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The best way to raise scores over the long haul is through rich, authentic learning experiences that feel relevant to students.

Our classrooms still look so much like they did when we (the readers of this blog post) were in school; maybe even when our parents were in school. The children we are preparing to enter the world are not entering at a 1985 ideal–they are entering at 2025. What are we doing with our content that is preparing them for the world they live in (or the world they will graduate into?)?

Can we change education fast enough to outpace the machines?

Less discussed is how to mix online tools with in-person college classrooms. And some technology proponents say faculty need to do this effectively on a large scale to prepare students for life beyond college - and to make sure college stays relevant to a generation that has spent most of their lives on digital devices.

"I don't know if we can continue to pretend that we operate in analog environments and still prepare students for the digital world."

So the first requirement to using any technology in the classroom is for us to be prepared to talk about it, assess its influence over our interactions and evaluate its role in an ongoing way.

Any one of these web tools that a freshman in high school learns today will most likely not exist or will be replaced by something better in 8-10 years when that freshman graduates from college. However, if teachers change their approach to focus on transferable technology skills (i.e. the NETS-S) it will make the integration of technology more meaningful and prepare our students with skills they can take with them in the future.

Because information is easy for students to get, they deal with problems, projects, and learning in a different way.

So, there is a gap between students and teachers. I can’t say for sure how wide the gap is, but it certainly seems to be getting smaller (that’s the good news). But, it is not happening fast enough (that’s the bad news).

Traditionally, it has been the teachers showing the students something new – now, it seems as though the students are showing something new to their teachers. That’s not an issue, it just means that teachers need to be aware of these changes, accept them, and make sure that students learn how deal with it all. The job is still the same – prepare the students for their future.

By pairing personalized learning and technology, a teacher can help students learn what they need to learn through the topics that interest them most.

technology facilitates both the learning and the assessment process.