The document discusses the characteristics of the "Net Generation" or students who have grown up with technology. It notes that these students spend much more time using digital media than reading books or newspapers. They are comfortable with visuals and multi-tasking. The document advocates teaching students 21st century skills like information literacy, problem solving, and lifelong learning to prepare them for a digital world.

1. The Net Generation

2. Key Questions? Who are the Net Generation? What are their characteristics? What is their world? Their tools? How might this affect their approach to learning?

3. Facts for thought! 50% population under 25 About 21 million teens use the Internet and half of them say they go online every day 81% of teens play games online, which is 52% higher than 4 years ago 76% of online teens get news online, 38% higher than 4 years ago 43% have made purchases online, 71% higher than 4 years ago 31% use the web to get health information, 47% higher than 4 yrs ago. 97% of girls 15-17 have used instant messaging

4. Identifying the Net-Gen Technologies Typewriters Telephone Memo’s TV Family Focus Technologies Video Games PC Email CD’s Individualist Technologies Web Cell Phones IM MP3’s Online communities Source: Educating the Net-Gen. Available online http://wwweducause.edu/educatingthenetgen Anything slow Negativity Red tape Hype Laziness Turning 50 Waste Technology Dislikes Public activism Latest technology Parents Freedom Multitasking Work-life balance Responsibility Work ethic Can-do attitude Respect for authority Family Community involvement Likes Hopeful Determined Independent Sceptical Optimistic Workaholic Command and control Self-sacrifice Attributes Millennials Latchkey generation Me generation Greatest generation Description 1982–1991 1965–1982 1946–1964 1900–1946 Birth Dates Net Generation Generation X Baby Boomers Matures

5. Marc Prensky Today’s students represent the first generations to grow up with this new technology. They have spent their entire lives surrounded by and using computers, videogames, digital music players, video cams, cell phones, and all the other toys and tools of the digital age. Today’s average college graduates have spent less than 5,000 hours of their lives reading , but over 10,000 hours playing video games (not to mention 20,000 hours watching TV ). Computer games, email, the Internet, cell phones and instant messaging are integral parts of their lives. http://www.marcprensky.com/

6. Cont.. Our students today are all “native speakers” of the digital language of computers, video games and the Internet. We call them ‘ Digital Natives’. So what does that make the rest of us? Those of us who were not born into the digital world but have, at some later point in our lives, become fascinated by and adopted many or most aspects of the new technology ‘ Digital Immigrants’ .

7. Characteristics of the Net Gen Fast response time Able to respond rapidly and expect responses in return Visual – Spatial Skills Perhaps because of their expertise with games they can integrate the virtual with the physical Inductive discovery Learn better through discovery than been told Ability to read visual images Intuitive visual communicators Attention Deployment Able to shift attention rapidly from one task to another Hypertext Minds Ability to leap around and gather information from multiple sources Source: Educating the Net-Gen. Available online http://wwweducause.edu/educatingthenetgen

8. Examples of their world Age of Empires Trailer

9. 3D Virtual World Every person is a real person in life “ Party system” Trade and sell items Complete quests Level up and become stronger Create clans Ever changing environment

10. What makes games engaging? Motivation Problem Solving Collaboration Feedback Critical Thinking Fun

11. Social Online Environment Blogs - Blogspot Instant messaging – MSN, Yahoo Voice Over IP, Video conferencing Skype Pod casting Wikipedia – Free encyclopaedia that anyone can edit.

12. E – Learning has the power to transform the way we learn. It is about exploiting technologies in everything we do and using ICT effectively across the curriculum to connect schools and communities and to support evidence-based decision making and practices in schools. E – Learning can provide accessible, relevant, and high quality learning opportunities so that every student is better able to achieve their full potential. Enabling the 21 st Century Learner http://www.minedu.govt.nz e- Learning Strategy for schools 2006 - 2010

13. Approaches to Teaching The students coming into our classrooms today are different. It’s about giving them the skills and tools to work and live in the 21 st century. Memorizing information is not the most important thing in today's world. Information is readily available and can be copied! We need to teach them how to find, make sense of, and use relevant information for specific purposes. We need to teach them to become “Life Long Learners”.

14. Information Literacy Information Literacy is the ability to find and use information with critical discrimination in order to build knowledge. Gwen Gawith Info Lit Head

15. What about digital literacy? At present we measure literacy based on how well people use material printed in English. Recent publications, looking at technological impacts on education, suggest that there are important forms of communicative literacies that go beyond text and print. Many students are entering their school or college with multiple literacies that go beyond text, and this trend will strengthen over the coming years. Educators will need to acknowledge and recognise these new literacies, and build upon and extend them. Jedd Bartlett – Core ED

16. 21 st Century literacy 21st century literacy is the set of abilities and skills where aural, visual and digital literacy overlap. These include the ability to understand the power of images and sounds, to recognize and use that power, to manipulate and transform digital media, to distribute them extensively, and to easily adapt them to new forms. (New Media Consortium 2005)

18. “ The great thing about this (Trade Me) story is that young people can innovate … what I think is that as New Zealanders we have to be careful to nurture that curiosity and not frustrate it by sticking them in classrooms, putting walls around them and making them all think the same. That’s probably one of the biggest handicaps we have got.” Gareth Morgan, father of Sam ($700 million) Morgan, founder of Trade Me The NZ Herald March 6th

19. Where to next Students should spend a predominant amount of their time making themselves experts in areas of knowledge and experience that are especially interesting to them, and then sharing their gained knowledge and experience with other students. So, we go from a curriculum model that looks like a hall way that students move down, being saturated by a set of knowledge and disciplines, with little integration of subject areas to a curriculum model that that looks more like a sphere with the student in the middle. … The “box” of the classroom will not contain or meet the needs of the new global culture that the Net has spawned Jedd Bartlett – Core ED

20. Solution Inquiry is the stance or disposition that is required when humans gather together to create new knowledge and develop deep understanding. We define inquiry as a systematic investigation or study into a worthy question, issue, problem or idea. Inquiry Learning, it’s not easy!