Into the Driver's Seat

In order to get the most out of the digital classroom, teachers should utilize these teaching strategies to enhance student engagement and academic success.

"I’ve been working with schools, colleges and universities for nearly 8 years. Working to promote entrepreneurship and digital skills to make young people more employable and teach them how to innovate ..."

1. Flipboard
2. Wakelet
3. PearlTrees
4. Scoop.it
5. Diigo

The following is based on my doctoral thesis, my experience as Web Literacy Lead at the Mozilla Foundation, and the work that I’ve done as an independent consultant, identifying, developing, and credentialing digital skills and literacies.

Education may be the passport to the future, but for all the good teaching out there, it would seem that schools are failing to impart some of the most important life skills, according to one educational expert.

Dr. Tony Wagner, co-director of Harvard's Change Leadership Group, argues that today’s school children are facing a “global achievement gap”, which is the gap between what even the best schools are teaching and the skills young people need to learn.

This has been exacerbated by two colliding trends: firstly, the global shift from an industrial economy to a knowledge economy, and secondly, the way in which today’s school children – brought up with the internet – are motivated to learn.

In his book The Global Achievement Gap, Wagner identifies seven core competencies every child needs in order to survive in the coming world of work.

1. Critical thinking and problem-solving