Vol 10, Issue 2 - American International School - Riyadh

The 21st Century Learner
and Technology
in my car. It was a miracle of science! There
were no iPods; there were no flash drives;
there were only CD’s. Fast forward twelve
years, and CD’s are virtually extinct. What
does this mean when today’s graduates turn
thirty Technology changes rapidly, and
young people respond to this change as
users of technology. So much changes so
quickly. It is a challenge to keep up with the
21st century learner:
by : Jason Inghram
MS Technology
The students have the world at their
fingertips. There is almost no question that
cannot be answered or found online, and
you can be online almost anywhere in the
world. Students are thinking, “Why do I
have to remember when this battle was
fought I can just Google it. Why do I have
to learn how to spell this word I can just
spell-check it.” Instead of asking kids to
memorize incongruent facts, teachers are
The word “century” stands for 100 years.
To use that word in conjunction with
technology seems inaccurate considering
that a century ago, people were raving over
the electric washing machine. I cannot even
begin to write about education in the 21st
century, but I can guess fairly accurately
about technology that might appear in the
classroom for 2010. I can also guess that in
the next few seconds a new technology, web
page, or classroom model will come out and
demolish everything that I am about to say
in this article.
To understand how technology is affecting
the classroom, we need to understand
today’s learners. They are a lot different
from when I went to school. I graduated
from high school twelve years ago. Yes,
twelve long years. The coolest technology
that the school received in our “technology
class,” which basically consisted of my
teacher telling us what page number or
activity in our Microsoft Excel workbook
we would be doing that day, was a CD
writer. I could burn CD’s and listen to them
16
‣Sleeps 7 hours a day
‣Has class for 5 hours a day
‣Games 3 ½ hours a day
‣Spends 3 ½ hours online
‣Spends 3 hours studying
‣Listens to music 2 ½ hours a day
‣Reads 2 hours a day
‣Eats 2 hours a day
‣Watches 1 ½ hours of T.V. a day
‣Reads 8 books a year
‣Reads 2,300 web pages a year
‣Reads 1,200 Facebook profiles a year
‣Writes 500 pages of email a year
(Michael Wesch, Kansas State University,
2007)
All of the mathematicians out there might
find that the total time-spent for these
students reaches 30 hours a day. Today’s
learner is a multi-tasker: they Facebook;
they text; they Tweet; they YouTube;
they download whatever they want; they
upload whatever they want; they play video
games against kids across the world; they
create media; they manipulate media; they
comment on media. If they cannot find a
song for their YouTube video they make
one. They are reading Yahoo’s top stories
while downloading and listening to today’s
top hits. They are downloading movies,
finishing their homework for history class
and submitting it online, checking their
email and updating their Facebook profile
all at the same time (Whew!) How can an
educator keep up
Today’s educator is no longer a figure that
stands in front of a room and disseminates
information. An effective, modern educator
must morph their role into that of a guide.
helping to build skills and understandings
that will guide students to make educated
decisions about problems that they will face
(or at least problems we think that they might
face). According to former Secretary of
Education Richard Riley, “The top ten jobs
in 2010 didn’t exist six years ago.” If that
trend stays true, then AIS-R’s sophomores
are now preparing for jobs that do not
yet exist. It is the job of today’s educator
to guide these kids through that dense
highway of information. We give them the
foundation to build a new highway. We are
their Garmin. Tell us your destination and
we will help you arrive safely (New maps
might have to be downloaded).
Sources:
Jones, Robert. The Jobs Revolution:
Changing How America Works. Austin,
TX: Copywriters, 2004. Print.
Wesch, Michael. “ A Vision of Students
Today.” Kansas State University.
Manhattan, Kansas. 12 Oct.
2007. youtube.com. Web 9 Feb.
2010. http://www.youtube.com/
watchv=dGCJ46vyR9o.>