Shaun Matthew Niyo-Ramdas

LSUID: 967388
shaunmnramdas@gmail.com / sniy388@lasierra.edu
Article Summary and Reflection 1 for EDCI 516 Computers in Curriculum
In Leers and Ivanovs 2013 article Rethinking the Future of Learning: The Possibilities
and Limitations of Technology in Education in the 21st Century, the authors explore the concept
of technology in the field of education. They focused primarily on two aspects, one being that
learning should shift away from the model of standardization that predominated the field in the
past, two one that is focused more on the students, basically a student-centric (pg. 15) model of
education. Leer and Ivanovs argument here being that that each student is unique and not only
learns at a different pace from everyone else, but has different strengths and weaknesses, and
thus their education should be tailored to meet their individual needs (pg. 16). The authors
second focus is on technology, specifically how technology can be modified and adapted to fit
the needs of teaching and how it can serve as a useful tool in instruction (pg. 15). Leers and
Ivanovs main idea is that not only can this education-geared technology greatly assist in
learning, but it can be a great help in individualizing the education process for each child in the
child-centric approach to education.
The authors start out the basis of their argument by using the argument of multiple
intelligences (pg. 16) to justify why each individual student requires a different type of learning
from the standardized education system the authors claim has been the norm in the past. They
then continue by acknowledging how technology has already revolutionized other levels of
education in the past to varying degrees of success. By laying out this framework of success of
the implementation of technology at the college level, the authors use it as a basis to justify their
view that implementing new learning technologies at other levels of educational instruction
would be just as beneficial and successful. They go on by beginning to introduce how several
new learning technologies have already been implemented such as virtual reality learning (pg.
17). They then spend several paragraphs exploring possible futuristic ways such learning
technologies can develop further and how the future learning landscape might look like.
The paper goes on to attempt to provide a balanced argument by espousing on possible
limitations to the deployment of such new learning technologies (pg. 18) by listing out the

current pitfalls of using technology in the classroom. They highlight how after the initial
deployment of the technology, not much support is given to the continued maintenance and
evolution of the tech. The other main challenge they point out is the overdependence on
technology as possibly overshadowing the actual learning it was supposed to merely aid (pg. 19).
They remind their target audience (who are most probably educators and administrators) that
these technologies should remain primarily tools in aiding the learning process of each student
and that one should not get students bogged down more by the learning of these new
technologies than the actual learning of knowledge.
My main takeaway from this article is the exciting possibilities and strategies being
developed to use technology to customize further the learning for individual students, something
that until now has always been difficult because of the one-way instructional nature of teaching
the current teacher to student ratio allows. However, one must of course take the authors
optimistic view with a pinch of salt as they seem to approach this issue from the standpoint of
technological developers. To create technologies that would cater to individual students needs
seems un-realistic simply because of the diverse nature of our students needs. Additionally, the
paper pointed out the current issue of where technologies are under-utilized because of the lack
of teacher familiarity with them. In some cases, resistance from parents might hinder teachers
from trying to integrate technology further in with their pedagogy. For me perhaps the biggest
takeaway from this article is the student-centric approach to teaching and learning that our
education system should be progressing to. And moving forward, I personally as a teacher would
be open to trying to integrate new technologies into my teaching as long as I am able to see how
they benefit my students. And perhaps on a more personal note, I will begin to see learning
technologies as being an essential tool in my teaching arsenal that that shift in mindset will allow
my students to benefit more from new and developing technologies in education.

Bibliography
Leer, R., & Ivanov, S. (2013). Rethinking the future of learning: The possibilities and limitations
of technology in education in the 21st century, International Journal of Organizational
Innovation (Online), 5(4), 14-20.