Digital Learning vs Traditional Essay

Teachers are a teachs most(prenominal) critical resource. Research continues to show that effective article of belief is the most important school-related factor in student achievement, yet access to effective teaching remains widely uneven and inequitably distributed. The teaching profession faces two-fold challenges while serving at the front line of improving outcomes for students. First, the nations teaching force is increasingly less take cared todays typical teacher has just one to two years of experience, compared to fifteen years in 1987.15 Compounding the lessening content and pedagogical experience in the classroom, school districts also face shortages of teachers in critical areas like physics and chemistry, meaning that many students do not have access to those courses taught by an experienced, certified teacher. In 200708, nearly 60 percent of public school classes in juicy school physical science were taught by teacher who did not major in that subject area. 16 Th e challenge of let outing certified teachers is particularly difficult in rural areas. The state of Georgia, for example, has 440 high schools but hardly 88 physics teachers.17 Even Minnesota, which is considered a high-achieving state, has exclusively 182 certified physics teachers for its 971 high schools. 18 And it is not surprising that schools with lower socioeconomic precondition have a harder time filling vacancies in key areas such as science. 19 Faced with increased administrative, bureaucratic, academic, and social responsibilities with fewer years of experience, teachers find they are not always subject to personalize instruction as much as they would like. Fewer than half (46 percent) of math teachers say they can place instruction a great deal.Seventy percent of teachers who say their students are likely to go to college report that they can offer significantly differentiated instruction, compared to only 50 percent of teachers who are in schools with less of a co llege-going culture. Even more worrisome, 45 percent of students who say they have considered dropping out of school Simply slapping a netbook on give their teachers a D or an F in differentiating top of a textbook, however, will instruction to meet students individualist needs. not necessarily lead to significant Recent studies of high-performing urban schools outcomes.and evaluations of successful high school reform models have identified personalization and instructional improvement as the twin pillars of high school reform. Creating a personalized high school experience requires high expectations for all students, reliable information about school mental process and students needs and interests, the capacity to individualize instruction and support, and multiple pathways to a high school diploma. 20 Research continues to indicate that student engagement is critical to preventing dropouts. 21 Growing Opportunities to Improve Learning for All StudentsMultiple forces are convergi ng to create a significant opportunity with the power to affect education greatly within the next two to three years. First, the technology available for instruction is improving continuously. Second, the cost of the technology continues to decrease. This paper would become dated instantly if it listed take aim items and prices, but the price of computer memory is a useful reference. In 1980, a gigabyte of information cost around $200,000. In 2011, a atomic number 65more than a thousand gigabytes, and about 2,000 hours of high-quality audio datacost around $100.22 Additionally, more and more students today are what could be called digital natives, already accustomed to the rapid feedback, collaborative nature, and ease of use of many digital technolgies. 23 Page 7 Alliance for Excellent Education Meanwhile, forty-six states and the District of Columbia have adopted the public core state standards, affecting 90 percent of the nations students. The commitment to ensuring that studen ts graduate from high school college and career ready will require unprecedented work to implement new content, instructional strategies, teacher preparation, and assessments.The benefit is that curriculum developers, who have had to point fifty different sets of standards in the past, can work from one clear set of standards. Sustained professional education for teachers will also be able to utilize this uniform set of expectations. Just as significantly, almost all states are now working through two assessment consortia to develop online assessments for the common core state standards to be put in place by 2014. The technology exists to make this implementation possible and to lead a significant variation of the nations education system.The Gap Simply slapping a netbook on top of a textbook, however, will not necessarily lead to significant outcomes. scathing for learning success with digital learning is developing a comprehensive strategy that has a foundation of involvement and sustained career training for teachersnot occasional professional usingwhich concentrates not just on the technology, but also on the pedagogical skills needed to use the technology in teaching and learning.As Greg Whitby, an executive director of schools in Australia who is implementing a widespread digital learning program across a 40,000-student district in Sydney, stressed, Its set-back about the pedagogy, then comes the technology. 24 As this paper will demonstrate, effective digital media combined with powerful teaching, rich content, and engaged students has the potential to take learning in the United States to a much higher level and provide all students with experiences that allow them to graduate prepared for college and a career. But education is electrostatic slow to adopt these technologies.While the National Center for Education Statistics reports that 97 percent of all teachers had access to a computer in their classroom in 2009, only 72 percent of all teacher s, and 64 percent of secondary school teachers, said they used computers for instruction. 25 The use of technologydefined as information technology such as computers, devices that can be attached to computers (e. g. , LCD projector, interactive whiteboard, digital camera), networks (e. g. , internet, local networks), and computer softwarefor higher-order skill development was much lower.