efreeman's posterous

Lee Crockett  (from Canada) Keynote 1

Understanding "The Digital Generation"

http://fluency21.com lee@fluency21.com

Introduction

Some places can be called "terminally rural"

No hobbits to be seen in NZ :)

Don't let assumptions get in the way

Knowledge = knowing a tomato is a fruit

Wisdom = knowing not to use it in a fruit salad

Challenge

Step back and get a kick in the assumptions stop looking from the inside

Spent our entire lives in education (not all of us tho!)

What paradigms are we naturally unaware of?

Putting your hands together a different way (Feels yucky!) Maybe that's why it's so hard for many teachers - it doesn't feel right to do something differently to what they're used to.

We face a world on the move. Present disappears into the past. In 2003 - Total globe's production - estimate 5 exobytes of data - 37 000 x books of biggest library in world. In 5 years grown 10 000% - 500 exobytes (sp?).

Digital data at our finger tips - brings up need for critical literacy and digital literacy. Digital generation's brains are changing physically and chemically. Neurologically different to us.

Educators must acknowledge the centrality of digital connections for our children

How big is that?

13 stacks of books all the way to Pluto - deforest planet 12x - in one day!. Every year 120 years out of date on youtube.

Great info-graphic on content generation and size of cloud storage here:

http://wikibon.org/blog/cloud-storage/

Google book search - financing digitalisation of books from lots of libraries. 60 million books on google book search.

Is that not the next stage fro our libraries? Libraries also concerned with how this will work - affordable up-to-date ethical use of/access to content with equity of access still big issues to be worked out.

Books will become obsolete (will they though?!)  image of hand coming out of computer to grab all the books. Keyboard and mouse will become obsolete.

Amazon's kindle can store a library worth of books. Digital books outselling paper books.

Entire works of humankind will be accessed wirelessly anywhere, anytime. Begs the questions - what implications will this have on the skills and knowledge people will need?

How will they determine authenticity and bias? Critical literacy skills so important. More information has been sent that we are able to store

Are schools preparing students for this world? Unlike us - this generation grew up with a mouse in their hands. They also have the belief that the stuff on the screen is not PASSIVE.

Books and research is telling us that digital bombardment - digital generation are quickly adapting - they have developed a cultural brain. Brain changing physically and chemically. Our kids are neurologically wired differently to us - hyperlinked minds. They process info in a parallel manner - not sequentially. Brains are malleable and plastic. Previously thought that the brain stopped developing at age 3. We now understand measurable intelligence rises and falls depending on stimulation.

Eyes process content of photos 60 000x faster than text.

Track differently. New research Kent State Uni - their Digital generations eyes first scan bottom then sides then read in an F pattern - different to 'our' generation.  Consciously avoid bottom right of screen (is this where the ads are?!). Specific colours of text appeal to digital gen. Red/Pink then Green then Orange with Black then blue background. Will ignore black text unless highly engaged to read it (think I will be changing the colours on my IWB!).

Digital learners prefer to learn info from multiple sources. Implications - many teachers do not process this way. Digital learners process info very quickly. To really connect with digital learners - need to... If we ban digital devices we are blowing it. Missing a huge opp to connect with our digital learners.  Digital learners prefer multi tasking and parallel processing of info. Continuous partial attention - multi tasking. Happens faster in our digital kids.

Old school study environment very different to children of today - mess with music etc - and they are still bored! Music helps them to concentrate - contrary to what they think - they are not as effective if they are multi tasking than if they focus on a singular task. They need to appreciate both sets of skills.

Digital learners prefer to process photos, videos and sound to text. Role of text is to provide clarity to image - not the other way round (as it was). Participants could recall 25 000 pictures 90% accuracy 72 hours later even if only viewed for 10 seconds each. Recall rates a year later still hover around 60%. Presented orally or text only - 72 hours later 10% of content. Need to create 'presentations' based on images not text.

Multi-sensory - gaming. Words complement images - sharpened their visual literacy. Highly developed visual spatial skills. Moving towards right brained society. Colour sound and graphics mixed in interesting ways.

Random access preferred to hyperlinked multimedia access. Educators prefer linear, logical, sequential access. Hyperlinked minds - move from info at the speed of thought. Books are an antiquated interface.

It is not us or them - wrong or right - but equally essential. Digital learners prefer to network with multiple people at a time. Hundreds of ways to communicate.

We can become dependent on this media. Digital learners have internalised it. Kids interact socially different. We do not need to teach technology anymore - they know it - they have internalised.

Need to teach communication skills, problem solving skills, creativity, design skills to harness this. Not about hard ware anymore - now about 'Headware"

Digital Learners - just in time. Traditional educators - just in case. Estimate of number of jobs in a lifetime - 10-17 careers by 35. Jobs that don’t technically exist yet. Totally different skill set. Such a focus on standardised testing - just in case model of teaching. Digital learners revolve around just in time. 4 year degrees replaced with 40 years of doing and undoing.

Which world are we preparing them for?

Instant gratification vs deferred gratification and delayed rewards (e.g. if you do well in school = good job). What they do determines what they get. Immediate feedback from new technologies - video games. Design games to ask the gamer to make a critical decision every .5 second. Rewarded every 7 seconds. Instant feedback and/or reward.

Ave students get positively reinforced, positive feedback once every 25 minutes (?). Graduations on 2nd Life.

Relevant, active and instantly useful vs. teaching memorisation of material in the curriculum guide.

"What gets measured gets done.... What doesn’t get measured doesn’t get done" Tom Peters.

Why memorise capitals? Google on phone. World on the move - students will need a completely different set of skills. Fundamentally different kind of student

Fluency's for Digital Citizen

Information

Media

Collaboration

Creativity

Solution

Leadership, ethics, accountability

Need to be more important than everything else At every age level. 21st Century Fluency Project. Significant gender difference in remembering detail - NOT!!!! It was a trick.

Dan Symons research "The Invisible Gorilla" - Perceptual blindness. If we do not have a specific frame of reference then our brains refuse to see it.

Reading list

• A Whole new mind Dan pink

• Rewired: Understanding the iGeneration and the Way They Learnby Larry D. Rosen

• iBrain: Surviving the Technological Alteration of the Modern Mind [Hardcover]Gary Small

• Grown up digital Don Tapscott

• Understanding the Digital Generation (21st Century Fluency Series)by Ian Jukes, Ted McCain,  and Lee Crockett

• Dan Symon - "The Invisible Gorilla"

• Fluency21.com - commit to be a sardine