Teaching the 21st Century Learner

    I am blessed to be the mother of two kids. My daughter is about to turn 7 and my son is 8. Like many parents, we face the same issues at our house when it comes to technology use. How much is too much? What content are they watching? How do we balance online with technology-free time? What age should we get them, the next techno gadget?

    It’s a battle that my parents did not have to deal with. Unlike my own children, technology wasn’t a big factor in my life until  I got to college after high school. Today’s students use instant messaging, texting, Instagram, SnapChat, YouTube, Vine, and many other digital tools – ranging from incredibly simple to highly complex – to consume, create, and share digital media products with family, friends, acquaintances, and sometimes even strangers (Wilson et al., 2017).

    The video above shows my children playing a game and watching a show on their tablets, their favorite activity. In fact, children ages eight to 18 spend an estimated seven hours per day, on average, glaring into screens (Wilson et al., 2017). Screens include television, smartphones, tablets, gaming devices, and virtual reality. Teenagers compose an average of 3,417 text messages per month, and 97% of adolescents have at least one electronic device in their bedrooms (Wilson et al., 2017).

    It’s easy to see how parents can panic with all this technology in their child’s face. While there is no evidence that technology is deteriorating the cognitive capacity of today’s students, excessive screen time can present negative ramifications, such as distractions and obsession with social media (Wilson et al., 2017).

    Still, as I am constantly telling my husband when we argue over our children’s technology use, the technology is not going away. In fact, it’s rapidly increasing. Not all technology is bad. A lot of what my children play, or watch, has some learning in it. They also get plenty of non-technology time as well. It’s a balance that even adults struggle with.

    If we are going to prepare our students for the ever-changing technology world, then we must embrace teaching with the technology.

YouTube: Kayla Tudman

Multimedia

“Technology use to be for geeks and nerds. Now, we have babies playing with iPads,” – Larry Rosen

    Multimedia is defined as a “communication format integrating several media (text, audio, visual), most commonly implemented with a computer, or more than one medium into some form of communication (Wilson et al., 2017).

    The days of students taking notes with strictly pen or pencil and a teacher lecturing in front of the classroom are becoming static. Children today live in a “mediasphere” of electronic media where images, audio bites, videos, and web streaming stimulate them at a continual rate (Wilson et al., 2017). Progressive educators realize that interactive multimedia holds vast potential to enhance student engagement, encourage creativity, offer differentiated learning experiences, provide richer assessment opportunities, and deepen students’ abilities to connect that which takes place in the classroom to the circumstances of their daily lives (Wilson et al., 2017).

Examples include:

• Elementary students might study a variety of fairy tales originating from different countries around the world before analyzing stories within media representations. Next, they could write their own versions of fairy tales and act them out as a teacher or classmate films their performances. Alternatively, they might create an animated version of their original fairy tale. Either way, these students would be exposed to novel opportunities to analyze stories and construct their own media.

• In middle school, students could collaborate in groups to create an online clearinghouse of student-created podcast or video tutorials to be utilized as a resource for supporting one another in preparing for semester exams.

• Students of any age might create stop-motion videos for sharing and commenting on science lab  experiments and results, using either freely available web-based programs or any one of a variety of apps.

• Middle school or high school English, social studies, or history students could study media coverage of social protests over the ages, including protest-related newscasts, documentaries, songs, and even poetry. In doing so, they might be asked to analyze these resources for different forms of persuasive techniques, and apply these techniques through film in protest of an issue they feel strongly about.

• ln a high school history course, students could investigate propaganda media surrounding past and current political events or campaigns, seeking to determine factors that render one strategy more effective than another. On the basis of their findings, they might create posters or videos designed for use in persuading the public to vote for a future presidential candidate.

(Wilson et al., 2017).

     Guidance is still needed to conduct these lessons, but productivity and knowledge will increase using methods of multimedia.

    Media literacy is also important. Not all students grasp the basics of applying media literacy or media safety, and many are unsure of how to truly analyze media content for its value in society (Wilson et al., 2017).

     The International Society for Technology in Education helps educators with skills students should obtain toward becoming productive members of society (Wilson et al., 2017).

    Today’s educators must learn to harness the enthusiasm students have for multimedia – or content that uses a combination of text, images, audio, animation, and video – into daily interactive lessons (Wilson et al., 2017).

 YouTube: Larry Rosen - How Technology Rewires the Brains (5th Annual Conference) 21st Century Learning International

New Way of Learning

    Today’s student is essentially growing up with technology at their fingertips. This means that teachers are dealing with students who have:

• Attention difficulties
• Lack of social or face-to-face communication skills
• Information overload
• Poor sleep habits
• Overuse caffeine
• Anxiety and obsession with technology

Rosen, 2015

    Around 67% of teens and young adults check their phone every 15 minutes or less. If they can’t check their phone, they get anxious (Rosen, 2015).

    The 21^st Century Student is one that:

• Social connections are everything
• Speed is critical. No patience when it comes to things uploading.
• Believe in SELF: any dream can be a reality.
• Enjoy creativity.
• Has strong work ethic, but tempted by distractions.
• Prefers to work in teams.
• Likes project deadlines, but not progress reports.
• Needs positive reinforcement.
• Motivated by time off to play with technology.

    Specific evidence supports that academic achievement increases when the technology is integrated in a student-centered environment, such as students creating video presentations, solving problems, conducting research, or developing computer simulations (Wilson et al., 2017).

    The teacher becomes a facilitator, essentially giving instructions and lessons, but then overseeing the student as they work to figure out the problem together.

YouTube: Kaitlyn Parrino

    Paivio’s dual coding theory states that learning is generally more meaningful when new information is encoded and processed through verbal and nonverbal channels (Wilson et al., 2017). It allows the learner to activate prior knowledge in addition to encoding details more rapidly so that they remain for longer periods of time. (Wilson et al., 2017).

YouTube: Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligence Theory from Shelli Sloan

    Processing information through various means such as movement, music, words, and pictures is Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligence.

    We have heard people called Book Smart, Street Smart, People Smart, etc… Gardner’s theory uses eight intelligences that learners rely upon since there is no longer a “one size fits all” design when addressing prior experiences of students (Wilson et al., 2017).

    Gardner suggests that some people learn best when music is present (musical intelligence), while others find learning easier when material is visually presented using images (visual-spatial intelligence) (Wilson et al., 2017).

    Furthermore, the student with linguistic intelligence learns best by hearing and speaking words, while the bodily-kinesthetic learner is motivated to learn through movement and interacting with space. The interpersonal learner prefers to learn by interacting with people, while intrapersonal intelligence is marked by a preference for an introspective approach to learning. Finally, individuals with logical-mathematical intelligence enjoy exploring patterns and relationships within newly acquired knowledge (Wilson et al., 2017).

     In addition to those mentioned above, Gardner addresses other intelligences as well, such as the naturalist or those with environmentalist intelligence. He even suggests that spiritual or artistic intelligences might exist. It is important to note that while many people have a dominant intelligence, rarely do these intelligences exist in isolation (Wilson et al., 2017).

     Basically, everyone learns differently, so we must teach differently.

 

The Future

     Understandably, many parents would like to limit their children’s time spent “plugged in.” In contract, teachers are purposefully seeking to increase video and multimedia integration into their instruction in order to reach students (Wilson et al., 2017).

     It’s a balance.

     We all need time away from technology to allow our brain to rest, work on face-to-face communication skills, or spark creativity (Rosen, 2015).

     As educators, we need to utilize technology at its best in our classrooms. Don’t just make students do a Blooket or Kahoot or EdPuzzle and say they used technology. Put some meaning behind it.

     At time same, educators need to understand today’s students by understanding a students’ values, help them understand why their brains get distracted, and help them learn to focus and attend (Rosen, 2015).

     If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a multimedia lesson must speak volumes to 21^st Century learners (Wilson et al., 2017).

 

References

21st Century Learning International (2015, July 21). Larry Rosen - How Technology Rewires the Brains (5th Annual Conference). YouTube. Retrieved January 21, 2024, from https://youtu.be/yYZLAxeFgac?si=39nJ0b9Qycs999FW

Wilson, D., Alaniz, K., & Sikora, J. (2017). Digital Media in Today's Classrooms: The Potential for Meaningful Teaching, Learning, and Assessment. (pp.1-25). Rowman and Littlefield.