The document discusses how learners today are accustomed to an information environment that is networked, digital, abundant and difficult to contain. It notes that their information experiences ignore barriers and empower accomplishment. When schools try to contain this experience it can seem like the school is imposing barriers to their learning. The document advocates harnessing students' cultural experiences and "cracking" or hacking their native information experience to create effective and relevant learning experiences.

1. Millennial Learnersthe
Cracking
‘Native’
Information
Experience
In times of change,
Learners inherit the earth,
While the learned,
Find themselves beautifully equipped,
to work in a world,
That no longer exists.
Eric Hoffer, Reflections on the
Human Condition, aph. 32 (1973)
Monday, January 10, 2011 1

2. Millennial Learners
Cracking the
‘Native’
Information
Experience
In times of change,
Learners inherit the earth,
While the learned,
Find themselves beautifully equipped,
to work in a world,
That no longer exists.
Eric Hoffer, Reflections on the
Human Condition, aph. 32 (1973)
Ancillaries - http://davidwarlick.com/handouts
Monday, January 10, 2011 2

3. Monday, January 10, 2011 3
While I was still teaching history, my grandparents moved from the house they'd lived in for more than 50 years. Because I was the only teacher in
the family, they gave me all of their (ancient) National Geographic Magazines.
I am ashamed to admit that as I leafed through those magazines, I had scissors in my hands. I cut those things to pieces -- because I wanted to
bring those pictures, maps, and diagrams into my classroom, put them on the wall, and give my learners a chance to learn from them.
You see, I taught in an information-scarce learning environment. The methods I used in the classroom were based on information scarcity. The
pedagogies I learned in university were based on information scarcity.
Today, Flickr, the social photo album site, is receiving more than three million new photos every day. We are now teaching in information-
abundant learning environments.
One of the most interesting questions in the education field today is, "What are the pedagogies of information-abundant learning environments.

4. What are the
pedagogies of
Information-Abundant
Learning
environments?
http://flickr.com/
Monday, January 10, 2011 4
[twitter]What are the pedagogies of “Information-Abundant learning environments...[/twitter]

5. Is it that he’s
‣ Smarter
‣ Lives in Silicon
Valley
‣ Brain’s wired
differently
Or is it that
‣ He has no ceiling.
Monday, January 10, 2011 5
[twitter]Do today’s child have no ceiling? ..and is this important?[/twitter]

6. It is an information
experience that...
‣ Ignores Barriers
‣ Empowers
Accomplishment
Monday, January 10, 2011 6
Our students play, learn & work within an information environment that
Ignores barriers & Empowers accomplishment

7. ‣Networked
‣Digital
‣Abundant
‣Difficult to
contain
Monday, January 10, 2011 7
Our students play, learn & work within an information environment that
Ignores barriers & Empowers accomplishment

8. ..and if their information
experience,
can’t be walled in,
then what does,
a school look like to them,
When it tries to?
Monday, January 10, 2011 8
[twitter]Trying this KeynoteTweet again...[/twitter]

9. ..with customs, modes of
expression and social institutions.
Culture
..a millennial culture.
Monday, January 10, 2011 9

10. Can we harness this
culture for learning
Without turning our
classrooms, libraries
and campuses
..into video arcades?
..with customs, modes of
expression and social institutions.
Culture
..a millennial culture.
Monday, January 10, 2011 10

11. Crack?
..this ‘native’ information experience
Hack
..into effective & relevant
learning experiences
Monday, January 10, 2011 11

12. Safely-Made Mistakes
Demands Personal
Investment
Provokes Conversation
foundation
Responsive
Monday, January 10, 2011 12
Responsive
Our learners’ outside-the-classroom information experiences are responsive. They are accustomed to receiving feedback on their actions, decisions, and ideas. Video
games are an obvious example of how they play and work in an environment that responds to them. If you send your player down the wrong road or through the wrong
door, he dies and you have to start again. But there has to be a logical and contextual reason for it. There has to be a basis that the player reasons through to rationalize
the death and plan better for the next time through.But it would be a mistake to believe that all of the responsiveness that our learners are accustomed to is immediate – or
that immediacy is even the most important element of responsiveness. Many video games fail the player out, not because of a single mistake, but for committing a cascade
of mistakes, some of which may have been committed minutes, hours, or days earlier. Even their social networking is responsive, and the comments they receive back are
often extended across hours or days.The key to responsiveness is not time-based as much as it is relevance- based. If the response is authentic to what the learner is
doing, then the influence on learning is greater.
Classroom Examples:
Instructional software that provides feedback within a learner identified context
Writing assignments submitted as blog entries or wiki pages to be read and responded to by classmates or readers outside the classroome
Portfolios, accessible from outside the school environment and available for comment/feedback
Various academic (and physical) competitions (website creation, robotics, field day, competitive quizzes)
Collaborative work that involves group planning, individual specialization, and a valued deliverableStudent produced learning resources (study guides or even student
produced textbooks)
Provokes Conversation
There is very little that millennials do alone, and it is, to some peoples reckoning, counter intuitive that today’s youngsters are actually more sociable and skilled socially
than previous generations. They are together at school, at the ball game, at band camp, at the mall, and at home, through their IM, text messaging, and social networks.
They are more like room mates than mere friends. They are constantly engaged with each other and they never say goodbye – because the conversation continues, even
when they are no longer physically together or even in the same state.
Beyond the availability that they have with each other, through the information and communication technologies (ICT) that they assume to be a part of their experience,
many of their activities demand communication. The very nature of Facebook, Beebo, and MySpace is conversation. You are posting your updates to be read and responded
to. They comment on their digital walls, upload photos and videos for comment, and discuss their homework through their social networks.
Many video games also require conversation. Operated over the Internet, players are encouraged to form themselves into teams or guilds, plan and implement campaigns,
form economic cartels, and even push the games into unintended functionality, such as machinima (http://bit.ly/o5lm7).
Classroom Examples:
Online collaborations across classrooms and even age groupings
Ask students to read separate parts of a chapter and then sequence and outline the context as a team
Arrange guest speakers either in-class or virtually, but, after a short introduction, have students interview the speaker rather than ask for an extended formal presentation
Assign homework that asks students to collaborate through theirsocial networksAsk students from geographically different places to plan, together, virtual field trips
through
Skype or other video conferencing software
Google and what it represents has turned us into a question-asking culture. We love to ask questions at a rate of more than a hundred billion a month, through the top ten
search engines.3We ask questions, because we know that the answers are available and often no further away than our pockets. Our demand for high speed access to the
answers has increased, even during recession years and among previously reluctant demographics.4
But, for our students, it goes much deeper than posing questions out of curiosity. Consider that many of the video games that they play come without user guides. With a
sense of context that they receive from introductory videos and conversations with friends, they find themselves thrust into an alien world with almost no guidance. How
do you approach an experience like this? You approach it by asking questions:•What are the goals of this game? •What are the rules? •How can I use the rules to
accomplish the goals?
The game constantly presents barriers to accomplishment that the player has to question his way around.
Classroom Examples:

13. foundation
Responsive
Monday, January 10, 2011 13
Content is becoming increasingly responsive to our needs. The phone book (left) and digital
Sports Illustrated (right) are examples.
Each hints at possibilities of fully interactive learning resources -- what follows the textbook
as we know it...
This relationship becomes even more pronounced when the reader is empowered to create
the content and its behavior.

14. foundation
Responsive
Monday, January 10, 2011 14
But, when the author or programmers work is published and its users can "respond" back, the
relationship between author and reader return -- except that it is...
Two way
and
Highly instructive
Scratch is a programming language that enables children to write video games and other
applications. The process involves math and it immediately assesses, because if there is a
mistake, then it doesn't "work."

15. foundation
Responsive
Monday, January 10, 2011 15
We've known the power of responsiveness for a long time. We've long tried to capture the
immediate gratification of many video games to improve achievement.

16. Traction
foundation
Responsive
Monday, January 10, 2011 16

17. Traction
foundation
Responsive
Monday, January 10, 2011 17
In traditional schooling, the traction points are the text, teach, and bell schedule. These are
the hard places that learners could push and pull on to accomplish learning.

18. When do Traction Points
become barriers?
Monday, January 10, 2011 18

19. Hyperconnected
learners find each
other for hard places
against which they can
test and grow their
knowledge, ideas, and
skills.
What are the new
traction points?
foundation
Responsive
Monday, January 10, 2011 19
Learning happens when we push off of something or pull toward it. We need a hard place to
test our knowledge and ideas against. In the past it was the textbook, teacher, technology,
and the bell schedule.
[twitter]It takes traction to do anything. It takes traction to learn![/twitter]

20. In 15 years of teaching, I have never seen
anything come even CLOSE to motivating
students to write - like blogging does.
- Mark Ahlness
My students are floored when,
as they say, “Some random
person from Texas commented
on my blog.”
- Brian McLaughlin
I’ve got 6th graders coming in during their
lunch and after school to add articles to
their blog and respond to their classmates’
articles.
- Al Gonzalez
Even when they’re out sick, students work on their blogs.
- Carol Barsotti
Monday, January 10, 2011 20
Students love to write in their blogs, not because of instant gratification, but because of
deferred response that is both dependable and relevant. They know that someone is going
to "read" their writing, not just "measure" it.
[twitter]The responsiveness in blogging is not immediate. It is relevant.[/twitter]

21. In one year the
percentage of households
earning $20K - $30K
with high speed Internet
42% to 53%
Households earning
< $20K with high speed
Internet
25% to 35%
Senior citizen households
with high speed Internet
Provokes Conversation
19% to 30%
foundation
Responsive
Monday, January 10, 2011 21
We all want information in all of its forms -- not just e-mail but we want information that
moves, flows, and glows.

22. Finland has become the first
country in the world to declare
broadband Internet access a
legal right.
Starting in July,
telecommunication companies in
the northern European nation will
be required to provide all 5.2
million citizens with Internet
connection...
The country is aiming for ... 100
megabit per second -- for all by
2015.
A h m e d , S a e e d . " F a s t I n t e r n e t A c c e s s b e c o m e s a L e g a l R i g h t i n F i n l a n d . " C N N Te c h 1 5 O c t 2 0 0 9 : n . p a g . We b . 1 7 D e c
2 0 1 0 . < h t t p : / / b i t . l y / h Wi R c q> .
Provokes Conversation
foundation
Responsive
Monday, January 10, 2011 22
..by July next year, telecommunications companies will be obliged to provide all Finnish
residents with broadband lines that can run at speeds of at least 1 megabit per second.
..100Mb internet access ... available to all Finnish residents by 2015. (Johnson)

23. How much are
people actually
talking online?
Provokes Conversation
foundation
Responsive
http://personalizemedia.com/the-count/
Monday, January 10, 2011 23
[twitter]You can see this little counter at... http://personalizemedia.com/the-count/[/twitter]

24. Monday, January 10, 2011 24
A different species of Learner who communicates through his tenticles...

25. ‣ Grade 2 students from Westglen School
Visited Fort Edmonton.
‣ Returned & researched modes of
transportation of the time.
‣ Using MS Paint they made an image of
one of the modes.
‣ Grade 4 students from J.A. Fife School
visited Fort Edmonton.
‣ Used MS Paint to draw a background
for the grade 2 drawings.
‣ Hired grade 10s in a hypermedia class to
animate the pictures.
Ft. Edmonton
Provokes Conversation
foundation
Responsive
Monday, January 10, 2011 25
The objective of the work was learning about prairie life in 19th century Alberta by producing graphic illustrations
of how they traveled.
The nature of the work was conversation/collaboration. Conversation and collaboration are not easy, and the
deep and productive collaborations necessary in a technology-rich, information-driven, and increasingly global
environment is especially hard.
The students' collaboration was handicapped by asking them to communicate through classroom walls, school
campuses, and through age differences. The students were challenged to be resourceful.
[twitter]You can see all of the animations here - http://fortedmonton.jasperplace.ca/[/twitter]

26. Provokes Conversation
foundation
Responsive
Monday, January 10, 2011 26
I used that setting on my camera that take multiple shots, and this is the only one that came out nearly clear. I’ve seen it before, but, out of curiosity, I Twitpic’ed it this morning
to see if anyone knew what it was. Here’s what I learned.
There is a Civil War memorial near Fredericksburg, VA that is a twenty foot high stone pyramid. It was built in the 1890’s by a railroad company to commemorate the Confederate
victory there in 1862. It is right next to the auto-train tracks. It’s far away from where the National Park Service wants you to look at it, across a ditch and the railroad tracks. It
might be possible to get closer to it, but I have never tried. I think Amtrak has a fence up and the pyramid is either on Amtrak or private land.1
This information was contributed to RoadsideAmerica.com by Willie Zaza in June of 2001. Someone else added this later.
It’s known officially as Meade’s Pyramid. It stands 23 feet tall, is built of granite, and was erected in 1898 by the Confederate Memorial Literary Society, who originally just wanted
a sign. The railroad vetoed that idea, so the Society built a 17-ton pyramid.
What I find interesting is that I learned of this, in less than ten minutes, by way of Jo Fothergill, from her home, in New Zealand.
Who says learning has changed!

27. Total Searches of the
Top Ten Search Engines
2008 -- 80 Billion / Month
2009 --113 Billion / Month
150 Million
Questions an Hour!
Provokes Conversation
foundation
Responsive
Monday, January 10, 2011 27

28. How do you approach an
experience like this?
Provokes Conversation
foundation
Responsive
Monday, January 10, 2011 28
Many of today’s video games come without a users guide. Players learn to play the game by
getting in and pushing and pulling on the hard places so that they can learn the goals, the
rules, and how to work the rules to accomplish the goals.

29. They Ask Questions
‣ What are the goals?
‣ What are the rules?
‣ How do I use the rules to
Provokes Conversation accomplish the goals?
foundation
Responsive
Monday, January 10, 2011 29

30. Make a wanted poster about one of the
Renaissance or Reformation leaders (names
drawn from a hat):
1. Poster MUST be on an 8 1/2 X 11 sheet of paper. (10 points)
OF
2. Mug shot - We need to know what they look like! (10 points)
RO
-P
3. First and Last name of your historical figure. (5 points)
ON
S TI NT
4.Birth Date and Year of Death. (5 points)
UE ME
Q SI GN
5. What country were they born in and where did they do their
work? (10 points)
HE AS
T
6. What are they famous (wanted) for? 5-8 complete sentences, in
your own words, for full credit. (30 points)
7. A fact that you found interesting OR a quote by the person. (10
points)
8.Print out or photocopy of your sources with info highlighted.
(15 points)
9. Your name on the bottom right corner. (5 points)
Monday, January 10, 2011 30
This should not be, in any way, construed as an indictment of rubric-style assessment. However, we should be
cautious, in our use of all forms of assessment, that we do not damage learning for the sake of assessing teaching.

31. Provokes Conversation
foundation
Responsive
Monday, January 10, 2011 31
What kind of barriers
might I plant for my students
to question themselves around?
How am I paying attention
to those questions, at the
same time that I am asking...?

32. So, does
grammar
matter?
Provokes Conversation
foundation
Responsive
Monday, January 10, 2011 32

33. Demands Personal
Investment
Provokes Conversation
foundation
Responsive
Monday, January 10, 2011 33
An important part of our learners outside-the-classroom information experiences is based
on identity. It may be a building of their own identity, experimenting with alternate
identities, or it may be the cultivation of fantasy identities.
Ian Fogarty, a Biology and Physics teacher in New Brunswick, doesn't ask his students to use
their lab manuals. His students write their own. One team wanted their lab manual to be
interactive, so they paid a classmate to program the flash, in return for chocolate milk.

34. Demands Personal
Investment
Provokes Conversation
foundation
Responsive
Monday, January 10, 2011 34
Students post their class notes in the classroom blog each day, collaboratively producing a
study guide for the class. Responsible learning...

35. What is the
purpose of
School? The purpose of school..
..is to not get caught
being wrong!
- High School Student
Safely-Made Mistakes
Demands Personal
Investment
Provokes Conversation
foundation
Responsive
Monday, January 10, 2011 35

36. Are we
becoming
more playful?
http://bit.ly/ffrVSv
Safely-Made Mistakes
Demands Personal
Investment
Provokes Conversation
foundation
foundation
Responsive
Monday, January 10, 2011 36
[twitter]ImprovEverywhere videos can be found here: http://bit.ly/ffrVSv [/twitter]

37. Second largest Web
Site on the Internet
Since Aug 2008, #2
Search Engine
January 2009 15 hrs of video uploaded per minute
March 2010 15 hrs of video uploaded per minute
Oct 2010
500 million pageviews
Safely-Made Mistakes
Demands Personal
Investment
Provokes Conversation
foundation
Responsive
Monday, January 10, 2011 37
[twitter] Top 1000 web sites, monthly report - http://bit.ly/ePvbXL[/twitter]
Of all YouTube Views & out of a 24 hour Day
< 100 : 29.59% 7.1 hrs
100-500 : 23.03% 5.5 hrs
500-1,000 : 9.43% 2.2 hrs
1,000-10,000: 24.81% 5.9 hrs
10,000-100,000 : 2.69% 40 min
100,000-500,000 : 1.73% 5 min
> 1,000,000 : 0.33% 4 min
Karbasfrooshan, Ashkan. “Context is King: How Videos Are Found and Consumed Online.” TechCrunch. 30 Jan 2010. Web. 23 Aug 2010. <http://wp.me/pNaxW-AsV>.

38. Can
learning
be more
Safely-Made Mistakes
playful?
Demands Personal
Investment
Provokes Conversation
foundation
Responsive
Monday, January 10, 2011 38

39. DIY
Safely-Made Mistakes
Demands Personal
Investment
Provokes Conversation
foundation
Responsive
Monday, January 10, 2011 39

40. Tinkering
"The bricoleur resembles the painter
who stands back between brushstrokes,
looks at the canvas, and only after this
contemplation, decides what to do next."
-- Sherry Turkle
Safely-Made Mistakes
Demands Personal
Investment
Provokes Conversation
foundation
Responsive
Monday, January 10, 2011 40

41. How can
I make
the
learning
experience “talk back”
to the learners?
foundation
Responsive
Monday, January 10, 2011 41

42. How might the
learning experience
sidestep critical
information;
requiring learners to
need, search for,
invent, and exchange
knowledge?
Provokes Conversation
foundation
Responsive
Monday, January 10, 2011 42

43. How can the
learning
experience
Demands Personal
inspire value in
Investment
learners’ work?
Provokes Conversation
foundation
Responsive
Monday, January 10, 2011 43

44. How am I
daring my
learners to
Safely-Made Mistakes make “Mistakes” that can
Demands Personal
Investment
feed the learning dialog?
Provokes Conversation
foundation
Responsive
Monday, January 10, 2011 44

45. Our Business?
Making our children future-ready
Being education
today
..is not so much
about what It’s what you
you’ve been can teach
taught! yourself...
Monday, January 10, 2011 45

46. Our Business?
Making our children future-ready
..it’s not what
you can be It’s what you
trained to do! can
resourcefully
accomplish.
Monday, January 10, 2011 46

47. Our Business?
Making our children future-ready
..it’s not just the It’s the team
shoulders you you can move
up the field
can stand on.
with -- to
reach the joy
of something
brand new...
Monday, January 10, 2011 47

48. Our Business?
Making our children future-ready
It’s not a “Race
to the Top!” It is joyfully
masting...
The Future
Monday, January 10, 2011 48

49. Surprise
Me!
..and sometimes
that can be as
simple..
Monday, January 10, 2011 49

50. Thank You!
David Warlick
Handouts:
http://davidwarlick.com/
handouts/
Safely-Made Mistakes
Demands Personal
Investment
Provokes Conversation
foundation
Responsive
Monday, January 10, 2011 50