Teaching the 21st Century Learner
Darla RunyonNorthwest Missouri State University
Dr. Roger Von HolzenNorthwest Missouri State University
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Goals• Define 21st century learners
• Discuss how to teach the 21st century learner
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Pop Quiz #1What does this mean? ROTFL
– Pneumonic for remembering the 5 plant cell types
– Reserve Officers Training Florida– Record of True Foreign Languages – Rolling On The Floor Laughing
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Bonus 1What do these chat acronyms stand for?
– B4– LOL – POS– GNSTDLTBBB – CUL8R – KSUSHYGEMA
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Bonus 2What do these emoticons mean?
;-)
>:-(
^5
(((((name))))
(::()::)
@[_]~~
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Us vs. Them• http://www.sciencemag.org• http://www.brainpop.com• http://www.yahoo.com• http://yahooligans.yahoo.com• http://www.ask.com• http://www.ajkids.com• http://www.hgtv.com• http://www.nick.com• http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com• http://www.sikids.com
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Children age 6 and under…• Spend 2:01 hours / day playing outside
• Spend 1:58 hours using computers
• Spend 40 minutes reading or being read to
• 48% of children have used a computer
• 27% 4-6 year olds use a computer daily
• 39% use a computer several times a week
• 30% have played video games
Kaiser Family Foundation, 2003
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By age 21…The average person will have
– played 10,000 hours video games– sent 200,000 emails– watched 20,000 hours of TV– talked 10,000 hours on a cell phone– spent under 5,000 hours reading
Prensky, 2003
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Games & Simulations• Marc Prensky – data on learning
with games (http://www.marcprensky.com)
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Start Game
Start Game
The Natural Selection Game
The Embryo Shuffler Game
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Technology & the New Learner
• Do video games pose a challenge to education?– The time and money that students
spend on gaming indicates pervasive role of entertainment in our culture
– Insight into engagement, not entertainment
• Video games challenge K-12 and higher ed to foster engagement in learning
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Dependence on Technology• Are students becoming too
dependent on technology to do spelling and basic arithmetic?– Technology empowers today’s
students– They can add, subtract, divide, and
multiply faster and more accurately than past students
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Dependence on Technology• If a device can do something better,
more efficiently, more accurately, or quicker than we can manually, why not use it? – Isn’t that the true purpose of technology
(cars and electricity)?
• Our focus must shift from the tools themselves to the capabilities of these new tools to empower students to do new things
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The 21st Century Learner…• Born in or after 1982• Gravitate toward group activity• 8 out of 10 say “it’s cool to be smart”• Focus on grades and performance• Busy with extracurricular activities• Identify with parents’ values; feel close
to parents• Respectful of social conventions and
institutions• Fascinated with new technologies• Racially and ethnically diverse
Howe & Strauss, 2003
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Today’s Learners…• Digitally literate
• Mobile
• Always on
• Experiential
• Social
• Computers aren’t technology
Oblinger, 2004
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Hypertext minds: Qualities• Crave interactivity
• Read visual images– Weak reading skills
• Visual-spatial skills
• Parallel processing
• Inductive discovery
• Fast response time– Short attention span
Prensky, 2001
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Technology & the New Learner
• The amount of information grows almost as quickly as the new technologies
• We process more information in 24-hours than the average person 500 years ago would in a lifetime– Oldest universities established by AD
1500
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Technology & the New Learner
• By the time today’s kindergarteners graduate from grade 12– information will have doubled at least
seven times– technological power will have
doubled itself nearly nine times
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Teaching the New Learner• Requires:
– much less emphasis on the amount of material memorized
– much more emphasis on making connections, thinking through issues, solving problems
• Discard notion that schools can teach everything every student will need to know– Old model: primary challenge of
learning is to absorb specific information
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Teaching the New Learner• Learning now a life-long process
of coping with change
• The content of a particular lesson less important than manipulating content resources
• Learning how to learn is the basis of education
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Learning Preferences• Teams, peer-to-peer
• Structure with flexibility
• Engagement & experience
• Visual & kinesthetic
• Things that matter
Oblinger, 2004
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Learning Preferences• Students want to learn through
exploration
• Students want to be challenged to reach their own conclusions, find their own results
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Learning Preferences• The new technologies can help
create a learning culture in which the learner enjoys enhanced interactivity and connections with others
• Central issue: How can technology be organized around student learning?– Use tools to help students think and
communicate effectively
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Students:• Multitasking
• Pictures, sound, video
• Random access
• Interactive and networked
Faculty:• Single or limited
tasks• Text
• Linear, logical, sequential
• Independent and individual
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Teaching the New Learner• Multimedia format pervades nearly
every part of life– Television– Audio– Animation– Text
• Students live in a world of digital, audio, and text– They expect a similar approach in
classroom• Faculty must abandon notion that a
lecture and reading assignment are enough to teach a lesson
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Teaching the New Learner• Teacher’s Role:
– No longer the professor dispensing facts and theories
– A participant in the learning process• Faculty role will be unbundled--teacher
to mentor• Facilitate peer-to-peer learning
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Teaching the New Learner• Must learn to communicate in the
language and style of the students – going faster– less sequential, more parallel– more random access
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Teaching the New Learner• Instructional implications
– Movement toward blended courses– More collaborative learning
approaches – Continuous and formative
assessment– Greater flexibility and customization
of course content to meet learner needs
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Teaching the New Learner• Interactive course site features
– Online quizzes– Forms for providing feedback or asking
questions– Online voting– Games– Features for sharing pictures or stories– Message boards– Forums for offering and receiving
information– Features for creating/adding content
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Teaching the New Learner• Diversity in structure, content:
– singular unit should be kept short and alternating
• Course redesigns must be systematic• Avoid incremental add-ons
– Simply adding a few computer experiences costs more, is more work for the faculty, and adds to the students' burden
• True innovations change rather than modify systems
Jack M. Wilson—Ten IT Commandments
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Learning Spaces• Classroom was the traditional
learning space—physical
• Virtual space is now an option that can be included
• Connect the two learning spaces through a blended approach
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Learning Spaces• Provides an array of new
pedagogical approaches– Wireless networking—mobility– Videoconferencing– Online collaborations via
whiteboards– Virtual discussions through threaded
discussion boards, blogs, wikis, and chat
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Learning Spaces• Allow learning to happen easily
outside the classroom– End of class is a transition to another
learning space– More time spent with content
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Pedagogical Approaches• Collaborative learning through
group/team projects– Developed using multimedia processes– Provides a more powerful learning
approach than a term paper—authentic learning
• Looking for practical applications, real-world context
• Focus more on applying classroom lessons to real-life problems, institutions, or organizations
– Allows students to focus on their learning style strengths
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Pedagogical Approaches• Blended instruction and learning
– Face-to-face interaction and activity– Online interaction and activity– Experiential interaction and activity
• Collaborative immersion through videoconferencing and whiteboard integration for group/team projects
• Support of cumulative learning through e-portfolios or repositories
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Pedagogical Approaches• Relevant, interactive technology
– Facilitation of learning through practical uses in coursework
– Applicable to content and activities– Makes it easier to move away from
linear formats of learning
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Learning Spaces• Wireless technology enabled learning
spaces within the classroom– Projection screens– Document cameras– DVD players– Video conferencing– Tablet PCs– Collaborative classroom software such as
OneNote– Student response systems
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Learning Spaces• Library modules within the building and
virtually within the course management system– Dual monitors for group work and
collaboration in pod designs– Library research units/modules that can be
duplicated into any course site– Library course sites for specific content
delivery– Online library support
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Learning Spaces• Mobile technologies such as
handhelds, iPods, and Tablet PCs
• All of these link well with the 21st Century learner habits– Social interaction– Experiential and immersive activities– Technology use
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Teaching Steps• Confront the reality of the 21st
Century learner
• Determine how to implement changes in pedagogy based on this reality– Base instructional decisions on goals
rather than traditions
• Determine priorities, execute plan, and evaluate the process
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Faculty Training• We need to have a new set of
expectations of faculty
• Foster a technology culture– Need for continuous faculty training– Resources and support should be
available
• Reward innovation in technology-rich learning environments
Adults look at going online as entering a foreign place called cyberspace
21st Century Learners look at it as where they live
Darla Runyon: [email protected]
Roger Von Holzen: [email protected]
http://cite.nwmissouri.edu/presentations
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