Shifts in Education Vital to Boosting Academic Success

Too often students are prevented from reaching their full potential by limiting and setting the parameters for what we expect them to learn. Textbooks and standardized testing drive instruction. Expectations are lowered so students can easily attain their goals instead of encouraging them to reach for the stars. Students are taught how to learn instead of allowing them to explore their individual learning styles. They are not encouraged to conduct their own research in an effort to enhance their ability to learn and explore. We as educators must change our thought patterns and perceptions of what teaching was and should be.

We now have an enormous number of opportunities to enhance the quality of instruction. Digital Natives, our children, have immersed themselves in this digital world that now exists. They are digitally tuned in majority of the time through the use of cable TV, video games, computers, handheld devices, etc. Information is very easily accessible oftentimes immediately upon request. Students are engage in social networking through online mediums such as Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and Instagram as well as text messaging, Skype, Facetime, etc. Technology is used to problem-solve and connect with others from around the world. If our goal is to educate our youth and prepare them for the future, we must enhance our teaching methods by researching best practices and utilizing many forms of technology to support our instruction using 21st Century Skills.

Instead of focusing on how to teach and present information, we need to focus on what it takes for information to be learned and retained in the memory banks of our children. We need to focus on how to empower students to interact with new knowledge and connect content to real world experiences. We need to encourage students to take information learned and extend its use to create new ideas. Students create virtual spaces using programs such as Minecraft and Second Life. We can absolutely use those same skills to help shape the mindset necessary for them to imagine and create the tools we will need to be successful in the future. As a result, this will make the United States more competitive in the areas of STEM and, once again, be on the cutting edge of technology.