Key points:

• Digital learning is a key part of students’ school experiences
• As technology evolves, so, too, do students’ learning opportunities
• See related article: Is AI the future of education?
• For more news on edtech trends, visit eSN’s Digital Learning page

Digital learning is a critical component of what happens in today’s classrooms. Edtech tools, connected learning experiences, and 21st-century skills all play a role in preparing students for the future.

But digital learning trends and technologies change so quickly that sometimes, it’s difficult to know where to focus or where to invest funding, time, and resources.

Here are 5 must-read stories about digital learning trends and developments to help your school leadership team determine which digital learning resources and edtech tools can best benefit students:

1. Digital learning requires digital research skills: Right now is the perfect time to start a research project with your students, as it will help them develop skills they will use for the rest of their lives. While your students, who have grown up in the Information Age and think they already know everything, any classroom teacher knows that our students need help more than they think. Our students’ belief that everything they need to know is online can, without the right skillset, leave them prey to misinformation. Let’s teach our students to steer through the online ocean of data to be both effective researchers and responsible digital citizens.

2. Digital escape rooms merge creativity with student engagement and skill development: Escape rooms are engaging for people of all ages–they require durable skills such as creativity, critical thinking, determination, and the ability to work in groups to solve challenges. It makes sense that educators would craft their lessons around the concept of an escape room–and that’s just what high school educator Lynn Thomas has done. In this Q&A with eSchool News, Thomas details how she found inspiration to create escape room learning opportunities and the benefits she sees for her students–and she offers a look at a new ChatGPT challenge she’s created.

3. Esports can engage even the youngest of students, and these programs help students develop critical skills no matter what paths they pursue: Scholastic esports is rapidly growing, and many schools are starting to incorporate esports programs into their curriculum. The benefits of esports make a compelling case for creating a program: Research shows that students who participate in scholastic esports experience social and emotional benefits, increased academic achievement, and higher graduation rates. These positive learning outcomes make esports popular in secondary grades, with both students and educators advocating for the addition and growth of scholastic esports in their middle and high schools. But esports isn’t just for the older kids, and starting an esports program in early elementary school can be an effective way to lay the groundwork for esports participation as students make their way into higher grade levels.

4. In an AI-driven world, how can students maintain their own voices? Now, more than ever, students’ future success in an ever-changing world requires that they learn how to think critically and creatively while collaborating with others to solve complex problems. But the unwritten curriculum of most schools—instilling process perfectionism through rewarding flawless performance—is probably doing more harm than good. Against this backdrop, there’s a lurking concern that AI is just going to help students find mindless shortcuts for cheating their way to good grades. But that’s only a risk if schools and teachers hold a low bar for what they expect of their students.

5. Effective digital learning means educators must know how to leverage digital tools correctly: When properly integrated, AI can amplify the work of teachers, shrink equity and accessibility gaps, and provide unrestricted access to information. But for technology to make a meaningful change in K-12 education, we need to address the true source of the problem: broken instructional models. Even though countless technology tools have been introduced into the market, classroom practice looks eerily similar to how it did a hundred years ago. That’s because educators are still equipped with an antiquated model of teaching that isn’t designed to be responsive to students’ learning styles. By leveraging AI and technology to rethink traditional teaching methodologies, we can level-set our classrooms to more effectively empower educators and personalize student learning.

Key points:

• Many educators look forward to the opportunity afforded by AI, but few feel ready to use it
• Other educators wonder if they have proper district support for AI use
• See related article: 5 positive ways students can use AI
• For more news on AI in education, visit eSN’s Digital Learning page

A resounding 90 percent of educators in a recent survey said they believe that AI has the potential to make education more accessible. 

Teachers are recognizing that when implemented ethically and with thoughtful consideration, AI can help students with special needs, learning disabilities, and language barriers, for example, and experience more effective, personalized learning methods, according to the 2023 Educator AI Report: Perceptions, Practices, and Potential from digital curriculum solution provider Imagine Learning.

With generative AI emerging as a pivotal element in the dynamic educational landscape of 2023, Imagine Learning conducted the survey to explore the perceptions, current practices, and future aspirations of educators who have already embraced technology in the classroom. The inaugural report showcases a comprehensive exploration of AI’s current and future role in K-12 classrooms.

When it comes to readiness, however, only 15 percent of educators feel “prepared” or “very prepared” to oversee the use of generative AI in the classroom, with over twice that number (32 percent) expressing they are completely unprepared to do so. What’s more, educators indicate a disparity when it comes to the likelihood of using Generative AI in the classroom, with district and school leaders perceived as less likely to embrace new AI tools when compared to educators and students.

On top of this, only one-third (33 percent) of surveyed educators feel that they have the support they need from their district and school leadership to successfully implement generative AI into their teaching.

Other key findings from Imagine Learning’s report include:

• Almost half of educators (44 percent) who have used generative AI believe that its use has alleviated the burden of their workload and made their jobs easier.
• Of the respondents who reported they have not used AI in the classroom, 65 percent cite a lack of familiarity as the primary obstacle to the future utilization of generative AI, with 48 percent also expressing ethical concerns.
• 72 percent of educators are most concerned about plagiarism and cheating due to generative AI, highlighting the need for clear guidelines for students for using AI with academic integrity.

“Generative AI is a blend of promise and prudence. Its transformative potential is undeniable, but the journey forward requires thoughtful consideration,” said Sari Factor, Vice Chair and Chief Strategy Officer, of Imagine Learning. “Learning is above all a human endeavor. With generative AI as a tool to simplify lesson planning, reduce administrative tasks, and enhance personalized learning, we can empower the potential of teachers and students and improve learning outcomes.”

This press release originally appeared online.

Key points:

• AI is changing education–and these changes can be beneficial if handled correctly
• Meta creativity–routines that help us engage fully with the hardest parts of creativity–can help with AI integration
• See related article: 5 positive ways students can use AI
• For more news on AI and creativity, visit eSN’s Digital Learning page

Nearly 40 percent of teachers expect to use AI in their classrooms by the end of the 2023-2024 academic year. This use of AI at school will impact how students learn and use their creativity as innovation, which will be increasingly necessary in the future as even higher-order thinking skills become standard. There will be long-term effects if the methods of teaching creativity are not adjusted, but if educators embrace AI mindfully, there will be long-term benefits.

In my experience observing educators and students, I started to see a need for more moments of reflection. The education space and other industries are quickly evolving because of AI, but humans, especially young students, aren’t yet hard-wired to adapt at the same pace. In response, educators need to take more time and enlist the help of tools to begin planting the seeds of mindful creativity in relation to AI, which will be a critical skill as young children grow into tomorrow’s workforce.

Moving forward, meta creativity–routines that help us engage fully with the hardest parts of creativity–and even higher-order thinking should be on every educator’s mind when building an environment conducive to both creativity and AI use.

The relationship between AI and creativity

When most people think of creativity, they relate it to the ability to ideate and express original ideas. However, the AI era we live in suggests that we should change this definition since AI can be trained on more information and has demonstrated the ability to make stronger creative connections than humans. We must evolve our definitions of creativity to higher orders to stay relevant, including successfully using AI in and out of the classroom.

One of the most challenging parts of creativity is resisting the impulse to give up when you meet failure or criticism of your ideas, which students commonly face at school when working on group projects or receiving grades. Failure and criticism can lead to students abandoning their own ideas and relying too heavily on AI to be their brains, so to speak. If this is regularly done during school, students will likely continue this habit at their future jobs or other parts of life. To avoid this dependency on AI and other technology, students need stronger self-awareness and reflective routines to engage in the full complexity of creativity.

What is meta-creativity?

Remaining creatively relevant requires self-awareness, adaptability of thinking, and impulse control during the creative process. New routines that help humans engage fully with the most challenging parts of creativity must be introduced. One example of such a routine is mindful breathing when a student faces a setback when working on a creative project. This routine will help students calm down and refocus on the task they’re working on without losing too much progress.

Routines like this are considered meta-cognitive functions, which can serve as solutions for students and teachers trying to remain creative and engaged in the classroom using AI.

How to foster meta creativity

Reflective tools–educational instruments or techniques that encourage students and educators to reflect on their learning experiences and outcomes–are an excellent way for educators to foster meta-creativity in their students. These tools are designed to prompt and support higher-order skills such as critical thinking, self-awareness, and continuous improvement, which are critical for education and life beyond the classroom.

In addition, reflective tools can help educators adapt to today’s rapidly changing world while fostering stronger attention, connection, and intrinsic motivation within their students. By using these tools, educators are taking a step to remove the stigma that schools stunt creativity with their strict rules and routines.

American society is built on the foundation of innovation–that mindset is what starts and operates businesses, creates new products, and continuously sets new standards of excellence worldwide. But where does this innovation come from? The contrast between the constraining creativity in the traditional education system and the defiant, independent culture of regular society may create this innovative thinking, which now translates to higher-order skills and meta-creativity. In addition, the ability to make something from nothing is now the baseline of creativity, and even higher-order thinking will be necessary to excel at this.

While many believe schools are one of many factors diminishing basic creativity, I think schools provide constraints that can actually build up students’ meta-creative capabilities in the long run. After years of structured school days, students are craving a freedom that they never had before. And all the creative and mindful muscles they spent 12 years building are ready to be unleashed as they enter society outside school. Their eagerness to showcase their unique skills will position them to have a positive impact in whatever sector they choose to enter.

AI and other technology have changed how humans think and live. For the education space, specifically, teachers must create a learning environment where students can reach a new level of creativity that allows collaboration with AI and requires even higher-order thinking skills to flourish. This is what will prepare students for the rest of their lives.

While it might be an adjustment at first, implementing meta-creativity and engaging with the most challenging parts of the creative process will result in the best outcomes for educators and students as the era of AI continues to gain momentum.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, California — Tynker, the leading game-based coding platform that has engaged over 100 million kids, proudly introduces “Tynker Copilot.” Leveraging the capabilities of Large Language Models (LLMs), Tynker Copilot empowers young innovators aged 6-12. It provides a seamless interface for these budding developers to transform their ideas into visual block code for apps and games. Additionally, when exploring existing projects, kids benefit from the tool’s ability to explain block code fragments, ensuring a deeper understanding. Tynker Copilot allows children to build confidence as they work with AI, laying a solid foundation for their future. With this launch, coding education takes a significant leap forward.

Large Language Models (LLMs) have excelled in text-based programming languages like Python and JavaScript. However, their application to visual block coding, the primary introduction to programming for many kids, had yet to be explored. Tynker is the first to bridge this gap. Our latest integration lets children quickly convert their ideas into block code, streamlining their initial coding experience.

Tynker introduction of the Copilot feature marks a significant industry milestone. Until now, the capabilities of LLMs have not been fully utilized for the younger age group. Tynker Copilot empowers children as young as 6 to input text commands like “Design a space-themed knock-knock joke” or “Teach me how to build a Fruit-ninja style game” and receive block code outputs with step-by-step instructions. Moreover, when debugging existing projects, students can submit block-code snippets and benefit from LLM-generated natural language explanations.

“Our ethos at Tynker is grounded in innovation and breaking boundaries,” stated Srinivas Mandyam, CEO of Tynker. “We’re exhilarated to channel the latest advancements in AI technology to serve our youngest learners, fostering an environment of curiosity and growth. While the potential for such a tool is vast, our prime objective remains to employ it as an empowering educational aid, not a shortcut.”

Developing Tynker Copilot posed challenges distinct from standard LLMs, which typically handle text-based code. Our focus was visual block coding tailored to kids’ unique programming preferences. With insights from millions of submissions in Tynker’s repository, ranging from pet dress-up games to platformer adventures and Minecraft mods, we fine-tuned Llama2. This rich, child-centric data helped us adapt the model to generate visual block coding programs, making Tynker Copilot a specialized tool designed around the creative tendencies of young coders.

“Bringing LLMs into Tynker’s dynamic visual block coding ecosystem presented unique challenges,” commented Kelvin Chong, CTO of Tynker. “We fine-tuned Llama2 with AI and ML techniques to align with young coders, supporting parallel scripts, visual actors, and kid-centric features such as Physics, AR, sound effects, and Minecraft modding. As coders grow, they’re naturally transitioned towards Python.”

All educators and home users will be notified when this innovative feature becomes generally available in the product. In the meantime, for more insights into its capabilities and to view examples of its potential use, visit the  Tynker blog

About Tynker

Tynker is a leading K-12 creative coding platform that empowers children worldwide to develop coding skills for designing animations, games, and a wide range of real-world applications. With a focus on critical thinking and problem-solving, Tynker’s acclaimed curriculum is used by 1 in 3 U.S. K-8 schools, 150,000 schools globally, and over 100 million kids across 150 countries. Partners include renowned brands like Apple, Google, Microsoft, and NASA. Accessible on computers and mobile apps, Tynker offers free and paid subscriptions. In 2021, Tynker was acquired by BYJU’S, the world’s largest edtech company. For more info, visit  www.tynker.com.

Key points:

• While mentorship is key for professional growth, it is often missing from training programs
• Mentorship can provide crucial help to early childhood educators in navigating challenges and overcoming obstacles
• See related article: Empowering educators through holistic teacher PD
• Get the latest news on teacher PD by visiting eSN’s Educational Leadership page

Mentorship is an essential aspect of professional growth and development for early childhood educators, but for many training programs, mentorship components are either not well supported or are missing altogether. Experience shows that it can be highly valuable for both the mentee and the mentor as well. Being a mentor to someone else is a rewarding leadership experience that allows one to give back to the profession and help shape the future of early childhood education.

If structured and designed well, a mentorship program can help early childhood educators grow and develop in their current careers by gaining new insights, knowledge, and skills from a more experienced colleague. The early childhood education field and its many training programs, certifications, specializations and professional training should invest in a quality mentorship component.

Mentorship programs are common across many industries and offer a structured and supportive approach to professional development. A mentor can provide guidance on best practices, share knowledge and experiences, and offer constructive feedback in the context of a deeper, more trusted relationship. Early childhood educators can benefit from a mentor’s expertise in areas such as child development, curriculum planning, and parent engagement, and often receive more practical and personal tips rooted in experience. 

Mentorship can also provide crucial help to early childhood educators in navigating challenges and overcoming obstacles in their professional lives. A mentor can provide emotional support, helping educators deal with the stresses and challenges of their work. They can also provide guidance on career advancement, helping educators set goals and achieve their professional aspirations. These supports help to retain educators, many of whom leave the field after just a few years on the job.

Historically, one reason coaching and mentorship programs are not standardized is because of the high cost associated with this additional component. Cost cutting or cost avoidance is symptomatic of broader underinvestment in early childhood educators. Mentorship programs, however, are important to building the foundation of childhood education and should be viewed through the lens of overall benefit as opposed to just cost. They strengthen and amplify the content of instruction and should be viewed as a core component and a best practice – not a nice-to-have add-on. 

Through partnerships with networks of schools, Bank Street College of Education has designed degree programs that add a mentoring component to the combination of coursework and coaching all aspiring teachers receive as part of their degree. Our report, Cultivating Powerful Mentorship in Educator Credential Programs, takes a close look at the different ways these programs were designed to identify key components critical to the development of an effective approach to mentoring. We found that:

1. Strong educators aren’t automatically strong mentors; they need training

Mentors are typically teachers who have been in the field for several years, but they may not be familiar with adult development or have experience working with a student teacher in their classroom. In order to make mentorship a powerful experience, programs need to provide sustained training to prepare mentor teachers to effectively support residents. Opportunities to reflect and learn with other mentors help them to continually grow their practice throughout the residency year. 

2. Mentor training can provide experienced teachers access to the latest professional standards

The field of education moves quickly, with new concepts or philosophies guiding teacher preparation. One of our programs supported new teachers learning how to teach English as a second language. When introducing the concepts of translanguaging, mentors were able to learn alongside residents and deepen their own practice. 

3. Mentoring can be designed as a paid leadership pathway to attract and retain highly qualified educators

Mentors should be well-compensated for their work in recognition of their time and the additional work required in the role. This should include paid time for training as well as mentoring hours – aligned with hourly rates for similar work. In addition, the opportunity to mentor a new educator needs to be valued and recognized as a leadership role to attract experienced educators to the role. If done effectively, this can create meaningful responsibilities for educators we want to retain in their teaching roles.

4. Set schedules and routines for mentor-resident engagement and collaboration are critical 

Scheduled time during the day for co-planning, reflective discussions, and learning together is essential for mentoring to be impactful. 

5. New teachers say a mentoring relationship kept them in the job

For many educators, the first few years of teaching are the most challenging. Given these obstacles, earlier career teachers are more likely to leave the field. Mentorship can support residents and prepare them to be lead teachers by providing them with real world experience. When in formal training programs, mentors can also help residents establish tangible connections between their coursework to experiences working with children.

Early childhood education is a profession that’s all about forging meaningful connections–between the educator and the child, social bonds among the children, bonds to new concepts and connections to communities, values, and new ideas. Mentoring builds those same meaningful connections between new and experienced early childhood educators–cementing lessons learned in coursework so they can be replicated in the classroom.

At a time of strained resources, burnout, and a teacher shortage, now is the time to invest in forging those connections through stronger, more personal approaches to professional development.

Key points:

• Increasing use of digital learning tools means classrooms are modernizing
• Digital tools that boost engagement can improve academic outcomes
• See related story: Technology is key to educating the next generation

Some of my most vivid school memories involve teachers struggling to use overhead projectors: placing a printed sheet on the glass and fumbling to align it properly to project an image onto the wall. Students would laugh as the teachers mumbled about the annoyances of technology. Now think about how far the classroom has come since then–schools stocked with iPads and tablets, interactive touchscreens, and even virtual reality headsets.

Undoubtedly, the pandemic accelerated the shift to technology adoption in schools. However, this push to digitize doesn’t just involve remote learning technologies, but also tools for in-person learning. As a result, the classroom is modernizing, and pixels are replacing pencils. But the tech is also much easier to implement and operate than that of days of yore. No more fumbling with transparent sheets and overhead projectors.

Let’s break down how these new technologies are working in practice and the ways they can support better educational outcomes.

Engagement and experimentation

Technology demonstrably helps keep students engaged in their lessons and facilitate better learning in a digital world. While some argue technology is a distraction in the classroom – which can certainly be true if it’s not implemented properly – it also helps students to be focused and engaged in lessons.

Some prominent tools include interactive touchscreens in classrooms that promote and support active learning, a strategy for engaging students in classroom activities with more hands-on activities. These touchscreens help bring learning alive, off the page and into the actual world. These touch screens can facilitate engagement across subjects, even in unlikely places. 

One noteworthy example is science education, specifically anatomy. In traditional lab classes, dissecting frogs and other animals can be challenging due to animal-welfare concerns and resource limitations. Interactive touchscreens, however, offer an alternative. Students can virtually dissect organisms, providing them with a deep understanding of anatomy without the need for physical specimens. This approach not only enhances engagement but also aligns with ethical considerations in education.

Why is engagement important? One study found that active learning significantly increases student performance in the classroom: Students were 1.5 times more likely to fail a class that was primarily lecture-based as opposed to interactive. When students can touch things and interact, as opposed to watching a teacher write notes on a chalkboard and copying it into their notebooks, test scores improve.

Information retention

What’s more, technology can help students retain information for the long term. Touchscreen and tablet technology enables students to actively explore and manipulate digital content, transforming abstract concepts into tangible and comprehensible experiences. The tactile nature of touchscreens allows learners to engage with subjects in a way that textbooks or traditional teaching methods cannot replicate, and that engagement also boosts retention.

Consider this: Research shows that an average learner forgets 70 percent of what they learned after 24 hours and 90 percent of what they learned after a week. But research demonstrates that students who engage with interactive content retain information more effectively via enhanced information processing, contributing to improved performance and better test scores.

Interactive learning can also elicit emotional responses, which in turn impacts retention. When students are emotionally engaged in a lesson or activity, it has been shown to enhance memory consolidation. Interactive technologies have the capacity to create emotionally resonant experiences, whether through gamification, simulations, or immersive storytelling. These emotionally charged experiences are then more likely to be remembered.

So, whether it’s complex mathematical concepts, historical events, or scientific principles, digital technologies offer a dynamic platform for enhancing memory retention and ensuring that learning extends beyond the classroom.

Adaptive learning

Adaptive learning technologies are another transformative aspect of accessibility in education and have the power to revolutionize the traditional classroom experience. This approach leverages artificial intelligence and data analysis to customize educational content for students, recognizing their unique strengths and weaknesses.

Adaptive learning technology provides insights into data to help teachers understand students’ learning processes and patterns. Adaptive learning systems can track data from a variety of sources, providing insights into student progress, engagement, and performance. Educators can then leverage those insights to create tailored, personalized learning experiences.

There are various new adaptive learning platforms, including Smart Sparrow and ScootPad. Teachers merely sign up and input data, or provide access to it, in order for the technology to do the more difficult analytical work. In other words, these platforms don’t necessarily require more time or effort from already overburdened teachers. Educators can also integrate adaptive learning with a centralized device management platform to collect and process all that data from multiple technologies. Teachers can then monitor how students are actually using their devices and how well they are performing.

Of course, it’s important to strike a balance between technology and traditional teaching methods, ensuring that technology supports educational goals rather than replacing human interaction and critical thinking. Technology is a powerful tool in education, but it is not a replacement for human teachers.