Highlights of Educating the Net Generation:21st Century Learning and Teaching

Here are some highlights of the weeks readings and videos!!
A Vision of k-12 students Today
“Students will use engaging technologies in collaborative inquiry-based learning environments, with teachers who are willing and able to use technology’s power to assist them in transforming knowledge and skills into products, solutions and new information.” I liked how the video was presented through written text on card boards. I found it very effective to portray the insight into the youth of today and how technology has greatly impacted their life and learning. Many students spend several hours a week playing video games, watching television, listening to their Ipods (music and books),using the computer, and communicating with family and friends through email, texts and ims. 63% of teachers don’t let their students create something new with technology. I found this percentage to be very high. As future teachers we have to allow students to create knew things and to learn knew things from technology.
Shift Happens
The information in this video really makes you think about the changes occurring in the world. The number one English speaking country in the world will soon be China. 25% of people in China with the highest IQ’s is more than that of North America. Also the amount of new technical information is doubling every 2 years. That means that half of what you learn in your first year of study in college will be outdated in their third year. I am happy to be taking this course because I really do not know much about the Internet and technology and would love to incorporate this into my classroom. Teachers are currently preparing students for jobs that don’t exist yet and using technologies that haven’t been invented in order to solve problems that don’t exist yet. One fact that blew my mind was the number of text messages sent and received every day exceeds the total population of the planet. I used to be totally against texting because I felt that it was very impersonal way of communication. I finally had to give in because all of my friends and family were staring to communicate through texting. I still feel that it would be easier to call someone and have a five-minute conversation than texting all day to get your point across. I guess I am a digital native because I have to change and adapt my ways in order to fit in with the net generation.

Is It Age or IT: First Steps Toward Understanding the Net Generation
The opening paragraph describes a student at a university and how technology affects his daily life. The student wakes up to see several instant messages on is computer. He then blogs with other classmates on assignments, looks up the weather, sports and news on the Internet. Some characteristics of the Net Generation are: they are visual communicators, they learn through discovery rather than being told, they are able to shift their attention from one task to another, respond quickly and expect rapid responses in return. They are also Digitally Literate- having grown up with access to technology they are able to use many IT devices and navigate the Internet easily (don’t need a tutorial). They are also more likely to use the Internet for research than the library.

Portrait of a Digital Native By Tom McHale
One fact that I found amazing is that new research suggests that brains can be trained to multitask. “According to a study conducted by Monica Luciana, found the brain's ability to effectively self-organize competing information remains in the developmental process until 16 or 17 years of age”. I think it amazing to think that brains can be trained to multitask and that the brains of children in the net generation have adapted to technology.