Elizabeth Zamarron
EDTC 6340-60
Project 3A
Module 3 Multimedia Presentation and Planning
CORE CHALLENGES
Today’s education faces big challenges compared to 10 or 20 years ago and technology is to be blamed for these challenges. Today’s educational challenges range from a division of opinions on how technology should be used, how to educate special populations and even how should we evaluate learning. New teachers as opposed to old ones have explored way of introducing technology in teaching and learning. An area that has experience this change is Special Education, where technology is the key to the success of the student. Teachers in special education have acquired innovative skills on software use in order to accomplish their goals in the classroom. Unfortunately, this doesn’t happen just anywhere. Michelle R. Davis article “NEA, AFT Report Outlines Ed-Tech Problems,” describes how urban areas don’t have enough technology or teacher training in order to involve technology in their curriculum. These types of teachers have a very different concept of technology. They see it as an extra administrative task and not as a tool to improve learning in the classroom as opposed to the special education teachers. Another challenge that education faces this days is the special populations. Millennials are all about technology. They were born with technology at hand. They expect everything to be technology driven as opposed to Baby Boomers that are afraid of breaking the computer if they punch a wrong key. In today’s higher education classrooms you find both of these generations and teachers don’t know at what pace they should teach or how to introduce the new concepts of learning. Even testing for learned concepts is a challenge in today’s education. Millennials expect a test online or a technology driven project to be the course evaluation while the Boomers expect a short answer one. Division of opinions on how to introduce technology, education of special populations and even learning assessment are some of the core challenges of today’s education.
21stCENTURY SKILLS
Even the concept on what type of skills to teach our children have changed, now a day, teachers have to rethink how to make the lessons more attractive to them. According to Bob Regan in his article “ Why we Need to Teach 21st Century Skills – And How to Do It,” we now have to teach different skill to our children, ranging from media literacy to even global awareness. A poll conducted in 2007 determined that most of our voters believe that these skills are necessary for “our country’s economic success.” 21stCentury workforce is much different from what it used to be 20 years ago. In order for a recent graduate to be successful in a job or even at an interview, s/he needs to have good communication skills, according to the article this skill is acquired through media literacy. Media literacy enhances Language Arts. Team work skills are now acquired through collaborative projects using now a day, techniques and technologies. Problem solving skills, essential in the workforce, are a branch of exposing our children to incorporation of images and sounds in order to get the facts, interpreting what they see, and then evaluate to find a solution to what they need to do. As teachers, we must facilitate to our children was of keeping up to the workforce by exposing them to 21stCentury Skills using technology.
TODAYS GENERATION STUDENTS
Students of today’s generation are exposed 100% to technology and globalism. They are technology savvy and they have no geographical boundaries, they are called the Millennials. An article by Michael Willson and Leslie E Gerber published in Fall 2008, gives a very significant picture of who the Millennials are. According to the article, they are more acknowledgeable to their personal choices and actions. They are also more confident, therefore can manage technology very well. Millennial students trust professors to teach them with the truth, conventional. They have high expectation of themselves and implications on continuing with higher education. This generation, as we can see, expects quality education.
MISSION STATEMENT
To provide accessible and quality education to K-16 students by engaging them in workforce and cultural training in order to prepare them for the 21stCentury and beyond through the use of technology.
References
Davis, M. R. (2008). NEA, AFT report outlines ed-tech problems. Educations week's digital
directions: Trends and advice for K-12 technology leaders. Retrieved March 14, 2011 from
http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2008/06/25/01report_web.h02.html?qs=nea%20aft%20survey
Howe, N and Strauss, W. Millennials Go to College.American Association of Collegiate
Registrars and Admissions Offices (AACRAO) and Life Course Associates Executive
Summary by Steve Eubanks, 2003.
Meeting the Needs of Millennial Students, Retrieved March 14, 2011 from
http://www.csulb.edu/divisions/students2/intouch/archives/2007-08/vol16_no1/01.htm
Michael D. Coomes and Richard DeBard, eds., Serving the Millennial Generation: New
Directions for Student Services (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2004), 87.
Regan, B. (2008). Why we need to teach 21st Century skills - and how to do it. Multimedia
& Internet @Schools. Retrieved March 14, 2011 from http://www.mmischools.com/Articles/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=13809
Wallis, C., Steptoe, S., & Miranda, C. A. How to bring our schools out of the 20th century.
(12/18/06). Time 168(25), 50-56. This article can be found in full text by searching
the title and at least one author in the Academic Search Complete online database.
Wilson, M and Gerber, L. How Generational Theory Can Improve Teaching: Strategies for
Working with the “Millennials.” Currents in Teaching and Learning, Vol. 1 No. 1 Fall 2008.