Meeting the Real Needs of Our Digital Native Learners [email_address] TESOL France 27 th Annual Colloquium, 7-8 November 2008 http://www.slideshare.net/bcgstanley

A 'digital native' is someone who grows up using technology as an everday part of their lives

http://www.marcprensky.com

Did you know the average person graduating from university today only spends 5000 hours of their lives reading paper-based books? photo by the department http://www.flickr.com/photos/thedepartment/137413905/

Are your students 'digital natives'? relevant to their real lives prepare for their future motivate them to learn attention spans boredom “ power down at school” choose not to

relevant to their real lives

prepare for their future

motivate them to learn

attention spans

boredom

“ power down at school”

choose not to

Research now shows that technology can and does improve the academic performance of students in almost all educational subjects

In British Council research, 69% of learners from around the world said that they learned most effectively when working in groups or when socialising informally.

73% of learners of English say they want to learn using a computer; 69% say socialising is a main motivation in their learning and that they want to have fun; 92% think that it's important to develop their problem-solving skills

English has been repositioned as a 'basic skill', to be learned by primary school children alongside other 21 st century skills in information technology – English Next

Did you know there are around 2 billion teachers and learners of English in the world? Web 2.0

How many different cultures and countries are your learners connected to? open up classroom walls real reason to communicate finding other classes http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk

open up classroom walls

real reason to communicate

finding other classes

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk

Do you use any social networks like FaceBook, MySpace or YouTube? What about your learners? photo: Scott Beale / laughingsquid.com.

In British Council research, 69% of learners from around the world said that they learned most effectively when working in groups or when socialising informally.

photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/nwinton/1601928610/

photo by Jill http://www.flickr.com/photos/lij/122525716/ Content Creation

photo by Stabilo Boss: http://flickr.com/photos/stabilo-boss/93136022/ spoilt for choice

How do you use your mobile?

free online games

Video games have the potential to change the landscape of education as we know it...towards a new model of learning through meaningful activity in virtual worlds as preparation for meaningful activity in our post-industrial, technology-rich, real world. (James Gee)‏

It is forecast that “80% of active internet users will have a Second Life in the virtual world by the end of 2011” (Gartner)‏

- Gee, JP (2001) What Video Games Have to Tell Us About Learning and Literacy . New York: Palgrave. - Gee, JP (2005) ' Why are Video Games Good for Learning? ' http://www.academiccolab.org/resources/documents/MacArthur.pdf - Jenkins, H (2003) ' Reality Bytes: Eight Myths About Video Games Debunked ' http://www.pbs.org/kcts/videogamerevolution/impact/myths.html - Prensky, M (2001) ' Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants' http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/default.asp - de Freitas, S (2006) 'Learning in Immersive worlds - A review of game-based learning' http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/programmes/elearning_innovation/ - NMC 2007 Horizon Report: http://www.nmc.org/pdf/2007_Horizon_Report.pdf - E-Learning Guild 360º Report (2007) 'Immersive Learning Simulations' http://www.elearningguild.com