The+21st+Century

The 21st Century

//**"Every few hundred years in Western history there occurs a sharp transformation. Within a few short decades, society rearranges itself - its worldview; its basic values; its social and political structures; its arts; its key institutions. ...We are currently living through such a transformation" ** ([|Drucker in Todd]). //

 We are currently living in the "Information Age," a term that refers to the present era, "where the global economies shift in focus away from the production of physical goods, towards the manipulation of information" ([|Wikipedia]). As we are in the midst of the "Information Age," a new generation of learners has emerged.

// "My son still watches primetime t.v. He doesn't watch it in prime time. And he doesn't watch it on t.v" // ( [|Nealon in Joel]).

The quote above reveals the typical 21st Century student. These students are called digital natives. A digital native is defined as a person who has "grown up with digital technology such as computers, the Internet , mobile phones and MP3" ([|Wikipedia]). They are growing up in a media rich world, with internet browsers on their cell phone and social networks all over the world. On the internet, they surf, google, download, burn, rip, network, mash-up, game, blog and can do many other things. In [|Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants], Prensky claims that their thinking patterns have changed and "that these students think and process information fundamentally differently from their predecessors" ([|Prensky, 2001]).

7 key characteristics, outlined by Prensky, of the digital native are:

1. they are used to receiving information really fast 2. they like to parallel process and multi-task 3. they prefer their graphics before their text 4. they prefer random access like hypertext 5. they function best when networked 6. they thrive on instant gratification and frequent rewards 7. they prefer games to 'serious work"

These characteristics of our students, have implications for teaching. Will Richardson discusses the MacArthur study, which was a five year, $50 million digital media and learning initiative to help determine how digital media are changing the lives of young people. He highlights the important point that youth are picking up basic and social and technological skills they need to fully participate in contemporary society. Youth could benefit from educators being more open to forms of experimentation that are not generally characteristic of educational institutions ([|Richardson, 2008]). Richardson claims that "we have to be more willing to support this type of learning rather than prevent it, but, as always, we have to understand it for ourselves"  ([|Richardson, 2008]).  Therefore, since students today know the digital language of computers, video games and the internet, we need to adapt and change our teaching strategies, to reach these learners.  

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