Digital learning and teaching tools unlock many possibilities for the classroom. Students can find new ways to engage with learning materials, collaborate with classmates, express their ideas and more. It can offer teachers opportunities to differentiate lesson plans or create connections for social-emotional learning. Embedding these technologies into a classroom is an ongoing, continuous effort.
As technology advances, a progressive knowledge of how to best utilize it becomes as important as the technology itself. Teachers have always been lifelong learners, as professional development has been a cornerstone of the industry for decades. Bringing digital technologies into the learning environment is the latest evolution in that continued education.
The online Master of Science in Education (M.S.Ed.) – Teacher Education – Curriculum and Instruction – Digital Teaching and Learning program from Youngstown State University (YSU) instills graduates with the knowledge and ideas required to bring engaging digital activities into the classroom. They also learn to create a more student-centered approach to teaching, including inclusive, accessible lessons for all students.
Here’s a look at some of the skills developed by the coursework and field experience of YSU’s online Digital Teaching and Learning program.
Digital Literacy
Digital literacy has joined traditional forms of literacy as essential for students to digest information effectively. Teachers should be able to instill basic digital skills in their students to help them cultivate key skills with relevant hardware and software. From an intellectual perspective, students also need the ability to constructively process an endless fountain of information and content, both good and bad, on the internet and social media. YSU’s Literacy for Digital Learning course helps educators teach students the “ability to use digital technology to find information and critically evaluate that information’s authority and relevance.”
Addressing Access
Recognizing and implementing research-based digital learning methods to meet the needs of many students can be a powerful skill in the classroom. However, as the education resource Digital Promise explains, as much as digital learning can be a powerful tool to bridge inequities, it can also have the reserve effect, “(perpetuating) and (exacerbating) existing inequities and make schooling more difficult for those who are already marginalized within schooling systems.” Educators must be able to differentiate lessons and combine both digital and traditional mediums to interact with course content. Coursework such as Curriculum, Assessment and Instruction to Improve Learning and Designing Curriculum for Digital Teaching and Learning help graduates understand how to harness digital possibilities to maximize student engagement.
Gamification
As an extension of curriculum development, the Gaming for Educators course focuses on implementing gamification in the classroom. As the description notes, digital games are “uniquely positioned to support student learning, as they serve multiple purposes and can be very engaging.” Unlike traditional tabletop games or cards, digital games offer customization options to suit the learning needs of individual students. Instructional practices based on gamification have become increasingly popular to engage students and incentivize learning.
Support Additional Learning
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Education Technology describes how digital technologies can help support students’ social-emotional learning. Digital spaces can offer an easy, informal way for students to get to know one another. They can also make it easier for teachers to check in with students about how they are doing. New avenues of digital communication tools can also open constructive lines of communication between parents and teachers. This connection can help carry over and reinforce student learning from the classroom to their home.
Learn more about Youngstown State University’s online M.S.Ed. – Teacher Education – Curriculum and Instruction – Digital Teaching and Learning program.
