21st Century Learners

Marc Prensky wrote a great article, The 21st-Century Digital Learner, focusing on how schools would be more successful in educating their students if they'd try to listen to what the students want, how they feel about how they're being taught, and maybe how they'd rather be taught. Prensky compared how we treat children in schools to women's suffrage, which I have to agree with. America used to deny women the right to vote and be equal to men in the workforce. We're doing the same with our kids now, paying little to no attention to how they feel or what they think and going along with our day-to-day teaching routines, many of which kids feel bored with. The key here is to engage students so they WANT to learn, are excited to learn, and feel more apt to participate and involve themselves. Instead of assuming that kids- because they're kids- don't know what they need, we should try asking. It doesn't mean we have to go with everything they say, but I feel that educators would be surprised as to some of the insight that their students have when it comes to how they want to learn the material they're being given. I'm sure going to.

http://www.edutopia.org/ikid-digital-learner-technology-2008