What do centuries have to do with education? 21st century education.

The more complicated the world becomes the more we need to change to fit into it, you may think, 'well, I think it is good to be different,' and of course it is, just not in education, which is what I am talking about in today's entry.

Education is universal and if you do not shape yourself accordingly you will be behind from others, not different. Now in the 21st century we need to combine education with technology too. Man, it is killing us... isn't it? I, a 19 year old student, can't catch its changes. When this is the case why do we expect our older generations to do so? Well let me explain.

20th century was more about being comfortable in your teaching materials than being creative with them. A lot of teachers used their old PowerPoint presentations over and over again, some of them only used printed materials and the others didn't even use any course books or slideshows; they just talked, I guess. All of these came to an end, I believe it was mostly because they, the educators, couldn't keep the students' attention anymore. There were students in those classrooms that didn't go a day without technology and you can't expect them to sit in these narrow classrooms with no connection to a technological device and just listen to their teachers. 

So, many universities started offering courses on how to integrate technology into education. With these courses, teacher candidates started to understand how they can use technology in their classrooms and why technology usage is important in education. Do you know why? Okayyy, let me tell you. Technology in classrooms gives control to the students, they can answer questions from interactive slideshows and get quicker feedback; they can refocus when the white page with a lot of writing isn't the only thing they are looking at, and they can feel more comfortable expressing themselves while using a technological device, since that is what they have done for most of their lives. And this is what 21st century education stands for.

As a teacher candidate, I think this is so important, looking back at my language learning experience, I really started to learn when my high school teacher Kerem Hoca (selam hocam), played games with us on the interactive board, and when he told us to bring our phones to the class to make online quizzes. He will forever be my idol for making us learn by using our interests.

Let's keep our first post brief, I really hope you think this is brief, I look forward to seeing you in my other entries. 

Xx, Aliye.

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