Teaching the 21st Century Learner

Darla RunyonNorthwest Missouri State University

Dave StarrettSoutheast Missouri State University

Roger Von HolzenNorthwest Missouri State University

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Goals• Define 21st century learners• Discuss how we address their

needs

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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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Terminology• Chat• Blog, Blogging• IM • Online• To Google• Text Messaging• Multi-tasking • 21st Century Learner

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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”• Focused on grades and performance• Busy with extracurricular activities• Identify with parents’ values; feel close

to parents• Respectful of social conventions and

institutions• Fascination for new technologies• Racially and ethnically diverse

Howe & Strauss, 2003

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Today’s Learners…• Digitally literate • Mobile• Always on• Experiential• Social

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 spanPrensky, 2001

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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– Looking for practical applications,

real-world context– Focus more on applying classroom

lessons to real-life problems, institutions, or organizations

• 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 step-by-step, more in 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 customization of course

content to meet learner needs– Greater flexibility, user customizable

materials

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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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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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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• Learning now a life-long process

of coping with change• The content of a particular lesson

less important than learning how to learn

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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• Reward innovation in technology-

rich learning environments

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What’s Next?• More conversation• Faculty development and support• A culture change!

Darla Runyon: drunyon@nwmissouri.eduDave Starrett: dstarrett@semo.eduRoger Von Holzen: rvh@nwmissouri.edu