Elements of a Digital Classroom

Vinod kakumanu
April 22, 2020, 5:02 p.m.

The digital classrooms have been creating a noise in the education sector. What makes a digitally sound classroom? Is it the people or can a video conference with eight to nine people came together to study can be considered as digital classroom? Or is it the tools that can be counted? How digital classroom differs from the traditional classroom? These are some of the things that we should ponder about. Hence, I have decided to point out some important elements of a digital classroom

Spaces:The digital classroom should not only be equipped with digital devices but there should be spaces for other activities. The classroom should be 1:1 which means 1 computer/laptop for each student.For instance, for a group discussion or Reddit or Quora to conduct QNA sessions, a personalized device is required. In this way they would be more engaged and interested to learn.The digital classroom should also have space for physical activities. It has the potential to make learning entirely personalfor each student to connect with other peers at the same time. However, the notifications or the temptation to play can be a disturbance at times.

Tone: One of the noticeable features of a digital classroom is its tone. From the workflow of teachers to the pace at which assignments are given, the buggy software etc makes the ambience of digital classroom distinct from the traditional classrooms.The digital classroom makes it easier to put student’s progress on display but the classroom management becomes difficult in this kind of setup.

Feedback: In the traditional system, teacher’s correcting assignments often days later are not able to provide oral feedback in the moment. But in a digital learning space, the game-based learning assignments enables for an immediate feedback right at the time. These platforms let students know if the answer is correct or not by offering a pop-up dialog box or any appropriate symbol like 'X’ instantly.

Technology: It is the most crucial part of digital learning spaces. The Wi-Fi, hardware or software, operating systems or the digital media platforms incorporates the technology. It is ubiquitous and thus seems very important. The social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube channel falls under technology.

The workflow: Workflow means it starts with teacher to students and flows back to teachers from students. For instance, the relationship between a teacher and a student forms a circle by teacher giving the assignment and students completing it and returning it to the teacher. In digital space, it is the same by student learning from khan academy and completing assignments and sending it via google drive. The major advantage is the group activities can be initiated more conveniently in digital learning platforms. Teachers can assign activities to a group of 10 or 12 students and divide them into smaller groups. Post the activity the teachers can evaluate it and publish it on social platforms for the public to see and appreciate the work. Digital provides with more opportunities for critical evaluation and creative feedback with psychological support.

The data: It is very important for providing valuable feedback in a digital environment. The data can be stored or shared through the learning models and can be customized or personalized as per the requirement of each student.

Purpose and audience: the purpose of digital education is to extract the essence of modern education at its best possible sense and create a digital audience representing contemporary learning. We have to see whether the existing audience is capable enough to utilise the technology and move into modern education incorporating these devices.

Opportunities: Since the students are learning in digital mediums, its obvious that they will create new things and various organizations, media, brands etc will definitely have digital platforms. This provides countless opportunities for the youth to engage in different fields out of the classroom. Initiating a project digitally will reach out to masses in a short period of time.

A change is needed to develop a mindset to learn and seek wisdom or else the motive of learning would not lead to growth and generate new ideas with a different perspective.