How to address the gap between students and teachers in the 21st century?

The 21st century learners are described as innovative and technology oriented generation
of learners. With extreme exposure to the advancement of technology, they also fit to the kind of
a learner that requires effective and efficient teaching that is suitable to their needs and learning
styles. With enough provision of the needs in situation said above, successful learning process can
be expected. However, this idealistic view is being barred by various factors that affect the whole
learning process. The need to identify these factors and do something about is seen essential
especially if the meaningful input of the students is at the stake.

The gap between students and learners in the 21st century is inevitable. It is always a part
of the learning process and we cannot make it disappear. What we can do is to identify the gaps
and find out how we can bridge those gaps to achieve better learning. In a modern Philippine
setting, education system recently took a huge step in pursuit of greater excellence in terms of the
high quality education. The K-12 Program was implemented 6 years ago and it brought a lot of
struggle in the part of both students and teachers. The lack of preparation of the government as
well as the poor status and situation of the school are seen to be the most pointed out problems
encountered in the implementation of the K-12 program. Looking at these problem in a more
specific way, we can see that the problem lies the roots of the implementation up to the actual
classroom set-up. The trial and error process is evident and observed due to numerous accounts
and stories of mishaps inside and outside the classroom. These stories ranges from simple
classroom activity to the use of technology up to the quality of the teachers with regard to their
familiarity to the usage of the technology being provided to them. With these accounts of
unfortunate incidents, addressing them and formulating solutions about it is highly needed.

As an educator, it is important to identify the weaknesses of our students for us to know

their needs as a learner. That is one of the ways of bridging the gaps between the students and
learners. The familiarity to various learning styles and suitable teaching methods for it can also
help in establishing deep connection to our students leading to a more interactive classroom setup.
Also, the teacher is expected to be knowledgeable to the use of technology in the classroom to
have a more meaningful and experiential learning inside or even outside the class. Technology is
an aid to our class instruction and failure to use it effectively can lead to unwanted consequence
and waste of time.