Why we should get modern media into the classroom
With younger generations growing up with digital media, that medias possible use at school grows more and more relevant. The to-be-students spend an increasing time on their devices, yet surveys show that a majority of Gen Z does not know what a ”folder” (on a computer) is. Social media addiction and the resulting impact on how students form opinions endanger our society. Therefore, proper digital education would benefit both students and educators.
The text ”Digitale Medien im Lehr- und Lernprozess” (”Digital media for teachers and learners”), published October 2014 on the ”Münchner Kommunaler Bildungsserver”, the state digital learning project of German city Munich, discusses this topic, talks about this topic. In this article, I’d like to summarize the main advantages described there.
Firstly, from a teachers perspective it is mentioned that they can use online materials or digital worksheets to plan their lessons. Additionally, digital media can simplify certain aspects of lessons like visualization.
Secondly, lesson results can be uploaded digitally so they can be viewed and edited afterwards, instead of being permanently erased from a blackboard. This can help students grasp the overall content of a class since they can check what exactly a lesson’s content was. These uploaded results or other online materials like interactive exercises can simplify studying after school for the students.
Finally, students growing up with technology are bound to use it anyways. By teaching about and using them in school, students can be taught proper use.
To conclude, there are lots of advantages to bringing digital media into the classroom. Especially the last aspect should be reason enough to consider teaching about digital media at school — can we really afford to not teach our children proper use of the tools subconciously shaping our decisions?