21st Century Learners

One of the things that struck me the most with this weeks readings were the comments from the students in the 21st Century Digital Learner article. I felt a pang of resentment. I feel that because their outside world is so stimulating and entertaining, that they expect their classrooms to be entertainment spots too. I absolutely agree that 21st century learners are different, but everything they do doesn't have to be bells and whistles and a horse and pony show.

Reading the above, you may think that I am being resistant to new technology, but that is not it at all. I absolutely agree that getting in touch with their world is useful for making the learning meaningful for them. But I also believe that they need to understand that the world is not all fun and games. That the world they live in may be "flat" now, but that we still need to have the ability to know how to learn from "regular" teaching too.

PowerPoints used to be "the thing", but now, even those are too boring for the kids. Its not exciting enough. So now we can use things with even more bells and whistles and wow factors.