Student Success through Digital Learning | St John's University News

Dynamic advances in digital technology have caused today’s college students to grow up in an educational system that is profoundly different from the ones previous generations experienced. 

Photo: Eric Stoller

As a result, educators must be able to keep pace with this critical trend if they want to successfully prepare tomorrow’s workforce.

That imperative was underscored throughout St. John’s University’s “Teaching Narratives Symposium: Engaging Digital Learners,” which was held recently in the D’Angelo Center Ballroom, on the Queens, NY, campus. The term “digital learners” refers to students who have spent their formative years immersed in technology and whose way of learning is shaped by this.

“Digital technology is an integral part of the everyday lives of these students, who have never lived in a world where technology was not ubiquitous. As a result, their expectations of a quality learning experience are very different. This challenges us as faculty to continually evolve our pedagogical approaches,” said Cynthia R. Phillips, Ed.D., Director, Center for Teaching and Learning, in welcoming remarks she made to guests who gathered on June 13 for the daylong event...

“How many of you were taught in a very traditional classroom environment, where someone was standing in front of a chalkboard or a whiteboard?” Mr. Stoller asked his audience. “This is the way many of us were taught, so, this is the way we are comfortable teaching others. There is not necessarily a focus on eliminating this model of teaching, which we know works. The focus is actually on enhancing and accentuating the way we reach today’s learners through the use of digital technology.”
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Source: St John's University News