According to the Alliance for Excellent Education, digital learning is “any instructional practice that effectively uses technology to strengthen a student’s learning experience. It emphasizes high-quality instruction and provides access to challenging content, feedback through formative assessment, opportunities for learning anytime and anywhere, and individualized instruction to ensure all students reach their full potential to succeed in college and a career. Digital learning encompasses many different facets, tools, and applications to support and empower teachers and students, including online courses, blended or hybrid learning, or digital content and resources.”
We can simplify this definition by looking at the first sentence of this paragraph and stripping it down to its core. Digital learning is essentially learning that is facilitated or supported by some sort of digital technology. This is a pretty broad definition, but that’s ok; digital learning covers a lot of territory.
Technically speaking, digital learning specifically involves any technology using information recorded in binary code (comprised of various combinations of bits, or ones and zeros) to support learning; pretty much all modern technology is digital, however, using some sort of software to interface with the system and / or control the hardware. Digital learning therefore encompasses both the hardware (projectors, desktops, laptops, tablets, smartphones, smart boards) and software (operating systems, programs like Word and Powerpoint, websites, social media applications, mobile apps, etc.) that we use in our classrooms, and any combination thereof (such as Brightspace, which is a learning management system – a software platform – running on dedicated servers – a hardware platform).
Digital learning also includes the digital content that we use (PDFs, Word docs, Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint slideshows, images, animations, videos, audio files, etc.). It may also include more immersive technology like online games, augmented reality environments, and virtual reality simulations, as well as the digital tools that many people think of when they talk about digital learning (interactive web 2.0 apps and platforms such as Animoto, Edmodo, Google Docs, Kahoot, Prezi, and Socrative, to name just a few).
According to the Georgia Governor’s Office of Student Achievement, digital learning is “learning facilitated by technology that gives students some element of control over time, place, path and/or pace.” They further stipulate that digital learning “requires a combination of technology, digital content, and instruction.” Technology is the mechanism that delivers the digital content; because instructors are no longer directly responsible for presenting content, they are able to spend more time providing instruction in the form of personalized guidance and assistance to make sure that students learn and stay on track.
This statement points out two of the key benefits of digital learning:
1) students are provided with more control over their learning
2) instructors are free to take on more of a supporting role (the “guide on the side” rather than the “sage on the stage”)
For more information on the CTE’s Digital Learning Track, contact:
Michael D. Smith
678.407.5560
mdsmith@ggc.edu