Despite the fact that addressing the specific needs of every single student and attain exemplary performance rates in a group of students is practically impossible, by utilizing the latest technological innovations, one can possibly make the process of learning and training more flexible band, therefore, address the specific needs of students, providing the traditional set of theories and exercises for their practical application (Felder & Brent, 2005).
One of the doubtless arguments in favor of use of technology as a means to reach balance between providing a general guidance to students and addressing the needs of every student in particular is that the given strategy allows for including the students into a network and therefore, design group assignments that will help students supervise each other’s progress.
As long as students are able of coordinating their actions with each other’s actions, they can keep in pace with the group. More to the point, the fact that they are involved into a mini-community will help the students develop a specific organizational behavior, thus, generating motivations for the further studying process (Hall, Strangman & Meyer, 2003).
It should be mentioned, though, that, even with the recent technological innovations as the supporting material, teachers will not be able to make sure that the development of every single student goes in chord with the stages of the general learning process.
The given limitation stems from the human factor and, therefore, can hardly be dealt with; therefore, it is most reasonable to assume that the results, i.e., the fact that all students show relatively similar results during tests, justify minor issues that can possibly arise in the course of the learning process (TED, 2006).
The mind map above shows that successful integration of technology into the lesson helps the students coordinate each other’s actions and, therefore, guarantees that there will be no gaps in the students’ knowledge.
Although technology cannot substitute the activities that help students evolve professionally and acquire necessary skills, it can be of great assistance as the tool for helping students overcome obstacles that they face in the course of learning process. One of the best aspects of the solutions that technologies provide concerns the interactivity of the tasks (theRSAorg, 2010, October 14).
Once the students are offered the assignments, with the help of which they can actually not only measure their progress, but also spot the issues that require further studying or revision, it can be assumed that a teacher will be able to level the individual progress of the students with the standard defined by the lesson plan.
When being powered by the technological advances, motivational leadership approach, which addresses the individual needs of every single student, will help make sure that each of the students progresses together with the class, as well as detect and get rid of the tiniest issues that may possibly emerge in the course of the learning process (Dabbagh, 2006).
By deriving instructional strategies from the assessments carried out with the help of technological advances, including such innovations as interactive tests, the use of iPods and other similar devices as the technology that can possibly help the students arrange the new information in order, etc., one can reach the balance between addressing the need of every single student and conducting a general lesson with no interest in students’ individual needs or motivation whatsoever.
Reference List
Bubbl US. Technology and learning. Web.
Dabbagh, N. (2006). Instructional design knowledge base. Web.
Felder, R. M., & Brent, R. (2005). Understanding student differences. Journal of Engineering Education, 94(1), 57-72. Web.
Hall, T., Strangman, N., & Meyer, A. (2003). Differentiated instruction and implications for UDL implementation. Wakefield, MA: National Center on Accessing the General Curriculum. Web.
TED (2006). Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity. TED Talks. Web.
theRSAorg. (2010). RSA animate – Changing education paradigms. Web.