With the fast-paced turn of our technology today, the most effective way to catch the interest of the 21^st century learners, the teachers should work double to learn about the modern technologies and the way our learners are hooked on. We should be observant and try to study what they are doing and eventually adapt on the things that interest and amaze them. Those things are eventually achievable but there are things that we need to consider that may hinder our expression of technology to our learners. Of course, technology requires a lot of technicalities and operations and other factors just to make it work. There are several challenges that David Nagel enumerated in his research in the year 2013 and it is about Challenges facing Education.

Below are the challenges:

1. Professional growth. As the saying goes, “Once a teacher, always a student.” This are the very words that we should try to permanently inked to our minds that we should never stop to study and learn. We, as the teachers, has the responsibility of making ourselves efficient and effective in teaching and all of our wisdom should be transferred out to or learners. And as for this, we push ourselves to have a continued professional development.

2. Resistant to change. Many of us still refused to walk and be out of our comfort zone. They do not take risk for them to be secured on their present state. But of course, we should accept the fact that the only permanent thing in the world is CHANGE. We are experiencing this not only in the teaching profession but to all the other jobs around the world.

 

3. MOOCs and other new models for schooling. New in this year’s report, new models for teaching and learning are providing “unprecedented competition to traditional models of schooling.” In particular, the MOOC (massive open online course) — probably the hottest topic in higher education right now — was identified as being “at the forefront” of discussions about new modes of delivering K-12 education.

“K-12 institutions are latecomers to distance education in most cases, but competition from specialized charter schools and for-profit providers has called attention to the needs of today’s students, especially those at risk,” according to the report.

4. Delivering informal learning.In the present era, we are about to engage the students that will take their attention and usually, as millennials, they are very critical and multi-taskers. These are the things that we should consider in teaching them informally. We can design our classroom as a fun and enjoyable environment for our students without realizing that they are actually learning already.

5. Failures of personalized learning. Howard Gardner, is the proponent of Multiple Intelligence in which for today’s modern world, is very essential for the teachers to consider on how they will strategize their teaching for a very diverse students in the classroom. We shouls start applying activities that will showcase their hidden talents and skills that they are best at.

6. Failure to use technology to deliver effective formative assessments. Teachers are the best instructional materials. It is high time to gain knowledge and be an expert about the applications that technology has to offer. Make friends with the technology and try to understand it first because all will naturally follow and soon, we can achieve convenience of teaching effectively through the use of technology and spending shorter time of getting formative assessments.

Soon, we will learn to make things work and consider those challenges as a positive outlook in our teaching profession.

https://thejournal.com/articles/2013/06/04/6-technology-challenges-facing-education.aspx

By: Mrs. Gloperlyn Chavez | Teacher I | BNHS-SHS | Balanga City, Bataan