Information and digital literacy in education via the digital path

The possibilities that technology offers us to improve learning are tremendously exciting. In the past few years, the question has shifted from whether technology should have a place in the classroom to understanding how technology can be integrated into lessons to achieve specific learning goals.

This piece is co-authored by Chelsea Waite, research fellow, education, at the Christensen Institute.

In February 2016, the Christensen Institute debuted the Blended Learning Universe (BLU)—an online hub of blended learning resources—in response to more and more schools across the U.S. implementing a blended-learning strategy for students. Researchers at the Institute define blended learning as a formal education program that must have three components: it must be part online, with students having some control over the time, place, path, or pace of their learning; it must occur, in part, in a brick-and-mortar location away from home; and the modalities along a student’s learning path must be connected to provide an integrated learning experience. While there is great diversity of practice, the Institute identifies seven common models leveraged by educators:

‘Evidence-based’ education, scientific racism, and how learning styles became a myth          

Science is constantly changing, and although we’ve come a long way since the days when it was widely believed that older people couldn’t learn new things, a number of learning myths have stood the test of time despite having no grounding in scientific research.

Further, eLearning is a growing industry, and what may have been par for course in 2014 is no longer a best practice. In 2019, these are the 6 eLearning myths which we can leave completely behind.

In the past year, many educational institutions began to address the challenge of digital misinformation. As head of a multi-institutional projectthat addresses these issues, I found this heartening. Less encouraging, however, was the persistence of many myths about how misinformation works, what its risks are and how we might address it. In the hope we might have a more productive 2019, I thought I’d outline some of those myths and realities below.

When digital citizenship cemented itself into the public consciousness only a few years ago, it definitely had its critics. That remains true even today as we strive to understand what it means and how to practice it in our homes and classrooms. Many digital citizenship myths still have some of us doubting the intrinsic need for its practices. One thing is certain: today, we acknowledge that the digital citizen is a global citizen.

Functionally, the purpose of assessment is to provide data to revise planned instruction.

In seeing what a student understands, the best path for moving forward towards mastery can be planned based on those results—the “data,” as it were.

While there are inherent (and perhaps crippling) flaws with any form of assessment (what is the best way to determine what a student understands?), assessment design is a topic for another day. For now, it can help to simply understand data better—for its benefits and perhaps more importantly, its limits.

Today's schools are focusing on boosting kids’ technological proficiency and warning them about the perils of the web. But something critical is missing from this education.