shallow or incomplete information. The switching between tasks is not instantaneous because the blood flow to different areas of the brain in use takes a little time. Students will use this lag time to do something else, like checking their phones, which is an additional distractor (Rosen, 2015).
Teens, on average, live with a weekly sleep debt of about 12 hours. Technology could be part of the reason for this because technology is a stimulant for the brain, and it is addictive. This can lead to anxiety, especially when they cannot access their device if they are a heavy user (Rosen, 2015). As I read the studies that Rosen described, I couldn’t help but wonder if making students put their phones in pouches on the wall during class may be counter-productive. If they are heavy users and their anxiety builds throughout class because they can’t check their phone, how does that impact their ability to focus on the lesson? This is not something that has been considered to my knowledge in any school district where I have worked.
As educators, we need to teach our students how to balance technology, so that they get the benefits without the negative effects such as sleep deprivation, anxiety, lack of social skills, and cyberbullying. We need to teach them to have time away from technology, so they can learn the non-verbal communication skills, develop the default mode network through creative activities, and learn how to calm the brain in order to get good sleep. We also need to teach them how to recognize the things that distract them and how to choose good options (Rosen, 2015).
Future Learning
I need to learn more about the 70:20:10 framework that was implemented by Adidas. I want to explore to see ways that it could be implemented in K-12 classrooms. I think something like this could help teachers to reframe their thinking about how the students in their classes learn and how they teach. Learning in a framework such as this would be beneficial to students because they would be learning real-world skills and retain more information.
This video provides a good explanation of the 70:20:10 framework.
References
Jennings, C. (2011, October 5). 70:20:10 by Charles Jennings & Fuse. YouTube. Retrieved January 25, 2023, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6WX11iqmg0
Rosen, L. (2015, July 21). 21CLI - Larry Rosen - how technology rewires the brains (5th Annual Conference). YouTube. Retrieved January 25, 2023, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYZLAxeFgac
Wilson, D. K., Alaniz, K., & Sikora, J. (2017). Digital media in today's classrooms: The potential for meaningful teaching, learning, and assessment. Boulder, CO: Rowman & Littlefield
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