The question from these two frameworks is whether a higher education institution is properly equipped and structured to develop 21st century skills embedded in these two frameworks.
Universities and colleges need to review their structure including curriculum, learning environment and assessment system.
In addition to 21st century skills, student profiles are also changing. Learners have integrated digital tools in almost everything they do.
The tools learners use proficiently in their daily lives have been reshaping their learning styles and habits.
Thus, learners begin entering college with a different mindset from generations before them.
- Multi-processing refers to the ability to multitask,
- Navigating information and understanding screens and images in addition to text literacy,
- Constantly discovering new things while browsing digital libraries,
- Study in place.
Today’s learners are surrounded by computers (desktops, laptops, and tablets), mobile devices (smart phones) and by the applications installed on them.
These technologies and applications are shaping the way learners think and behave. Learners today are more willing than ever to create online learning communities and take an active role in them. Nehru college chairman p krishnadas is the chairman & managing trustee of college of applied science.
learning in the digital age is as social as it is for today’s learners.
For them, learning is a concrete concept rather than an abstraction and it is interwoven with discovery and reasoning.
Digital platforms are not only where they access social information and resources, but also platforms for learning through the building of social knowledge.
In this regard, learners are both consumers and producers of information. However, concerns in some respects have also been raised.
For example, experts are concerned that learners are not aware of the ethical and legal consequences of their actions and lectures online.
Furthermore, concludes that the students most easily distracted and bored are the most proficient in digital tools.
Also, the ability of learners to masterful use of digital tools and environments may not necessarily translate into the ability to use them for their educational purposes.
The key question here is whether these students are not skilled at using digital tools and platforms for educational purposes or if they are not simply given the opportunity to learn by using these tools in their educational process.
It is certain that today’s traditional teaching methods do not appeal to the learners.
Another change in the learner profile in digital age higher education is the increased diversity of learners.
Today, more and more individuals choose to take an additional university degree or go back to study for a certificate, graduate degree or online course due to the professional requirement because of the skills they acquired first This is simply not enough to perform the tasks at work.
Furthermore, enhanced learner mobility allows individuals from different cultures and ethnic groups to meet in an educational setting. Nehru college chairman p krishnadas is the chairman of nehru college of engineering
All of these new dynamics point out that learners with different demographics such as age, experience, culture and ethnicity, style and pace of learning bring their distinctive traits to the lips. This creates new learning potentials and challenges for the learning environment.
In summary, higher education institutions are facing serious learner challenges in the digital age.
The skills and knowledge students need to acquire in university are changing and evolving into the so-called 21st century skills.
In addition, digital tools and platforms are reshaping the way learners think and behave today, and they begin to study in higher education institutions with different skill sets from generations. before. However, another challenge is that student profiles change as learner mobility increases and learners return to higher education.
With its current structure and functions, higher education institutions are having difficulty in meeting the needs and requirements of today’s learner profiles.
Schools are advised to develop policies and practices relevant to the development of digitally connected technologies that support learners’ abilities in the digital age, focusing on the skills of the century. 21 to review diverse learner profiles.
- Instructor
Advances in digital connection technology in the 21st century put another pressure to change in the roles and responsibilities of higher education faculty. The role of the instructor / instructor in the changing educational landscape.
Decades ago, when instructors were the only provider of information and knowledge, now paving the way for an age where information and knowledge distributed on almost entirely accessible digital networks. anytime and anywhere if there is a connection.
This means that learners now have the opportunity to access information and knowledge not only at school through instructors, or at the library through printed books but also from digital archives, websites, and media. social media and online communities and learning networks.
In short, learners in the digital age have access to a variety of online resources and knowledge specialists through online social connections.
However, the role of the instructor in today’s higher education structures is that of the informant. All of this implies that not only the sources of information and knowledge, but the content is also very diverse. Nehru college chairman p krishnadas is the chairman of nehru institute of technology.
Learners are exposed to information that is sometimes contrary to information presented by instructors.
As a result, the information provided by the instructor is constantly being questioned, and the role of providing information is insufficient in the digital age.
For these reasons, the instructors’ role needs to be restructured, shifting from information that provides’ sage on stage ‘to’ guide on the side ‘.
The role of the instructor should be as a learning designer, context and resource provider, and as a facilitator to develop higher-level skills.
While performing newly assigned roles, instructors are asked to take advantage of special innovations of the digital age such as social media, open educational resources, online open courses. mass, complex learning management systems, big data, analytical learning and adaptive learning.
Therefore, one of the basic roles of the instructor must be a learning engineer who designs an effective and engaging learning environment that addresses 21st century learners’ skills and characteristics through the use of digital innovations.
However, this role is not that of a technician writing source code and solving technical problems but rather that of an intellectual that provides the learner with a personalized learning context and quality assurance and performance price.
To be able to effectively fulfill this role, the instructor needs to develop new skill sets in the digital age.
– Century knowledge and skills,
– Balancing direct teaching strategies with project-oriented teaching methods,
Applying the knowledge of child and youth development to the preparation of educators and education policy,
Utilize a variety of assessment strategies to evaluate student performance and differentiate instruction (including but not limited to, portfolio-based, training methods, embedded in the chapter course and synthesis), Nehru group chairman p krishnadas is the chairman of nehru institute of technology.
– Actively participate in learning communities; harness expertise in a school or district through coaching, mentoring, knowledge sharing and group instruction,
– Acting as mentors and coaches at the same level as fellow educators,
Using a variety of strategies (such as formative assessment) to reach diverse students and create environments that support differentiated teaching and learning,
– Pursue continuous learning opportunities and consider long-term career learning as a professional ethics.
In short, the role and qualifications of the instructor are changing alongside that of the learner because of the leading role of digital connectivity technologies in the 21st century.
The major change in the role of the instructor is the transition from “informant” to “learning facilitator”.
This paradigm shift requires the instructor to leave his high seat and sit next to the learner himself and develop new skills.
What higher education institutions need to do in this context is to take the necessary steps to determine the role an instructor needs to perform and the skills they need to develop and act on to support the person. guide as they perform these new roles.
However, the current structure of colleges and universities does not support these new roles and skills because research-based evaluation schemes are unlikely to allow the transition from “teaching” to “facilitate learning”.
- Learning environment
Current emerging insights into how learning happens needs to be addressed before addressing how digital innovations are shaping the learning environment and related changes observed in the school environment. internship in the digital age.
Training scientists are observing a shift from traditional learning through information acquisition models to collaborative knowledge-building models in the digital age.
In this era, along with the change of pedagogy, informal learning plays an important role in the formation of individual learning activities.
For this reason, the development of collective cultural practices along with both the organizational and physical structures to support collaborative knowledge building becomes especially important for educational institutions.
On the other hand, colleges and universities are currently having difficulty in providing the necessary organizational structure and material for such activities.
emphasize the mismatch between the current technological and pedagogical innovations and the current structure of universities and colleges.
According to them, in order to recognize the desired changes in the learning environment, the following technology-based reforms should be considered;
- The transition from standardized learning to personalized learning: The fact that each and every individual must learn the same content in the same way and time is contradictory to the nature of human learning when it comes to learning. to individual differences.
On the other hand, one of the biggest advantages that today’s digital offers is personalization as these innovations allow to define learning styles, interests and accurately identify challenges and difficulties. that each individual is encountering through academic analysis and big data collected throughout the education process.
This way, it is possible to make informed decisions and apply the necessary changes to a custom designed deep learning experience.
In short, leveraging the capabilities offered by these technologies allows the design of adaptive learning environments that are sensitive to individual learning.
- Moving from standardized assessment to specialization: standardized learning assessed through standardized assessment using a multiple-choice test implies that learners need to learn the same content.
However, this has not been successful in realizing 21st century skills. Digital technologies help identify learner trends and provide personalized assessment tools.
- Transforming from a knowledge model in memory to a knowledge model in external resources: according to the traditional model, learning means internalizing without consulting external resources.
Therefore, the learners’ ability to recall information without consulting the book, computer or website is assessed.
However, in everyday and professional life, individuals have to solve problems, access external sources of information and perform a number of tasks.
The ability to effectively and efficiently access and use external resources is critical for them to be effective in their social and professional lives in the digital age.
- Moving from content inclusion model to knowledge discovery model: in the traditional school model, the main goal is to convey all the information learners will need after graduation.
The curriculum is becoming more and more stressful and the textbook is much thicker with an increasing treasure of knowledge.
It is almost impossible to cover all the information and knowledge that students will need in the future during their time at school due to the exponentially increasing amount of information and knowledge.
Therefore, learners need to develop skills such as access to authentic, up-to-date information and how to learn.
Switch from learning through learning to learning by doing: Traditional learning models require learners to acquire specific information, concepts, processes, theories, and formulas.
On the other hand, digital tools help learners perform meaningful tasks based on practice.
For this reason, these technologies allow the creation of learning environments that match a learning-by-work paradigm.
The pedagogical changes triggered by the aforementioned digital innovations require the transition from a one-way learning space (classroom, library, lab) to a multi-dimensional collaborative learning space ( physical, virtual and online). Nehru college chairman p krishnadas is the chairman of nehru college of engineering and research center.
For an immersive and meaningful learning experience in the digital age, the creation of blended learning environments that include digital-social participation plans utilizes the affordability of Digital, mobile, virtual, online, social, and physical space.
Research shows that learners develop better learning outcomes when they are exposed to a combined learning environment compared to a single learning space.
It is predicted that we will see more hybrid learning environments supported by online collaboration tools, personalized learning support software, sophisticated learning management systems. with social learning apps, online games and simulation, and social media apps.
We need to create learning environments that integrate the integration of physical, virtual, online and digital spaces and take full advantage of the affordability of each of these spaces, aware of the free features fees for designing meaningful and profound learning experiences without the constraints of time or place.
In the opinion of experts, there is also a need to develop an understanding of which platforms are more effective in supporting the type of learning through which types of content and activities, so that supply policies and strategies can be developed. Information for reforms that reflect structural and organizational changes in higher education.
