Teaching the 21st Century Learner

1. Teaching the 21st Century Learner Darla Runyon Northwest Missouri State University Dr. Roger Von Holzen Northwest Missouri State University

2. Goals • Define 21st century learners • Discuss how to teach the 21st century learner

3. Pop Quiz #1 What 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

4. Bonus 1 What do these chat acronyms stand for? • B4 • LOL • POS • GNSTDLTBBB • CUL8R • KSUSHYGEMA

5. Bonus 2 What do these emoticons mean? ;-) >:-(  ^5 (((((name))))  (::()::) @[_]~~ 

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. Games & Simulations • Marc Prensky – data on learning with games (http://www.marcprensky.com)

10. The Natural Selection Game Start Game The Embryo Shuffler Game Start Game

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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

15. Today’s Learners… • Digitally literate • Mobile • Always on • Experiential • Social • Computers aren’t technology Oblinger, 2004

16. 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

17. 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

18. 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

19. 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

20. 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

21. Learning Preferences • Teams, peer-to-peer • Structure with flexibility • Engagement & experience • Visual & kinesthetic • Things that matter Oblinger, 2004

22. Learning Preferences • Students want to learn through exploration • Students want to be challenged to reach their own conclusions, find their own results

23. 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

24. Students: Multitasking Pictures, sound, video Random access Interactive and networked Faculty: Single or limited tasks Text Linear, logical, sequential Independent and individual

25. 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

26. 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

27. 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

28. 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

29. 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

30. 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

31. 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

32. 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

33. 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

34. 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

35. 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

36. 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

37. 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

38. 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

39. 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

40. 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

41. 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

42. Adults look at going online as entering a foreign place called cyberspace 21st Century Learners look at it as where they live

43. Darla Runyon: drunyon@nwmissouri.eduRoger Von Holzen: rvh@nwmissouri.eduhttp://cite.nwmissouri.edu/presentations