Instructional Strategies in the 21st Century

     Over the years, instructional strategies have changed.  When I was growing up, we sat in our desks or if we were lucky on the floor in front of our teacher as he/she presented material to the class.  We read from our textbooks, we copied from the board, and when we were really lucky, we got to watch a filmstrip where one of our classmates was able to advance the film at each "beep".  I feel like we did okay with that type of instruction.  We didn't each carry a cell phone around and many of our classmates didn't even have a video gaming system in their home.  No one had a computer, only typewriters.  We were fortunate to have a computer in our classroom that had the big floppy disks with a game or two that we could occasionally play with our classmates.

    Fast forward 30 years and the instructional strategies are completely different.  No longer are students in their desks listening to a teacher instruct.  Students each have an electronic device at their desk and are viewing videos and completing assignments on them all throughout the educational day.  They "crave" their technology and can do things on their devices that sometimes even the teachers aren't able to complete.  They have been exposed to this technology since they were infants.  They have Ipads, tablets, phones, laptops, and gaming systems at their fingertips and spend more time on devices a day than they do outside playing ball and other physical activities.
    Because of this technological knowledge that our students have nowadays, we as teachers must change the way we instruct.  We can no longer stand at the front of the room the majority of the day and expect our students to learn as well as we did at their age.  Their minds are different than ours.  They want technological challenges as part of their curriculum.  They do best when they can solve problems with their technology skills.  They can create amazing presentations using technology.  (They have even taught me a few things about creating presentations.)

     Interactive lessons are vital to keep the attention of our students.  I have found many interactive lesson sites in which the whole class can be engaged in a lesson and be able to individually answer questions throughout the presentations.  I have also learned how to create a lesson where I can take a video and insert questions throughout the video for students to individually watch and learn.  These types of lessons will enhance the learning of my students and allow them to use their technology skills for their learning.
     The following video by the MacArthur Foundation gives some ideas others are trying to teach in the 21st century.

https://youtu.be/c0xa98cy-Rw