Sunday, November 25, 2012

Teaching Today's Learners...a must read

I came across this publication and was amazed at all the information it provides about today's learners. It is mainly targeting "Millennials," which would be a student born between 1980-2000 (which would even include me)...but I feel like the information applies to our current students as well. My students this year were born mostly in 2007, which only means technology has only become more of a influence on their everyday lives. The article is a little long, but has some very pertinent information for teachers today.
Learning in the 21st Century: Teaching Today's Student on their Terms

5 comments:

  1. This was a good read. The information regarding "millennials" was interesting, as the information described me pretty good as a student. The information presented about the 21st century teacher also reflected my thoughts and/or qualities as well.

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  2. I thought the comparison of teaching units to video games was an interesting concept. I do wonder about the students that don't choose to complete anything in the given time. I do have a couple students in my class that would be perfectly fine sitting there doing nothing. I guess maybe if they're given choices they may like the unit more and complete the work. I do feel that we as educators need to teach our children more about the Acceptable Use Policy. I don't think students realize that once something is published online be it a picture or writing, etc that it is permanently there! We can't just hit the delete button and have it disappear. I also feel that we do need more professional development on technology. We recently have gotten IPADs at school and I fear that they will mostly be used to play education games as extra practice instead of for collaboration and creating a unique way of presenting information through it's video, audio, and drawing capabilities.

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  3. The "Milennials" definitely have a different approach to technology. I enjoyed learning how different their key attributes were from previously labeled groups. These are great attributes so we need to find ways to develop our students.
    * Group-oriented
    • Global
    • Technologically confident
    • Risk-taking
    • Optimistic

    The use of technology isn't going away so it is in everyone's best interest in adapting this to best suit the needs of the learner and to have it in modes that are accessible for all teachers.

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    Replies
    1. This was a very interesting article. I agree that technology requires teachers to play more of a facilitator role—rather than a more directive or authoritative one. When I read this, I understand why some teachers struggle to use technology because that control may be gone.
      The video game learning design was very interesting to me…I liked the comparison.
      "Students explore different roles, which are shaped by their interests, to discover strengths and achieve goals!"

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  4. I thought the article had many great points and ideas. Right now we are learning about doubles in first grade. We wanted to spend an extra day on doubles because we knew many of our students were not where they needed to be after one day. I looked on the promethean website and found a few flipcharts about doubles. There was a Halloween one that I downloaded and the kids loved it. It had moving images which helped keep their focus. The graphics were interesting and entertaining to them. As I read the part in the article about video games it made sense to me why the students loved that flipchart.
    I agree that teachers need the opportunity to get what they need as far as professional development in the area of technology. I'm excited about the iPads that we recently got in the elementary schools.

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