It is true that we cannot de-industrialize. As such, moving forward, embracing changes – no matter how awful it gets sometimes, and engaging ourselves to incorporate internet data opened different horizons of not only how we transmit information but on how we also learn.
New Horizon
The internet has been around for years – even more than we could imagine. It is one, if not the best evidence that we have improved through the time of learning. Engaging in the process to shift from traditional to digital is a new move. On the other hand, it did not come easy for everyone. As we go through years subsequent the year 2010, we are pacing through the substantial light of phasing out traditional media and deviating to digital or new media.
Communication has been easy. People around the world connect in a deemed direct manner. Everything seems to be digitalized; information is more comfortable to create and share; thus, everyone becomes media creators.
The prowess of the internet and its advantages indeed overcome its cons. Learning has never been this easy. Data are available for everyone to consume, revise, or devise. Educators have more option to share what they know and add to what they currently identify.
Some consider this century a gift. While it is high time for any industry, the government, education, and communication, experts on the field do not stop yet to cultivate a friendlier sphere of information and know-how.
Digital Learning
Selected performers of the academe have already shifted to digital learning. Some combined traditional and the latter; and others are on their transition to explore the opportunity that the digital world or the ‘cyberspace’ can offer.
Universities and Colleges around the globe have expanded their admissions and program offerings through digital platforms like Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). They are also utilizing Learning Management Systems (LMS) to cater to students worldwide without them leaving their homelands and even their home for that matter. Many students have taken this path to higher learning because it does not disrupt their time for work, family, and socialization. Thus, they see it as an opportunity to be flexible, collaborate more with other people (regardless of distance), and be available for more data.
Digital Learners are those who utilize online platforms to learn and engage; thus, eventually, earn degrees. The convenience that the 21s Century Learning give these learners the control over what they want to know and achieve in their professional career and life per se. Students have gained a new balance and remarkably more fulfilled compared to those who learned traditionally.
In the book An Intelligent Career: Taking Ownership of Your Work and Your Life by Michael B. Arthur, Svetlana N. Khapova, and Julia Richardson, they showcased the new balance between the Digital Learner (21st Century Education) and Traditional Education.
The figure above presents the comparison between traditional and digital education. Evidently, digital learners are considered more adaptable and self-paced than those who learned in the traditional way. The digital experience has also given them the newfound purpose of learning for life and a chance to apply what they learned to a real-time task.
The mix of traditional and digital learning also manifest the new balance. Its combination arranges adaptability and versatility to what is available and useful. Moreover, it teaches students a better perspective in life and career and how they could be able to ace and furnish learnings in two different manners.
Digital natives could also be labeled as new media dependents. For educational institutions, setting up a digital platform catered to these audience gives better feedback than those that are still traditionally-inclined. While the latter might not consider inappropriate, they are perceived as a more difficult and bootless errand to conform to.
The Digital Age is happening and constantly improving. It continuously gives a brand-new perspective not only to digital learners but also to leaders – whether of industry or a country.
Featured Image from creativedigest.net
Shainne Hostalero 