INTEGRATING TECHNOLOGY CREATIVELY TO TRANSFORM LEARNING

Technology has enabled us to access to more content and information than ever before. Therefore,  the instructional paradigm shift today requires us to focus on the human expressive capability rather than knowledge. We can transform learning by creating and sharing knowledge in many ways. In the past, consuming and producing words through reading and writing and, to a lesser extent, listening and speaking were enough while teaching literacy. Students were using these skills often to show that they knew or memorized the information. Today, what students make, design, invent is much more important than what they know. Digital expression is the new literacy and creativity is the new fluency.

By Jason Elsom

With the introduction of the inexpensive, easy-to-use, and widely available technology tools, digital literacy – including sound, graphics, and moving images – has become popular. Integrating digital literacy, art, oral literacy and writing into a single narrative or “media collage,” such as a Web page, a video, an e-portfolio or a blog is crucial for personal, academic and workplace success in our age.

SOURCE: Flickr (Created by Langwitches)

The reason why digital storytelling has become so popular is because students love expressing themselves using different forms of media. Through e-portfolios, blogs, slide presentations, animations and visually differentiated text, students can demonstrate learning in ways that require them to analyze, synthesize, evaluate and apply what they know about a particular content domain. What motivates students more is the fact that their work will be shared and assessed not only by their classmates and teachers but by a global audience as well. Many students are excited about this and they say they try a lot harder for the global audience. Via social networking students interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts or others employing a variety of digital environments and media. Using social media in the classroom will surely increase student engagement as it is a real life experience. Through collaborative global projects students will develop cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with learners of other cultures and contribute to project teams to produce original works or solve problems, all of which are essential 21st century skills.

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