A Learning Theory for the Net Generation

1. Can you guess what this puzzle says? Go to this URL to put the puzzle together: http://tinyurl.com/6r29n4 A Learning Theory for the Net Generation Marie Sontag, PhDCLMS Monterey, CA Dec. 2008

2. What do you think this means?

3. Educational (Instructional) Technology Magnifies and Mirrors Pedagogy Instructional technology can only mirror (reflect) and/or magnify our pedagogy. If our pedagogy is good, then instructional technology will make it even better. If our pedagogy is poor, then our ed tech will only make it worse. Sound pedagogy must come first!

4. Sound pedagogy must come first!

5. What is Pedagogy? What is the best pedagogy for the Net Generation? • The method and practice of teaching • The art or science of being a teacher • The correct use of teaching strategies for a given group of students • Do you have a favorite? • i.e. - Tell/Show/Try/Do - Activate/Acquire/Apply - Hook/Book/Look/Took • http://www.jigzone.com/puzzles/6013C7E5CC1?z=10&m=DF2509AC180C The key is to find - - - What is the best strategy for your group of students?

6. Paradigm Shifts in Culture and Pedagogy • A paradigm is a pattern or typical example. We have experienced at least three major paradigm shifts in culture and education. 1. Agrarian Age Industrial Age - 1820

7. 1st Paradigm Shift in Culture and Pedagogy The first paradigm shift, from the agrarian age to the industrial age, placed a greater emphasis on standardization, centralized control, autocratic decision-making, and conformity (Reigeluth 1999). Education followed suit with an emphasis on rote memory, direct instruction, and behaviorist learning strategies that emphasized repetition and reinforcement as the learner responded to specific stimuli. Industrial Age - 1820-1950’s Agrarian Age

8. Information Age Educational Needs: Instead of: Workers need these skills: - Standardization - Find creative solutions - Compliance - Autonomy with accountability - Centralization - Shared decision-making - Sage on the Stage - Networking, team-based organizations 2nd Paradigm Shift in Culture and Pedagogy In the 1950’s, when the number of white collar workers in the US began to exceed blue collar workers, we moved into the Information Age. 2. Industrial Age - 1820 to late 1950’s Information Age – 1950’s to 1990’s

9. 2nd Paradigm Shift in Culture and Pedagogy Education in the Industrial Age - standardization- conformity- centralized control- repetition and reinforcement Education in the Information Age - standardization- repetition and reinforcement - behavioral objectives- systems approach to instruction 2. Industrial Age - 1820 to late 1950’s Information Age – 1950’s to 1990’s

10. Connected Age Educational Needs: • In addition to: Workers also need these skills: • - Find creative solutions - Relational skills • Autonomy with accountability - Networking skills • Shared decision-making - Presentation skills (publishing) • Team-building skills 3rd Paradigm Shift in Culture and Pedagogy Education in the Information Age - standardization - repetition and reinforcement- 1970’s, cognitivism (psychology of 1950’s)- internal mental representations(Gagne, Bruner, Piaget - cognitivim) • Education in the Connected (Digital) Age - standardization- repetition and reinforcement • cognitivism- 1990’s, constructivism & situativity 3. Information Age – 1950’s-1990’s Connected* (Digital) Age – 1990’s-present *Zelenka, 2007

11. Paradigm Shifts – Education Always a Step Behind We continued to use Industrial Age instructional strategies in the Information Age… (behaviorism) and continue to use Information Age strategies in the Connected Age (behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism, often in isolation)

12. "It's a snake." "It's a wall." "It's a spear." Schaller and Allison-Bunnel: We are in a “pre-paradigmatic phase of learning style research. The blind researchers have each described a different part of the elephant, but have not yet synthesized their findings into a picture of the whole beast”. 2 The Blind Men and the Elephantby John Godfrey Saxe constructivism behaviorism cognitivism situativity

13. A Learning Theory for the Net Generation – SCCS Social and Cognitive-Connectedness Schemata Premise 1: Today’s students have a new: 1. Social-connectedness schema 2. Cognitive-connectedness schema

14. A Learning Theory for the Net Generation – SCCS Social and Cognitive-Connectedness Schemata Premise 2: Students’ immersion in the digital (connected) age has contributed to changes in their social and cognitive-connectedness schemata. Daniel Pink (2005) calls it the “Revenge of the Right Brain”. Connected Age Information Age Today’s students “do not just think about different things, they actually think differently” (Prensky 2001, 42).

15. SCCS: Students’ New Social-Connectedness Schema 1. Link 2. Lurk 3. Lunge

16. SCCS: Students’ New Social-Connectedness Schema 1. Link – Students link up with others who have the digitalknowledge they wouldlike to obtain.

17. SCCS: Students’ New Social-Connectedness Schema 2. Lurk – Students “lurk” or observe the digitalexpertise of others. Notice the circled teen’s face in this picture.What doyou thinkhe’s lookingat?

18. SCCS: Students’ New Social-Connectedness Schema 3. Lunge – Students lunge at new technology. They eagerly jump in to try new things, usually without reading a manual.

19. SCCS: Students’ New Cognitive-Connectedness Schema 1. Digital navigation literacy 2. Preference for interactive, discovery-based learning 3. A desire to make reasoned judgments based on their exploration of digital resources

20. SCCS: Students’ New Cognitive-Connectedness Schema 1. Digital navigation literacy: includes a variety of technical, cognitive, social and emotional skills, as well as the ability to think visually, and develop a sense of how to navigate the hypertext environment of the Internet” (Berger 2007, ¶1, 3). Due to the nature of the Internet, Millennials have learned to "search for, rather than simply look at, information" (Tapscott 1998, 26).

21. SCCS: Students’ New Cognitive-Connectedness Schema 2. A preference for interactive, discovery-based learning: Technology tools such as interactive white boards appeal to students’ new cognitive-connectedness schema. Creating “communities of practice” (Wenger, McDermott and Snyder 2002, 4), and implementing situativist (Barab and Duffy 2000) instructional strategies can also meet the needs of students’ new cognitive-connectedness schema.

22. SCCS: Students’ New Cognitive-Connectedness Schema 3. A desire to make reasoned judgments based on their exploration of digital resources Final assessment projects that allow students to demonstrate what they have learned by creating a technology project will tap into students’ new cognitive-connectedness schema.

23. 1. Wiggins & McTighe 2. Mayer’s SOI 3. 4C/ID Model SCCS Instructional Design Model 4. Elements of Game Design www.timetrek.org/index2.htm

24. 2. Mayer’s SOI 3. 4C/ID Model 4. Elements of Game Design www.timetrek.org/index2.htm www.timetrek.org/index2.htm

25. http://timetrek-sontag.blogspot.com/

26. References Barab, S., and T. Duffy. 2000. From practice fields to communities of practice. In Theoretical foundations of learning environments, ed. D. Jonassen and S. Land, 25-55. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Berger, P. 2007. Learning in the Web 2.0 world. [Weblog entry, April 2007.] Infosearcher. http://infosearcher.typepad.com/infosearcher/2007/04/learning_in_the.html (accessed October 31, 2008). Archived at http://www.webcitation.org/5c47GndYr. Pink, D. 2005. Revenge of the Right Brain. Wired Magazine. 13 (2). http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.02/brain.html(accessed December 3, 2008 ). Prensky, M. 2001. Digital game-based learning. NY: McGraw-Hill. Reigeluth, C. 1999. What is instructional-design theory and how is it changing? In Instructional design theories and models, vol. 2, ed. C. Reigeluth, 5-29. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Schaller, D., and S. Allison-Bunnell. 2003. Practicing what we teach: How learning theory can guide development of online educational activities. Paper presented at Museums and the Web 2003, Charlotte, NC, March. http://www.archimuse.com/mw2003/papers/schaller/schaller.html (accessed March 31, 2008). Archived at http://www.webcitation.org/5WkUc0MF3. Tapscott, D. 1998. Growing up digital: The rise of the net generation. New York: McGraw-Hill. Wenger, E., R. McDermott, and W. Snyder. 2002. Cultivating communities of practice: A guide to managing knowledge. Boston: Harvard Business Press. http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&id=m1xZuNq9RygC&dq=communities+of+practice&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=ZS3aeLdbeZ&sig=p6W2-FexFmrHxMbM-mCkbPFPszw&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=9&ct=result - PPA4,M1 (accessed November 9, 2008. Zelenka, A. 2007. From the information age to the connected age. [Weblog entry, October 6.] GigaOM, Giga Omni Media. http://gigaom.com/2007/10/06/from-the-information-age-to-the-connected-age/ (accessed November 1, 2008).