A New Techy View Point

As a millennial, I grew up with technology and as it changed and evolved so did I, but like everything else in the world, it becomes somewhat stagnant at least in terms of how it is used in education. The great thing here is that now that the demand for special classes, make-up courses, tutoring, etc is so high we have the chance to use these new innovations to our advantage and create authentic and effective learning environments for our students.

These videos confirmed my opinions and thinking about disruptive innovation in the sense that true change tends to occur not when something new comes along, but when something better and more efficient does. As they discussed in one of the first videos the big opportunity here is to re-create the way we are teaching material. With the new technology at our fingertips, we are able to create more personalized education plans and optimize the learning for all of our students where there can be more student ownership and success. This is a major reason that this shift from traditional learning to blended learning is so important.

There is a challenge in this however because although there is evidence to suggest that blended learning and technology can improve the way we are delivering educations to students many policymakers and people in positions of power are against it. There is another problem where these same people in power are for technology in the classroom, but don't stop to consider how best to use that technology, in this instance teachers end up in a technology run classroom with no direction.

I think to change the current system we need to provide more incentives and professional development on how to harness the best parts of technology and use them to our advantage. There needs to be teachers and administrators willing to walk the walk and take the time to show others how to do the same. Districts and state legislatures need to be open to hearing and experimenting with new ideas as we try to navigate our technology-filled world.

In my own institution, there is an opportunity to use disruptive innovation to encourage student creativity and student ownership of learning. The students in my sixth-grade classroom have become bored, uninterested, and tuned out; I believe the implementation of e-portfolios could help my students take ownership of their learning and give them a chance to have a voice in their education.