Week 30/ The Broader Professional Context

This reflective entry will focus on analysing the global trend of the impact digital learning is having on schools and their students. It will look at it from my own classroom perspective and also that of its global impact on our students future career skills and requirements.

What: 

One global trend that is relevant to my practice is the impact of digital technologies. My students have all had experience with using a range of digital technologies whether it be in the form of a home computer, tablet or their parent's phones. My students are very young (6, 7 & 8 years old) and they already had a vast range of digital skills before they entered my classroom e.g. gaming, photography (selfies) or social networking. Therefore it has been made a priority in our school to educate our students to develop digital citizenship which enables them to have a positive impact in the rapidly evolving digital world. Daggett (2014) discusses the need for schools to embrace digital technologies rather than fight against the movement in order to keep learning relevant and engaging for our learners. 

So What:

Digital technologies is not only impacting on students engagement levels in the classroom but also their ability to acquire the necessary skills needed to get a job in the future. As Daggett (2014) points out, middle level jobs which were popular in the 1970s, 80s, & 90s around the globe are now being/have been replaced with computers which do a more efficient and cost effective job than their human counterparts. As a result, it can be assumed that more is needed in terms of digital related education such as coding, to enable our students to be better prepared for the many digital take overs we are already seeing. Our students need to more skilled in not only the use of digital technologies as consumers, but as developers and software designers to ensure their career choices stay relevant for the future. 

Now What:

It has taken a long time for the New Zealand education system to provide suitable support for schools and teachers in the area of digital technologies. Some clusters of schools are streets ahead of others in terms of developing digital learning programmes. One example of this is the Manaiakalani cluster of schools. This cluster has developed a research based digital programme and experienced the success that is possible when blending digital technologies with traditional learning techniques. They have witnessed a huge increase in literacy learning in the 11 years they have been running which can be seen in the research reports and evaluation available on their website. The success of this initiative has lead to a number outreach clusters around the country and provides a huge amount of support and professional development for schools and teachers. Our school has joined an outreach cluster this year.

With the world changing faster than it ever has before, governments have had to think quickly to adjust education to adapt to the change in employment prospects for their citizens (Pearson, 2013). The New Zealand Government has responded to this global trend, by developing a new digital component to the New Zealand Curriculum document. Here it outlines learning outcomes and requirements for all Year 0-13 students in New Zealand. The Minister of Education Chris Hipkins (2017) has summed up the relevance and importance of this document in the following quote -  “The digital curriculum is about teaching children how to design their own digital solutions and become creators of, not just users of, digital technologies, to prepare them for the modern workforce."

There are now multiple professional development opportunities the Ministry of Education are providing such as the Raranga Matihiko initiative which aims to educate New Zealand teachers and their students by providing hands on digital technology experiences for students and guided planning opportunities for teachers. My class participated in this fantastic opportunity this week at the Waitangi Treaty grounds. 

References:

Daggett, B. (2014). Addressing Current and Future Challenges in Education. Retrieved from http://www.leadered.com/pdf/2014MSC_AddressingCurrentandFutureChallenges.pdf

http://www.manaiakalani.org/home

Hipkins, C. (2017). New digital technologies for schools and kura. Retrieved from:
https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/new-digital-technologies-schools-and-kura

Pearson. (2013). Global trends: The world is changing faster than at any time in human history.[video].Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdZiTQy3g1g