How Can Advanced Technologies Support the Contemporary Learning Approach?

Abstract

The general goals of education have changed in the 21st century. The contemporary learning approach aims at achieving better self-fulfillment, openness and lifelong learning opportunities for every learner. This presents new demands on technologies. Technological advancements are often ahead of their use in educational settings, but nowadays we can also see that the contemporary learning approach sets unmet demands to technology developers. This paper introduces the objectives of the contemporary learning approach and discusses how 11 existing advanced technologies could help achieve the objectives of the contemporary learning approach. The review shows that educational technologies are mainly designed to improve subject knowledge and skills and can be quite often used to support collaboration and self-regulation as well. However, learning skills and especially subjective well-being are less in focus.