“There’s a way to do it better – find it.” These are the words of Thomas Edison… and he was absolutely right. Science is the process of constantly moving forward, finding in even the best solutions – even better ones. This is exactly what digital learning has done for our modern world, making it more connected and efficient in the process. So what is the problem? Well, we have yet to fully recognize and embrace this new way of pursuing wisdom.
For example, this February 17th, we will celebrate Digital Learning Day – yet considering how tech driven our society is, why do we give but one day of our attention to a subject that has so much promise for both students and teachers alike? If one day can bring global awareness, one week might change the world. In limiting this campaign to change the way we learn, we do a disservice to not only ourselves but future generations.
Digital Learning: Where Play Meets Promise
Just last year, President Obama and the U.S. Education Secretary, Arne Duncan, issued what we now know as the Digital Government Strategy. This mandate brought forth the challenge for all American schools to integrate digital technologies into their classrooms on a daily basis by the year 2017. This comes as no surprise. The report by University of Cincinnati’s online education program shows that children ages 2-17 spend approximately 30 hours on tech-related media per week. With these statistics, it is no wonder that children often operate technology better than their generation X parents. Some toddlers as young as 1-year-old have learned the basics of operating smart phones and tablets.
Some psychologists call this unhealthy overkill, while others view it as potential progress – if a child this young can learn to operate advanced technologies, what else could they learn from digital resources? The possibilities are truly endless.
Because children learn through the act of play, statistics are in favor of science. The potential of game driven learning provides new windows of opportunity for kids who learn at different paces, inviting even children who often do not excel at absorbing lessons via text books to surpass classmates and really begin to understand materials in a new light. Making learning fun is the key to making learning stick.
Have You Learned Something New Today?
Even if you do not realize it, the answer is yes. In fact, we are learning even when we are unaware of it thanks to the technology we encounter each day. If your homepage is set to MSN or Google News, you are absorbing information daily simply through flickering headlines and global news. If you used Twitter today, you likely took in a few quotes or other vital information in less than 140 characters.
Daily we are learning more about our world – new discoveries, a constant connection to the outside world… the Internet has made it possible for us to know more – even if we do not realize we are being educated in the most unexpected of places.
Different Learning Styles and Different Learning Tools
Physical, visual or verbal – each person learns best in different ways. Digital advances provide the ability to offer each method simultaneously. For instance, while a med student previously would have viewed a strand of DNA in 2d, technology now allows students to explore inside the strands, pivoting to new angles and zooming to view detail upon detail. This progressive method combined with traditional reading and bookmarked areas of interest, spaces for highlighting important attributes of new materials and more are giving the way we learn the potential to change lives and one day save them.
Online Learning for Higher Education
We live in a busy world and unfortunately a world where money is of the essence. This means that many promising students may not have the ability to experience college in the dorm setting. However, online education is on the rise, which is cutting out the need for expensive textbooks, dorm stays and coveted scholarships with limited handouts.
Often much less expensive than on campus courses (and often times more thorough), online college courses are offering new opportunities where none previously existed. Consider that digital learning allows for a more intimate experience and this comfort level opens up the possibilities for deeper, more intensive learning. Digital learning also provides more opportunities to close gender gaps on both a university and industry level. For example, thanks to the opportunities provided by digital learning, women pursuing STEM careers have doubled from the 90s to the present decade (8,297 and 16,537, respectively).
Whether distance, health, time or money is the issue at hand, digital learning puts science, creative arts, math and literature at your fingertips helping students to grow and better provide for their families or themselves, reaching their fullest potentials without ever leaving home.
New Information in New Ways
As we gain more and more knowledge, science finds new, innovative ways to present that information and make it stronger. Infographics are one of the many ways our modern world has found to present information in ways that make it easily absorbed, providing multiple snippets of information in one clean space. From data visualization to geographical information, infographics are vital to the inter-workings of business models and data analytics, making them extremely versatile learning tools for the office and the classroom alike.
As you can clearly see, one day to appreciate the wealth provided by digital learning is simply not enough. There are far too many opportunities provided by online learning to simply write it off as only a day. Therefore, we, as a digitally driven society, we must recognize the blessings before our eyes and expand this celebration from a day to a week, thus recognizing that digital learning is not simply a convenience, but rather the new educational paradigm for current and future generations.
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