Learner+Diversity



“Why can’t you be more like Joe?”

How many of you remember every hearing a question similar to this one? When I was in school, I can still recall my 2nd grade teacher asking this very question.

Interestingly, contrary to popular belief at the time, students do in fact learn differently. According to Meyer and Rose (2002), “Students do not have one global learning capacity, but //many multifaceted learning capacities//…” (//Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age//). This means that the days when students were instructed through the “sink or swim” philosophy are long gone. Educators must strive to meet the demands of higher accountability even with the understanding that every learner is different. How can we hope to accomplish such an ordeal armed with only a dry erase board, outdated textbooks, and a marker?

Look at the pictures below. How would you perfer to learn.



The most obvious answer is: using technology! Technology can aid educators in bridging the achievement gap and “leveling the playing field,” as I like to say. According to a study conducted by Schacter (1999), in over 700 research studies on 4th and 8th grade students in the state of West Virginia, students with access to technology, “show positive gains in achievement on research constructed tests, standardized tests, and national tests.” (//The Impact of Education Technology on Student Achievement: What the most Current Research has to Say)// 