What is Google Classroom? And how are teachers using it? Learn more about this popular platform and how to use it with students.

This growth in technology is changing the nature of higher education. Educators are feeling more and more pressure to provide educational content and teaching methods that keep pace with ongoing scientific and technical progress. Faculty, especially in higher educational institutions, must adapt to employ technology effectively to deliver content for students, whether on campus or at a distance. The question to be asked is: How are faculty at institutions of higher education providing instruction that reflects the educational experiences and expectations such changes in technology bring with them?

Successful Community College Professional Development Models

Have We Really Transformed Higher Education?

The key to teaching adults is understanding how they learn. Focus your attention on the group’s special characteristics. Don’t ignore adults’ needs, insights and skills when planning an educational experience

As technology becomes integrated into the teaching/learning process, the role of the classroom teacherchanges noticeably. Classroom teachers become facilitators who assist students in constructing their own understandings and capabilities in carrying out tasks on computer technologies. The shift from lecture and recitation, which often still occurs in secondary classrooms, to coaching automatically supports a constructivist approach to learning; computer encourages the teacher to play the role of a coach (Collins 1991).

In other words, learning in context is paying attention to theinteraction and intersection among people, tools, and context within alearning situation. More important, for adult educators who plan and teach,it is understanding how to plan and design programs for adult learners thatwill profoundly shape learning.

learning theories are considered a source of verifying instructional strategies as well as a foundation for the selection of specific strategies. The theories provide information about the relationships among strategies, context, and learner characteristics for better integration, and, most importantly, learning theories allow for reliable prediction of the effectiveness of the selected instructional strategies.

These changes will create a worldwide need for a reexamination of the way in which education is delivered to students (Wagner, Hassanein & Head, 2008).

To be effective, teachers must not only demonstrate a knowledge of how to integrate content or concepts within a particular discipline, but they must justify that this method is having a positive effect in their classroom as evidenced through student learning. Integration can only be justified when students’ understanding of the content is enhanced (Lonning, 1997).

Research about adults as learners can inform the design of effective digital learning experiences.

9OFFICE OFEducational TechnologyThe Role of Technology in Designing a Student-Centered Approach to Higher EducationJust as rapidly changing technology has created new and constantly evolving job types and com-petencies requiring new skills, it has facilitated significant progress in accommodating the needs of a broader range of students. It can also revolutionize the delivery of education, allowing access to higher education for greater numbers of students at lower cost and with more flexibility.

Current technology takes this a step further as modern annotation tools combine, in one platform, both the social sharing/dialogue and the ability to engage in ways beyond the text.

In a visual arts classroom,a teacher can photograph current student work and communicate “I CAN”statements and current learning targets to parents and students(see Table 2).Veteran teacher, art education blogger and curriculum developer Heather Crockett explains(2013):In a nutshell, I CAN statements are simple sentences designed by the teacheror the department.(Secondary folks often choose something a little different, such as “As an artist, I will...)Either way, these statements are based off the power standards or learning objectives from the curriculum, but they are writteninstudent-friendlylanguage.I CAN statements break down lofty objectives into learning targets students can read and understand.They cover specific learning for each lesson, and there can be more than one I CAN statement for eachPowerStandard.The neat thing about I CAN statements is that if they are used consistently and accurately, they can help students become more responsible for their learning and more reflective of their own work.I CAN statements also easily transition into assessments and allow for students and teachers to have a better discussion of their work

more than 1,000 U.S. college students, show an overwhelming majority of students feel digital learning technology has positively affected their schoolwork – aiding concept retention and improving grades – and that more than half (53 percent) of students prefer classes that use such tools.