Listen to the Natives Presented by: Amanda Johnson

What has had the most significant impact on children and education in the 21st century?

Technology

What is a Digital Native? A digital native simply refers to today’s students. They have grown up with technology at their fingertips.

21 st Century Students vs. Digital natives Native speakers of technology Fluent in the digital language of computers, video games, and the Internet 21 st Century Teachers Digital immigrants Have an “accent” in the language of technology Our accent makes it difficult to communicate with our students.

How can teachers communicate with digital natives?

Encourage your students to make their own decisions. Involve students in designing instruction Get input from your students about how they would teach. Don’t be afraid to let your students teach you something new!

Do What You Do Best… Discuss! Continue to encourage discussion, but do it in a way that will engage students and allow them to share their knowledge from their digital lives.

Questions to Ask your Students to Promote 21 st Century Discussion Does anyone do anything on the Web that is relevant to what we’re discussing? Can you think of any examples of this problem in your computer games?

Some of the technology used by digital natives Communicating ( s) Sharing (blogs) Buying and Selling (eBay) Exchanging (peer-to- peer technology) Creating (Flash) Meeting (3D Worlds) Collecting (downloads) Coordinating (wikis) Reporting (camera Phones)

Engage your Students… Electronically “Gameplay” in classrooms provides: *desirable goals *interesting choices *immediate and useful feedback *opportunities to “level up” Just like their favorite computer games!

Are you a Teacher, or a Teac herd ? Teachers provide opportunities for growth and decision making in their students. Teacherds ignore their students’ decisions and interests and place them in specific classes or groups.

21 st Century Alternatives to Herding One-to-One Personalized Instruction Next to impossible, but still doable. Make the most of students’ individual capabilities. The way adaptive computer games do. All Learning Groups Self-Select Students choose their learning partners. It could even be a virtual partner in another country. Nobody gets left out. Everyone can find someone in the world to collaborate with.

Make Room for 21 st Century Learning We need to consolidate the curriculums of the past to make room for 21 st century learning Integrate 21 st Century digital tools with the current curriculum. How can we do it?

How Can We Teach Curriculum and Digital Tools? Provide the curriculum through their own tools. Their tools are powerful, programmable, and customizable. For example, send content to their cell phones, or their wikispaces.

Let students’ voices be heard Students want to have a say in their education. Visit for a student survey. Allow your students to have an input so that we can improve our instruction.

Apply Your Knowledge Think about one way you plan to incorporate digital tools into your curriculum. Turn to the person next to you and discuss your idea. Text your idea to a colleague.

Reference Prensky, M. (December 2005/ January 2006). Listen to the Natives. Learning in the Digital Age [Electronic Version], 63 (4), 8-13.