Week 1 Blog Assignment 2 - "The 21st Century Learner"

"The 21st Century Learner"

Has the time finally arrived when the academia leaders realize the importance of integrating digital technology into the classroom and move the students of today beyond the boundaries currently holding them back? The focus of the school boards, administration, and standardized curriculum need to address the lesson-plans and chalkboard teaching styles of today into a new direction for today's students to advance their knowledge skills and language by using what is known as WEB 2.0 Tools.

The "21st Century Learner" is asking for a change in how they are taught to a new concept that has always been a skill in-grained in all of us and that new concept is to "challenge me on how to think". However, the challenge goes further in their request and almost to the point of demanding: "let me use use the digital technology available to me to create and share knowledge". These students realize their potential and welcome the teacher to capture their interests and attention by engagement. Engagement in the form that allows them to experience new learning skills beyond the stagnating, traditional curriculum that holds back their creativity and growth.
 
What is becoming an epidemic without realizing the potential that lies ahead for the future CEOs, athletes, small business owners, and yes, even teachers that sit in the classroom today is that digital technology provides a vision to thinking "outside-the-box" and challenge oneself. These leaders that will move us through the "21st Century" and beyond need to be engaged in the classroom by transforming how they are taught to how they can think.

Week 1 Blog Assignment 1 - Am I Ready for Digital Technology?

"Learning Through Technology" is my first class as I pursue a MED in Business here at SNHU. The class title alone struck a bit of excitement which reminded me of when I was back in my high school and college days. However, when the teacher started to review the expectations of the students and a review of the syllabus, a rush of nervousness sank in and I started to ask "what am I getting myself into at this stage of my life". I then tried to compose myself and consider the positive aspects of the class and the potential it has to offer me.

As I scanned the room, the realization of being a student for the first time in 18 years started to overwhelm me as I sat there with a notebook in one hand and a pen in the other while others were opening their laptop or inserting their thumb-drive into the computers in front of us to prepare for this digital technology journey. My experience with digital technology many years ago was learning how to compose word documents, arrange excel spreadsheets, and other PC compatible tools. When I finally graduated from SNHU the Internet was not even in my vocabulary yet.

Linked-in and Facebook are some of the tools that I currently use in my day-to-day life but they are just the tip of the iceberg as to the digital technology resources that are available to us that provide both opportunities and possibilities for us to find interesting ways to seek out new skills and knowledge. There is so much information that is available at our finger-tips that I never realized how the complexity of finding it and using it could be so enlightening by the use of today's technology. Education is a powerful emotion, and knowing and using all of the right tools to display this knowledge just makes this a wonderful and passionate time to be learning.

I realize that technology has come along way and I better hold on for dear life to grasp everything that is to be thrown at me. A bit of apprehension on what the future of learning will look like in this digital technology driven era still looms over me, but I welcome this new digital technology challenge and find these new set of technology tools fascinating. The dawn of an era exists in which we have WEB 2.0 Tools available to enrich our knowledge and enhance our 21st Century skills as we find new ways to learn, teach, and communicate. Plus, for me it allows me to be able to stay in communication mode with my sons and understand their learning world as they embark on their college career. I must leave the 20th Century that I am comfortable with and grasp the thought of how the WEB 2.0 Tools is going to improve my life to learning and teaching someday.