Master of Education Essay: Technology's Impact on Literacy Teaching

This essay from a Master of Education student explores the evolving landscape of literacy teaching in the digital age. It anticipates a future dominated by visual literacy, where electronic books and digital platforms replace traditional methods. The essay discusses the shift towards online learning environments, including massive open online courses (MOOCs) and virtual classrooms, enabled by wearable devices and advanced technologies. It highlights the importance of robust internet infrastructure and the development of innovative educational apps to engage young learners. Furthermore, the essay emphasizes the need for a dynamic, inclusive, and flexible education system that considers diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. It also focuses on how virtual setups can facilitate parent-teacher communication and support students from disadvantaged communities, promoting active engagement and motivation in early childhood education. The essay concludes by emphasizing the potential of digital literacy tools to create organized learning environments that offer comprehensive academic solutions.

Running head: MASTER OF EDUCATION
Master of Education
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

1MASTER OF EDUCATION
With the advent of science and advanced technology, it is obvious that the classrooms
and the education system at large is expected to become more complex and dynamic in future. In
order to impact students’ learning in the most desirable way, the use of information and
communication technology will become indispensible. The future course of education is bound
to be revolutionized, as a result of which the teaching materials, assessment practices as well as
learning environments will change (Siemens, 2014). There is no point stating the fact that every
moment in today’s world, technology and multimedia are changing how people communicate
and this is bound to affect the education system as well. The following essay intends to discuss
and critically analyze the future of literacy teaching as well as the possible impact of technology
on the academic learning process.
First of all, it can be anticipated from now only that the future will be dominated by the
visual literacy system, whereby traditional, printed books will be replaced by electronic books
easily available on the tablets and smart phones (Hey et al., 2009). The text-based literacy will
soon evolve and transform into a digital system of education, also referred to as digital
technology, where chalk and blackboard will become absolutely irrelevant. First of all,
education will no longer remain confined and will rather expand to different corners of a country.
With the emergence of massive online courses, students may not need to visit the school, and
will be able to complete their education by simply sitting back at home (Gee, 2013). The online
cohort of students can stay at any part of the world and will choose to complete their education
from some of the big, global schools, that may not necessarily be located in the native lands of
the students (Green, 2015). However, for the implementation of such an effective education
system, it is important to ensure that a fast and robust internet connection and hence the
development of a strong infrastructure will become indispensible in future.

2MASTER OF EDUCATION
It is also important to have a look at the learning environment of the class room of future
schools as well. As mentioned earlier, many young students may not get themselves enrolled in a
physical school and literacy will be achieved virtually. Even though some students may prefer to
go to the schools, they will not be over dependent on the teacher, and are likely to be provided
with wearable devices like Google Glasses, that will help the students learn digitally via
electronic books and academic websites, without the need of sitting in front of a computer or
holding a hand-held device like tablets or smart phones (Palaiologou, 2016). With the help of
these devices, the students will learn a new rhyme or a new alphabet digitally. The assessment
tests as well as annual examinations will be carried out as well as checked online, and more
advanced version of cloud technology, will enable the teachers to calculate grades online as well
as maintain online student grade database (Burnard et al., 2006). The classrooms will be
completely paperless, and neither will there be any book, nor any mark sheet. The school
teachers are likely to create apps that will motivate the young learners take interest in the
curriculum (Hopkins et al., 2013). The children can have rhymes and stories in one app, which
will comprise of interesting audio clips that will facilitate the development of vocabulary. On the
other hand, another app can help a child draw and scribble through the screen as he learns to
write new alphabets and numbers (Comber & Kamler, 2005). With the development of advanced
technology, innovative apps will be made accessible to each child whereby the child can write a
number or an alphabet, and there will be auto-correction settings, that will inform the child
whether he is right or wrong. The pedagogical theories suggest that students feel motivated and
take active interest in the learning process when they are being provided with interesting things
like tablets and phones, and this motivation achieved through digital teaching will help the future
child improve vocabulary use, comprehension ability and critical thinking.

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The education system will become more dynamic, plural and flexible in future. In fact, it
should be noted that one has to think of literacy in more than the alphabetic sense. It needs to
include the skills of every kind, especially the skill of reading images and elements of design,
and while also taking into account the cultural and linguistic diversity of the future students. This
can in fact be an invaluable resource as per ‘turning around’ pedagogy that intends to turn around
the issue of student failure and disengagement. In future, students will not have to suffer from the
problem of learning disengagement. It often happens that many children come to school with
‘virtual school bags’ that are full of various cultural and linguistic resources (Echenique et al.
2015). And yet only a handful of students are able to open their bags and make use of what is
inside while the knowledge, experiences and skills of many children still remain invisible and
unutilized at school (Blikstein, 2013). However, the virtual educational set up will help teachers
to communicate with the parents, actively engage them in the learning process even when the
child is at school. As and when a child exhibits signs of reluctance to study more, his mother
could be called for participation via videoconferencing apps. The students coming from
disadvantaged communities will consequently be able to benefit a lot in an online environment,
as they will not need to come a long way to complete education (Selwyn, 2015).
From the above discussion, it is clearly evident that in future, the students will be able to
enjoy a more effective early childhood education system that will assist them in active
engagement and encourage greater motivation. The digital literacy tools in a dynamic, virtual
classroom will help in creating an organized learning environment that will offer comprehensive
academic solutions to students of every community.

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Reference List:
Blikstein, P. (2013). Digital fabrication and ‘making’in education: The democratization of
invention. FabLabs: Of machines, makers and inventors, 4.
Burnard, P., Craft, A., Cremin, T., Duffy, B., Hanson, R., Keene, J., ... & Burns, D. (2006).
Documenting ‘possibility thinking’: A journey of collaborative enquiry. International
Journal of Early Years Education, 14(3), 243-262.
Comber, B., & Kamler, B. (2005). Turn-around pedagogies: Literacy interventions for at-risk
students. Primary English Teaching Association (PETA).
Echenique, E. G., Molías, L. M., & Bullen, M. (2015). Students in higher education: Social and
academic uses of digital technology. International Journal of Educational Technology in
Higher Education, 12(1), 25-37.
Gee, J. P. (2013). The anti-education era: Creating smarter students through digital learning. St.
Martin's Press.
Green, T. (2015). Flipped classrooms: An agenda for innovative marketing education in the
digital era. Marketing Education Review, 25(3), 179-191.
Hay, I., & Fielding-Barnsley, R. (2009). Competencies that underpin children's transition into
early literacy. Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, The, 32(2), 148.
Hopkins, L., Brookes, F., & Green, J. (2013). Books, bytes and brains: The implications of new
knowledge for children's early literacy learning. Australasian Journal of Early Childhood, 38(1),
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Palaiologou, I. (2016). Children under five and digital technologies: implications for early years
pedagogy. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 24(1), 5-24.
Selwyn, N. (2015). Data entry: towards the critical study of digital data and education. Learning,
Media and Technology, 40(1), 64-82.
Siemens, G. (2014). Connectivism: A learning theory for the digital age.