I am currently enrolled in Digital Dividends, Strengthing the Analog Foundation of the Digital Revolution from edX and the World Bank Group. It has been a very informative course in regards to the driving forces behind expanding and stabilizing digital networks.
The latest section I have been reading is ‘National Priorities: Making the Internet Work for Everyone’. This was one of the biggest driving factors for why I took the course. One great piece of knowledge I wanted to share was on geared to properties for emerging counties. That building foundational cognitive and social-emotional skills and ensure basic Information and communications technology (ICT) literary is inherently important.
The World Development Report 2016: Digital Dividends on page 260 brings up the example of increased technology (laptops, tablets, etc) in the hands of primary and secondary education – and that no solid evidence-based of their effect on learning outcomes and much more testing in relation to ICT is needed. I always felt this was true but it was good to see the reasoning behind it, instead, the report shows there are five uses of technology in building foundational skills that are promising:
- Connecting teachers to content
- Making learning more personalized
- Reinforcing content learned in school
- Fostering collaboration and increasing students’ engagement
- Promoting adult literacy
Technology in learning is much more than just supply technology or materials, we much do a better job providing access to personalized content, that reinforces what students learn in class while keeping them engaged.
