If we’ve learned anything since the pandemic, it’s that the one-size-fits-all approach to teaching and learning is simply outdated. Now, educators understand that each student deserves to have their academic needs met. But doing so requires K12 leaders and educators to embrace “digital transformation.”
“Through the years, the innovation of digital technologies has transformed entire industries. Now it’s time to put those technologies to use and apply that same mentality to transform our schools,” reads a new report from Digital Promise, a non-profit that seeks to expand opportunities for all students.
Schools have already made tremendous progress in the technical sense as many districts chose to add several edtech solutions to their toolbelt. However, the report suggests that there is still room for improvement to ensure that digital technologies are implemented skillfully and student learning becomes more personalized and effective.
Here are four reasons why teaching and learning need a digital transformation and how to achieve it:
1. Creating effective learner-centered frameworks
When schools continue to rely on outdated approaches to teaching and learning, students will ultimately suffer academically. However, educators have increased access to digital technologies that can help to create personalized learning experiences and growth for students.
“Fortunately, digital technologies now enable constructs for K12 education that learning sciences tell us are more effective: those that are more personalized and focused on the acquisition of sat time,” the report reads. “Furthermore, they allow us to pull records of student learning into new directions.”
Solution: Provide students with the tools to manage their lifelong learning data in Learning and Employment Records (LERs). This will help them to curate their own competency-based micro-credentials and certifications.
2. Addressing “historic” disparities in educational opportunity
Certain technological advancements like high-speed internet in schools alone aren’t enough to meet inequities in student learning. Instead, leaders must embrace the power of technology to support learners who have been “historically” and “systematically excluded.”
Solutions: Valuable tools like artificial intelligence can help educators in assessing and adjusting lessons in real time. Doing so would accelerate the learning process and close gaps among students.
3. Preparing for future disruptions
K12 schools quickly learned the importance of adapting to unexpected interruptions during the pandemic. The need to stay ahead of the technology curve is necessary to keep students on track and educators prepared.
Solution: Consider contracting with internet service providers through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to extend internet service to traditionally underserved communities.
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4. Pulling the educational system into new constructs
Teachers alone should not be held responsible for bringing digital transformation to their schools. They need the support of their district, policymakers, philanthropy, etc. Cooperation within districts can help elevate schools and create a new education ecosystem designed to support teaching and learning in the digital age.
Solution: Provide teachers with the digital learning coaches they need to implement and leverage technology effectively in the classroom.
“The nation’s learners can’t wait for many more tomorrows to come and go without a broad national commitment to breaking the outmoded framework for American education and replacing it with frameworks that are more learner-centered, personalized and effective,” the report reads. “Digital technologies applied skillfully to teaching and learning might deliver on that possibility at long last.”
