Parents and educators believe that technology must be an integral part of the educational experience in order for today's students to fully succeed in the 21st century. These 21st century skills include digital literacy, inventive thinking, effective communication, teamwork and the ability to create high quality product.

In classrooms today, students and teachers have wide access to wide range of technologies including computers, assortment of software programs and tools, video disc players, video-cameras, scanners CD-ROM drives, modems and on-line communication services.

Teachers can use computers to promote collaborations, writing, research games, discussion groups interactive book readings, manipulating digital pictures to illustrate own writing, recording stories, graphic organizing, word building, spelling games, sharing books, and chatting to people around the world. Technology is the quickest way to communicate to friends or to obtain information. It is use to provide specific tasks, and to practice, reinforce or extend a skill.

Technology provides 21st century skills needed such as digital literacy, inventive thinking, effective communication and teamwork. Technology is used by teachers and administrators as tools to improve teaching and learning.

It provides critical skills for individuals entering the workforce of the global economy. Consumers can engage in dialogues instead of monologues. They can interrupt and redirect flow of information. Technology expands academic opportunities and enriches students' lives. It makes learning more enjoyable. If children think it's a game, they are much more likely to enjoy the process.

Technology closes the minority gap, gives lower income students a chance to compete with higher income students. It supports problem solving skills and thinking process and provides ways for teachers to cater to the various learning styles, needs and interest of students. With technology, students have much broader range of information available and they can have a global perspective.

Technology provides a valid assessment of teacher and student performance. It changes the way teachers assess learning moving beyond standardized testing as the sole measure of student learning. It provides immediate feedback to both educators and students. In the article, 21st Century Skills: Will our Students be Prepared by Judy Salpeter, the author discusses the impact of 21st century learning on test scores, that there is clearly a need for assessment tools that measure those essential skills that will never be captured by traditional tests. The value of rich, multidisciplinary, technology-infused learning seems so obvious to educators who have seen its impact on young people that it is often frustrating to be asked to prove it using traditional tests.

Teachers can use computers to promote collaborations, writing, research games, discussion groups interactive book readings, manipulating digital pictures to illustrate own writing, recording stories, graphic organizing, word building, spelling games, sharing books, and chatting to people around the world.

Teachers everywhere can share their wisdom through mailing lists, publish their ideas on web sites and can have more free time. Supervisors can have the ability to make observations through videoconferencing in any room that has network or Internet Connection.

Technology guides teachers to self- reflection and strengthen teachers' talents. It demands for teachers to search and focus on what they think is important to teach.

 

My conclusion is: Results of cognitive research states that students learn best when they are engaged with what they are studying, when they are making decisions, when they are thinking critically. Children today are growing up in a different world that is increasingly interactive, communications intensive and knowledge based. If we teach students the right information and literacy skills, they will have the power to actually improve their critical thinking. If we cannot teach our children how to play and work in this world, our children will remain at risk. Education must be based on a model that is appropriate for an information- driven society.

"The technology gap between schools and the rest of the world is real and it is growing. Whether we like it or not, the increasing pervasiveness and vitality of this technology is changing the expectations of our children and their world view. Schools of the future could look dramatically different from those we attended. If we plan carefully, if we bring teachers along with us and implement new technology wisely together with other needed reforms, learning could be dramatically better."

-Frank Press, President Emeritus, National Academy of Sciences

References

McKenzie, Jamie. (1994). Culling the Net: A Lesson on The Dark Side. From Now On Educational Journal. Retrieved June 16, 2004 from http://www.fno.org/culling.html

Raymond, John. (2004). Embracing the Vision: One to One Computing in our Classrooms. education World. Retrieved June 15, 2004 from http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech196.shtml

Salpeter, Judy. (1998). 21st Century: Will Our Students be Prepared? Technology and Learning Magazine. Retrieved June 15, 2005 from http://www.techlearning.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=15202090