Growing+Up+Digital

GROWING UP DIGITAL: The Rise of the Net Generation by Don Tapscott

Mark Reimer, Lara Chard, Eunice Kim, Taryn Sternberg



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The Demographic Revolution Meets the Digital Revolution
(Baby Boomers)
 * Demographic Revolution:**
 * The baby boomers were the demographic majority of the U.S., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand for 3 decades.
 * Anyone born between 1946 and 1964 is considered a baby boomer. In 1955, 57% of American households contained children under 18yr.
 * Known to be a generation of youth. Did not grow up as fast as their parents, waiting until their 30's- 40's to have children.
 * Influential generation- Had great influence on the media, business, and government policy

//(Net Generation aka N-Geners)//
 * Digital Revolution:**
 * 88 million children in U.S. and Canada (and beyond) are masters of technology
 * They learn, work, play, communicate, shop, and create communities very differently than their parents.
 * Aged 0-20yr.
 * N-Geners are embracing interactive media such as the Internet, CD-ROM and video games.
 * Curious, self-reliant, smart, focused, able to adapt, high in self-esteem, and has a global orientation.



Their Media Usage
This new generation prefers interactive media over broadcast media- As shown in the decline in television viewing hours

Broadcast technology is hierarchal, working from a top down method. Someone chooses broadcast, and viewer decides what to watch according to what is showing. Viewers have little direct interaction with other viewers. No power over media except to channel surf.
 * T.V. culture:**

N-Geners find power in the internet, because it is distributed or shared, rather than hierarchal. Users can interact with other users.
 * Internet culture:**



The Technology of Interactive Learning
There are new methods of delivering education/learning.
 * On one extreme end, there is television. The learner has no control and must simply watch from beginning to end.
 * On the other extreme is CAI (Computer Aided Instruction). One example of CAI is a professor videotaping the lesson and transmitting it via satellite. Students can talk to their professor via telephone for any questions or clarifications (i.e. office hours).

CAI can improve student performance by one third! Instead of a professor standing in front of a class and spewing back information, the students are interacting with media, one another and with the content of the class.



1. From Linear to Hypermedia Learning
Students today approach learning differently then we have in the past. There has been a clear shift from linear learning to hypermedia learning.




 * Linear Learning: The traditional approach to teaching, designed to go from beginning to end.
 * Ex. Using a book as a learning tool or TV shows and instructional videos.
 * Hypermedia Learning: Having the ability to skip around and move easily from one topic to another.
 * Ex. Surfing the net and moving from one search topic to another through hyperlinks.

2. From Instruction to Construction and Discovery
//"The scandal of education is that every time you teach something, you deprive a child of the pleasure and benefit of discovery." -Seymour Papert


 * Instruction: Teaching students pre-digested and optimized information. This is the traditional approach to teaching where the teacher holds all of the knowledge and simply gives it to the students.
 * Construction: Students are learning by doing. Through this they are synthesizing their own understanding of the information.

For example, an instructionist could decide to make a computer game that will teach students how to use the multiplication table, where a constructivist would have the students create that game themselves. this is more exciting for students. However, it does not mean that there are no lesson plans or designs, there are, they are just approached differently.

3. From Teacher-Centered to Learner-Centered Education
An important shift that is more easily facilitated with the advent of new technology is moving from a teacher-centered to a learner-centered model of education.


 * Teacher-Centered Model: The classroom revolves around the teacher. More attention paid to what the teacher is interested in and has to say. In this model students do a great deal of listening and the teacher and great deal of talking.
 * Learner-Centered Model: The classroom revolves around the students as individuals. This type of classroom begins by learning about the students abilities, learning-styles, social context, interests, and other important aspects of the students life.

The teacher still plays an important role in developing and facilitating the learning experiences but their focus is always on the student.

4. From Absorbing Material to Learning How to Navigate and How to Learn
In our world today knowledge is constantly evolving and changing. We can no longer simply transmit knowledge to our students and assume they are prepared for life because that knowledge will most likely change in a year or two. The focus now needs to be on learning how to learn. It is a shift from analysis of information to a synthesis of information.


 * Analysis: Looking at facts and data and coming to a conclusion. This is most often engaged in in by the older generations.
 * Synthesis: Knowing how to find the facts and data, evaluate them directly and do sense-making afterward. A process frequently engaged in by the Net-Gen.

5. From School to Lifelong Learning


"People mistakenly think that once they've graduated from university they are good for the next decade-when they're really good for the next ten seconds." - Richard Soderberg In the past, people would attend school, and would then join the workforce. Today, “ Learning has become a continuous, lifelong process.” We cannot just teach or train our students for the jobs they will work in the future. We need to teach our students how to be lifelong learners.

6. From One-Size-Fits-All to Customized Learning
Our current schooling model is based upon the industrial economy. Students of the same age are placed in the same classroom, taught the same material, and then all assessed the same way. This antiquated system does not serve the digital generations of today. The new digital media that we currently have access to allows us to teach our students as individuals. We should be using this new digital media to provide students with "highly customized learning experiences based on their background, individual talents, age level, cognitive style, interpersonal preferences, and so-on." No two students are the same; we should not be educating our students like they are all the same.

[[image:bored.jpg width="320" height="213" align="right"]]
Students should love learning and school should be fun. New digital media such as the Internet, video games, and interactive learning programs provide countless opportunities for educators to make student-learning fun. Just because something is fun, does no mean that it can't be highly challenging and intellectual.

8. From the Teacher as Transmitter to the Teacher as Facilitator
Teachers should not just be transmitting or broadcasting information to students. Teachers should be designing opportunities for students to construct their own learning. By designing projects and assignments that allow students to use new digital media to explore topics, students are becoming responsible for their own learning. By then allowing students to share their projects online with their classmates and their peers around the globe, students will be able to share their own constructed meaning with each other. The teacher in this scenario is merely a resource or facilitator. The students are taking responsibility for constructed their own meaning, and then sharing that meaning with their peers.

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