Who are the Digital Natives

1
Who are the Digital Natives?

• Todays K-12 students were born into an era of
  cell phones, wireless Internet and 24/7
  connectivity. 93 of youth are online.
• They live in a world where every facet of their
  lives has been transformed by technology.

2
What do Digital Natives need?

• Todays K-12 students need innovative and
  creative assignments and activities that foster
  student-centered and collaborative learning
• We are in a quiet crisis whereby in only
  fifteen or twenty years we will have a critical
  shortage of Americans capable of doing
  innovation or just high-value-added technology
  work. (Friedman)

The future belongs to a very different kind of
person with a very different kind of
mind--creators and empathizers, pattern
recognizers, and meaning makers. A Whole New
Mind Moving From the Information Age to the
Conceptual Age --Daniel H. Pink Hierarchies
are being challenged from below or transforming
themselves from top-down structures into more
horizontal and collaborative ones. The World is
Flat --Thomas Friedman
3
How do Students Want to Learn?

• In our modern world, learning seems useless it
  prepares students to be creative.
• Leonardos Laptop Human Need and the New Human
  Computing Technologies -- Ben Shneiderman
• In the Web 2.0 world Digital Natives create,
  edit, and share information in a service-oriented
  environment. Do your students use their
  collective intelligence to create knowledge and
  share it with others?

Students want to collaborate. They want learning
to be social. Students want to create. They do
not want to be passive recipients. Students want
to be challenged. They want to avoid busy
work. Students want their freedom. But they need
our guidance.
4
How Should we Teach our Digital Natives?

• Learning should be both individual and
  collaborative. It should draw on the students
  collective intelligence and creativity and the
  teachers guidance. It should put students at the
  center of the creation process and aim to
  disseminate knowledge to others.
• Collect -- fact acquisition and research focus
  on users activity
• Relate -- team efforts that develop
  communication, management, social skills clarify
  problems
• Creative -- individual and team projects create
  to learn and learn to create
• Donate -- authentic, service-oriented projects
  dissemination to outside client
• (Adapted from Leonardos Laptop)

5
Email- Conversations with the World

• When students communicate with real people in
  the real world they have increased motivation and
  they hold themselves to higher standards. Email
  makes it easy for your students to have their
  voices heard.

6
Ideas for Email Assignments and Projects

• Letters to the Editor- Have students respond to
  an article in the paper by sending a letter to
  the editor.
• Email to a public official- Have students
  research an issue that they care about in the
  community, and then share their opinions and
  perspective with an appropriate local or state
  official.
• Email an author or expert- Many authors and
  professors have their own web pages where they
  post their email address. After reading a book or
  article, have students respond to the author
  directly.
• Join an ePal program with school overseas- At
  www.epals.com you can have your classroom pair up
  with classrooms around the world to have students
  share stories and experiences and practice their
  writing.

7
Instant Messaging- The Power of Chat

• Your students primary mode of social
  communication is through texting and IM-ing. What
  if you held a class discussion where everyone was
  contributing and listening at the same time?

8

• Find a Chat Platform- Several Content Management
  Systems, like Moodle, have their own chat tools.
  If not try a web service like www.Chatzy.com or
  use a chat program like AOL Instant Messenger or
  Skype.

• Pablo 101211 AM Why is Arjuna is reluctant
  to fight?
• Jess 101220 AM because he doesn't want to
  kill all of those people
• Vinesha 101222 AM his family, he didnt want
  to kill them
• Jess 101229 AM right
• Vinesha 101239 AM he felt like he was close
  to these people
• Jess 101312 AM yeah, and he thought it would
  be cruel and unnecesary to kill them
• Vinesha 101317 AM yeah
• Jess 101328 AM , he says he doesnt want a
  kingdom
• Vinesha 101332 AM he became overcome with
  grief
• Pablo 101404 AM "Then Arjuna saw in both
  armies fathers, grandfathers, sons, grandsons
  father of wives, uncles, mastersbrothers
  companions, and friends. When Arjuna thus saw
  his kinsmen face to face i both lines of the
  battle, he was overcome by grief and despair and
  thus he spoke with a sinking heart. "
• Jess 101420 AM right then "I have no wish
  for victory Krishna, nor for a kingdom, nor for
  its pleasures"

• These 3 students made 11 comments and 2 textual
  citations in 2 minutes. The other 20 students
  were doing getting just as much work done at the
  exact same time.

9
iPods Go-Anywhere Multimedia Learning

• The iPod is a ubiquitous multimedia tool in the
  hands of todays youth. It is used to disseminate
  both audio and video. Its portability and ease of
  use make it an ideal vehicle to incorporate
  multimedia into assignments and activities.

10
Ideas for iPod projects and activities

• Using the iPod as a Digital Recorder (with iTalk
  or another microphone adaptor)
• Students can interview relatives about their
  life histories, such as thir parents experiences
  during the 1970s and 80s.
• Students can create a Round the World podcast
  that features interviews with individuals from
  different continents.
• Students can record notes and impressions during
  a field trip.

• iPods give students control over the multimedia
  elements of your curriculum, letting students
  pause, play, replay, and reflect as best suits
  their learning
• Its one thing to read Robert Frosts Birches,
  but its quite another to hear Frost read it
  (http//town.hall.org/radio/HarperAudio/012294_har
  p_ITH.html).
• Its one thing to read Martin Luther Kings I
  Have a Dream speech, but its quite another to
  watch him deliver it (http//www.mlkonline.net/vid
  eo.html).
• Students can watch video of an historical event
  that you simply do not have time to show during
  class.

11
Cell Phones the Power of Mobcasting

• What teenager doesnt have a cell phone these
  days? Cell phones present great opportunities for
  mobile podcasting, or mobcasting. Mobile
  podcasting is essentially podcasting by cell
  phone. You dial a special number, record your
  voice, and your voice gets published online!

12

• Gcast is a free podcasting service
  (www.gcast.com). A key feature is the ability to
  record and upload a podcast via a cell phone
  Gcast enables you to record a podcast and host it
  at their site for free. With Gcast. . .
• You could take your students on a field trip, and
  they could record and publish their observations
  via cell phone.
• You could tour a museum or historical site and
  everyone could record and publish commentaries
  online, almost instantaneously.
• You could hold a classroom discussion and record
  the conversation so that every student could
  review it later.
• Students could create an oral review for a test
  or exam, where each student records