Learning and Teaching in a Digital Age

In this post summing up all the information discussed in my previous posts I would like to speak about teaching and learning in the digital age. Recalling my first post about digital youth portrait it is interesting to discover the education and teaching portrait, especially in the country where I live and work as a teacher. Different researches show that the integration of Computer Assisted Language learning in teaching process is highly beneficial and effective. However it is not always easy and real to apply it in different educational institutions because of lack of technology and especially lack of knowledge. This is very much true about Armenia. To effectively use technologies in Education first of all there is a need to fill in the gap of knowledge of how to use technologies in teaching among teachers. Kids become digitally literate outside the schools however they see totally different approach inside the classroom. We speak very much about Mobile learning which allows students to learn anywhere and anytime but still in many schools of Armenia the use of mobile phone during the classes is regarded as something unacceptable. I myself recently faced this problem during one of my courses at Yerevan State Linguistic University, when I just tried to use my phone for taking notes and I saw the negative attitude of my professor. 

There are so many things that must be changed before technologies may be integrated in Armenian schools and educational institutions and it is, first of all, the philosophy of education. Connie Yowell (director of Education) in her talk mentions three shifts that are crucial in education for this digital age: the first shift is from education to learning. Today technology provide for kids every possible opportunity for self-learning and kids very much use this opportunities even without realizing that. Children today are all digitally literate and no one taught them it, kids get this literacy outside the school. Nowadays learning is taking place anywhere and anytime. Second shift is the shift from consumption to participation. Learners are no longer passive consumers, they need to be active participants, they need to be doers during the classes and so the lessons should be highly learner-centered. And the last shift is from institutions to network. Learning with digital media is fundamentally different. It requires different literacies and different skills from teachers and educators.

 It is natural that the integration of technologies in education may not be realized immediately. However,  if every one of us try to use in our classes one of the technologie-based activities, assignments or approaches discussed in my previous posts, we would very soon have totally modern language classes.