The Role of Educational Technology in Fostering 21st Century Learning Skills in Social-Emotional Learning

Introduction

Technology has transformed the way we work, the way we think, and the way we socialize. We live in a digital world—a world in which we rely on various technologies to assist us in daily activities. To name a few examples, we rely on emails and text messages for quick correspondences; online banking to manage our finances; and skyping and zooming to communicate with business associates; and Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to socialize with friends and family.

This new digital world has quickly crossed over into P-12 education, and there are significant changes in the way teachers are teaching students. Pedagogy has become less traditional and teacher-centered, with a stronger focus on student-centered learning. Students are becoming more empowered by having their own digital device in school or at home for learning. Teachers are attempting to make education more personalized and engaging for students by having them take a more active role in their own learning using technology. Learning can take place at anytime and anywhere, inside the classroom or outside of it. Technology is becoming the new pedagogy.

Students are more engaged when technology is integrated into their lessons. They see this new addition as something innovative and fun. When students are excited about learning and begin seeing their successes as learners, their social emotional statuses change for the better. They see the benefits of learning. As Schlechty (2002) noted about engagement: “Engagement is active. It requires the students to be attentive as well as in attendance; it requires the students to be committed to the task and find some inherent value in what he or she is being asked to do. The engaged student not only does the task assigned but also does the task with enthusiasm and diligence.” Educational technology encourages more active and hands-on participation and student interaction in the learning process, something that is not always achievable in a traditional, teacher-centered environment that is lecture-oriented.

Educational technology builds on the 21^st century learning skills. When students work together on a problem-based issue to create a solution, for example, they collaborate and communicate with each other—in the same classroom, same school, or even with other classrooms around the world; they problem-solve, brainstorm ideas, and discuss for solutions; and they use technology to create an innovative product as the final output. Enhancing these 21^st century learning skills is beneficial because it reinforces real-life skills students will need for a successful future. In addition, technology develops many practical skills that prepare career and college readiness, including learning how to create powerful presentations using multimedia, learning how to distinguish reliable and unreliable sources on the Internet for research, and just simply maintaining proper online etiquette or netiquette, rules that prevent miscommunications and understanding what is socially acceptable when working and collaborating online. These are just a few examples of what educational technology brings to the classroom.

Finally, educational technology is changing the mindset of educators. For many teachers, using technology is still a new process of learning and acceptance. However, in the 4^th Annual Educator Confidence Report survey of more than 1200 educators (ECR, 2020), a large majority of educators spoke of technology in a positive way, stating that educational technology has had a positive impact on their instruction. Accordingly, 58% of teachers stated that they were very to extremely confident in their knowledge of educational technology and saw it as a useful teaching tool, and four-fifths of the teachers surveyed use “social media, apps, and other online communities for parent engagement, peer collaboration, and instructional content” (ERC, 2020). Even more encouraging are the benefits of educational technology that educators reported in this survey, which included the following: improved student engagement with learning, improved ability to deliver differentiated instruction, improved abilities for students to access information anytime and anywhere, time savings in workflows and processes, and more student collaboration and opportunities. Educators have the mindset of “lifelong learning.” Therefore, they realize that to keep up with this digital age, which is not going away, they must keep growing as teachers and must be willing to adapt their practices--no matter the challenge--to the best interests of their students and to continuously learn how to integrate technology.