Page 245 - Educational Technology A Primer for the 21st Century

13.4 Challenges for Educational Technology 239
13.4.2 Assessing Student Learning

There is a need for effective assessments of students and teachers, not only for
accountability and promotion (summative) but also to improve learning and
instruction (formative). The focus of assessment should be on improving learning,
and assessments should be seamless and ubiquitous (woven into learning activities
unobtrusively), especially from the perspective of life-long learning.

13.4.3 Supporting Social Learning

Supporting meaningful and collaborative learning activities is more important than
ever before, partly due to requirements in the workplace to work collaboratively and
partly due to the affordances of new Web 2.0 technologies.

13.4.4 Diminishing Boundaries

Traditional boundaries between students and teachers, between and among personal
abilities and types of learning, between formal and informal learning, and between
learning and working are changing and becoming blurred in the twenty-first cen-
tury; this creates a need to recognize the significance of informal learning and
different learner abilities and interests.

13.4.5 Developing Alternative Teaching Strategies

The teacher is no longer the sole source of expertise in classroom settings due to the
widespread availability of networked resources; this creates a need to change
instructional approaches and train teachers accordingly.

13.4.6 Enhancing the Role of Stakeholders

Stakeholders in educational systems need to develop trust that those systems are
adequately preparing students for productive lives in twenty-first-century society; as
a consequence, there is a need to regularly consult with employers, parents,
administrators, teachers, and students to ensure that all stakeholders have confi-
dence that the educational system is working well.