The Age Of Technology: Asset or Hindrance?
How can America’s students be suffering academically when they have every resource available at their fingertips? Although this generation of young learners have been immersed in the consistent progression of technology within the 21st century, the implementation of eLearning to supplement for in-person traditional academic learning within schools in 2020 due to the global pandemic, there has been an astonishingly negative effect on student classroom performance questioning the effectiveness of the current infrastructure of American education. This instructional problem has unfortunately manifested itself as 1st and 2nd graders that surprisingly don’t know how to correctly identify the letters of the alphabet hindering their learning capabilities to read and write at higher grade levels.
America’s racial biases specifically within the educational system has historically ostracized marginalized minorities to succumb to higher suspension rates and school curricula that continuously disempowers these targeted students. This blog will review the positive and negative effects of technology on this generation’s development and ability to learn. Common learning myths that have no empirical evidence are also discussed to review what teaching methods and instructional strategies should actually be applied that supports multiple principles of learning.
BACKGROUND
As a rising instructional designer reigning from Chicago, IL, I aim to create accessible, innovative, efficient, and effective learning experiences for diverse learning environments. My experience as a student within the Kumon Learning Center program was a major asset to my academic performance prior to my undergraduate studies. After testing at the 18th grade level in math at the age of 12, I knew I wanted to help my fellow classmates and younger students to learn math concepts. What started as peer support transitioned to an official tutoring business by the age of 16. I’m blessed to have received my Bachelor of Science in Education & Social Policy with a Human Development & Psychological Services concentration degree from Northwestern University.
Upon graduation in 2020, I began to offer online and in-home tutoring service options to accommodate families negatively affected by the new eLearning programs utilized by the Chicago Public School system. Within my experience working with students ranging from Kindergarten - 8th grade with various learning capacities, confidence levels and learning hurdles, technology was a major asset when utilized effectively to strengthen and curate learning opportunities that would be retained by the student long-term. In 2022, I began working as an instructor at my childhood learning center Kumon to further my expertise working with students in a nontraditional academic environment and learn the franchise’s infrastructure on how to teach students.
In addition to Kumon, I also have experience as an assistant instructor for an online financial literacy program to revitalize the courses and student overall technological learning experience. Throughout my vast professional experience, one thing has remained consistent: the increased utilization of technology within the educational experience prior to college has had both positive and negative effects on student learning.
LEARNING THEORIES & MYTHS
The three distinctions of learning as indicated by Lovett et. al supports learning as a process instead of a product, indicates change in knowledge, behavior or beliefs, and is something that students must be an active participant to achieve desired learning outcomes. Behaviorist, cognitive, social cognitive, and sociocultural theories help instructional designers understand learning and motivation. However, it is essential that learning theories upheld by society that are not supported by empirical evidence be debunked for better instructional strategies
Digital Natives
This upcoming generation of students have grown up all of their lives with the steady progression of technology among Americans. Kirschner and Merrienboer indicated that the term digital natives coined by Prensky is believed that these students have unique characteristics that makes them able to learn differently and are more digitally literate than previous generations. In reality, students have succumbed to the butterfly effect that compares students to “butterflies fluttering across the information on the screen, touching or not touching pieces of information (i.e. hyperlinks), quickly fluttering to a next piece of information, unconscious to its value and without a plan” (Kirschner and Merrienboer, 3). This further proves that learners of this new-aged technology generation are not self-educators and must develop the competence to effectively and efficiently use these new technologies for information problem solving despite perceived misconceptions of multitasking among an influx of technology resources.
Cater to Learning Styles
Society has normalized the concept that individuals learn best when the instruction aligns with their preferred learning style (i.e. visual, auditory, reading/writing, or kinesthetic) when there is in fact no empirical evidence that supports this theory. In fact, Kirschner and Merrienboer explained that evidence supports no significant difference between learning in one’s preferred learning style versus learning outside of one’s preferred learning style once supported by the learning-styles hypothesis. In reality, “when designing instruction that takes differences between learners into account, one should assess cognitive abilities rather than preferred learning styles because abilities are better predictors of how people learn most effectively (Kirschner and Merrienboer, 6). Students learn best when instructional designers utilize a high-balanced style of learner-centered instruction further supporting the cognitive learning theory that words and pictures are best when instructing students.
Curating Positive Learning Experiences
My professional goal is to create accessible, innovative, and effective learning programs based on learning theories supported by empirical evidence. Utilizing my work experience from Chicago, IL, Atlanta, GA, and Santa Monica, CA has strengthened my passion for bridging the gap between learning theories and practice.
When students are confident within themselves in academic settings, they begin to enjoy the process of learning since a student’s learning experience can be as positively or negatively affected by the classroom environment as described by Kirschner and Merrienboer. Since the development of new technology occurs everyday, it is the responsibility of instructional designers to create experience that will support student academic performance and guide students through the utilization of those technologies.
CONCLUSION
Creating engaging, effective, and accessible learner-centers training experiences utilizing empirically supported learning theories through technology should be the goal of any instructional designer. Technology itself is not the determining resource for one’s academic or intellectual progression, but must be utilized in effective ways depending on the developmental stage of the student. In order to support this generation’s ability to learn and process new information, we must guide them through these new technological devices and features to ensure effective learning is taking place.
REFERENCES
Kirschner, P. A., & van Merriënboer, J. J. G. (2013). Do learners really know best? Urban legends in education. Educational Psychologist, 48(3), 169–183. https://sandiego.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01UOSD_INST/duochf/cdi_proquest_journals_1408082041
Lovett, M. C., Bridges, M. W., DiPietro, M., Ambrose, S. A., & Norman, M. K. (2023). How Learning Works (2nd ed.). Wiley Professional Development (P&T). https://usd.vitalsource.com/books/9781119860143
