Digital Media and the Importance of Emerging Technologies

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Educators must not only understand the changing ways that students are acquiring knowledge and interacting with content but also serve as guides to help them navigate the nuanced challenges of this digital world (Wilson et al., 2016). This sentence opens up the first chapter of the book “Digital Media in Today’s Classrooms: The Potential for Meaningful Teaching, Learning, and Assessment.” This assertion helped me understand just how prevalent digital media is in the modern world and how educators and future instructional technologists, such as myself, will have to remain in constant awareness of the ways technology and digital trends are evolving and impacting learners. Whether it’s teaching the importance of general digital literacy or introducing students to new technological assets such as 3D and virtual reality, the takeaway from this information is not just the importance of discovery and experimentation with new technology, but understanding that providing accessibility, teaching, and learning about new tech is just as powerful a move in that process.

This excerpt also introduces a handful of YouTube videos that are directly accessed by the use of QR codes. I thought this was a great way to introduce that technology for learners who may never have used it or have only attempted it rarely. For me, this highlights the importance that technology is constantly changing and in order to facilitate my learning processes with software such as QR codes and technology beyond that, I should inform myself of emerging technologies if I hope to design practical and effective learning and assessment for the benefit of new learners. To assist with that, I’ve found that the yearly Horizon Report, provided courtesy of Educause, identifies, and explores emerging technologies. It is located at the following link:

https://library.educause.edu/resources/2021/4/2021-educause-horizon-report-teaching-and-learning-edition

I hope to use this reference in the future as I continue to build and understand the growth of the technology in our constantly changing world.

 

 

Wilson, D., Alaniz, K., Sikora, J., 2016. Digital Media in Today's Classrooms: The Potential for Meaningful Teaching, Learning, and Assessment. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Incorporated

 

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