They’re Wired, Not Weird

1. They’re Wired, Not Weird Who they are, how they learn, and what we should be doing about it.

2. Imagine a child you know. What kind of school experience would you want them to have?

3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0E0E55ts-A http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkX8J-FKndE

5. The Trick Is Not To Forget Too Much • What was being a teenager like for you? • Timeless elements • Unique traits and experiences • How do you “stay connected”?

6. “extended adolescence” (ages 8-18); How you spend your time at this stage of your life determines how your brain is wired, and what the pattern for the remainder of your life will be. (Tapscott) • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ne7BLwrFS2I

7. “Wired” • Connected via the web; socially, academically • When I “Googled” “Wired, Not Weird”…

8. www.weirdandwired.net

11. What do you think you know? • Café session #1 • K-W-L • Who are these people? What are they like? • Why do we need to respond to them in a unique way? • How should I respond? What do I need to learn in order to be as effective as possible?

12. Who are these people? • Some things never change: • classic teenage qualities • parents are the same no matter time or place; classic reaction on the part of adults You know parents are the sameNo matter time nor placeThey don't understand that us kidsAre going to make some mistakesSo to you other kids all across the landThere's no need to argueParents just don't understand

13. Recognized as a distinct period in nearly all world cultures – modern or tribal • Novelty • Excitement • Peers • Not an exclusively American trait

14. Parents often phrase this question more colorfully. Scientists put it more coolly. They ask, What can explain this behavior? But even that is just another way of wondering, What is wrong with these kids? Why do they act this way? The question passes judgment even as it inquires. National Geographic, Teenage Brains, Dobbs, October 2011

15. “They lose their brains. Slowly they begin to come back near the end of freshman year.” -my mom

16. Our brains, it turned out, take much longer to develop than we had thought. This revelation suggested both a simplistic, unflattering explanation for teens' maddening behavior—and a more complex, affirmative explanation as well. • The first full series of scans of the developing adolescent brain—a National Institutes of Health (NIH) project that studied over a hundred young people as they grew up during the 1990s—showed that our brains undergo a massive reorganization between our 12th and 25th years. The brain doesn't actually grow very much during this period. It has already reached 90 percent of its full size by the time a person is six, and a thickening skull accounts for most head growth afterward. But as we move through adolescence, the brain undergoes extensive remodeling, resembling a network and wiring upgrade. • Speed, strength, sophistication & efficiency; basic function near the stem to complex thinking up front; integrating memory and experience to decision process • Clumsy at first • Dobbs

17. Can function as well as adults if motivated; don’t use brain regions that monitor performance, spot errors, plan, stay focused = more likely to be distracted • Richer networks and faster connections make this easier. (we’re no better – we’re just older) • Genetic findings: adaptive-adolescent = less rough-draft and more exquisitely sensitive, highly adaptable creature wired almost perfectly for moving from the safety of home into the complicated world • These traits don’t characterize adolescence; it’s just what we notice most because it’s “outlier” at best, annoying, and sometimes dangerous

18. Seeking sensation • Love of novelty • Thrill = high; they weigh the reward differently • Accidents • But- they reason as well as adults • They do know that they are mortal • Often overestimate risk

19. over the course of human evolution, the willingness to take risks during this period of life has granted an adaptive edge. Succeeding often requires moving out of the home and into less secure situations. "The more you seek novelty and take risks," says Baird, "the better you do." This responsiveness to reward thus works like the desire for new sensation: It gets you out of the house and into new turf.

20. Social connection/reward; oxytocin • The neural networks and dynamics associated with general reward and social interactions overlap heavily. Engage one, and you often engage the other. Engage them during adolescence, and you light a fire.

21. Gravitate toward peers: • Novelty • Closer to the future • Social creatures: survival, inclusion (shame is the fear of exclusion)

22. Dr. Medina

23. Research: What are they like? What do we do with them?(Tapscott) • Extended adolescence • They are not passive recipients - they are participants • They don’t conceptualize privacy as they perhaps should • Switching mechanisms + better “working memory” (not multi-tasking) • Not a big distinction between work and non-work; work should be fun; learn through collaboration

24. The first generation to come of age in the digital era… • 2010 ages 13-33 • Flooding the workplace, marketplace • Demographic muscle, media smarts, purchasing power, new models of collaborating and parenting, entrepreneurship, and political power

25. Feeling-driven, pluralistic, spontaneous • Up to 1/3 are growing up with single parents • Interested in spiritual things • In their lifetime: Flocabulary (4 min) http://www.getschooled.com/rap-homage-to-the-class-of-2010

26. AKA (also known as): • “remote control kids” – unprecedented and constant change • “salad bowl generation” – diversity • “14th generation” – 14th generation born after the American Revolution • “Bridgers” – bridging the millenia • “Millenials” • “The Net Generation” • “library immigrants”

27. Special • Sheltered • Confident • Team oriented • Achieving • Pressured • Conventional

28. Empowered • “Children will learn how to do the things they want to do” – Sugata Mitra

31. Politically Active

32. Drug use Binge drinking Teen pregnancy Adolescent crime Corporate loyalty; relationship with supervisor Hanging out Standing out Spam Cheating Parental pressure ADD Fitting in Structured play Obesity Asthma Homework time What’s Up? What’s Down?

33. What else is up? • Diversity • Environmentalism • Volunteerism • Reforms • Multi-tasking • SAT; scores and participation • Their parents’ music • Parents’ values

34. http://youtu.be/g30omUwhHTs

35. Digital Literacy – access the tools, select the tools • Media literacy – develop critical and creative capabilities to receive, assess, and develop information and media • Global literacy – use tools to access the world and develop a sense of place and people; curriculum should provide context and background to further these understandings Heidi Hayes Jacobs; The Three Key Literacies; THEjournal, Demski, January 2012

36. What more do you want to learn? • Café session #2 • K-W-L • Who are these people? What are they like? • Why do we need to respond to them in a unique way? • How should I respond? What do I need to learn in order to be as effective as possible?

37. Why do we need to respond? • Disruptive technologies; these will not work with the traditional management of a classroom • Students need to learn social responsibility of using powerful tools • 50% are happiest online • 75% say they “could not live without the internet” • they live “hybrid lives” communicating and networking in more advanced ways • have “highly developed visual-spacial skills” • THEY ARE BORED

38. We can’t keep doing things the way we’ve always done them • We’re leaving so many behind: boys, socio-economic groups, ethnic groups

39. Integrate, integrate, integrate • PBL • Constructivism • Technology • Edutopia • Catalina Foothills School District

40. Lean into the discomfort of the work • Support the uncomfortable social construct: bullies, love, sense of self, worthiness • Be vulnerable; let them teach you, show them you don’t know everything and you shouldn’t • Adults “numb” when what we should really be doing is reconnecting (make certain, perfect • Brene Brown, TEDtalks

41. “Online Student Experience”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWPI35WGsTc

42. Dr John Medina; “Brain Rules – 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home and School” *Rule #1 – Exercise boosts brain power. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ck-tQt0S0Os www.brainrules.net

43. Marc Prensky - Edutopia • What experiences in school really engaged you? • How do you use technology in school as opposed to outside of school? • What are your pet peeves? Listen to them….

44. “There is so much difference between how students think and how teachers think. You think of technology as a tool. We think of it as a foundation –it’s at the basis of everything we do.” “A lot of teachers make a PowerPoint and think they are so awesome. But it’s just like writing on the blackboard.” “If it’s the way we want to learn, and the way we can learn, you should let us do it.” Teacher, “Do computers cut you off from the world?” Student, “Not at all. We share with others and get help. Technology helps – it strengthens interactions so we can always sty in touch and play with other people. I’ve never gone a day without talking to my friends online.” The difference between what students want and what they’re receiving is significant. Student frustration is rising.” -Julie Evans, CEO of Project Tomorrow (tracks youth culture) www.tomorrow.org Kids hate being talked at. They hate when teaching is simply telling. They hate lectures and tune them out. Prefer dealing with questions than with answers, sharing their opinions, participating in group projects, working with real-world issues and people, and having teachers who talk to them as equals rather than as inferiors.

45. Online gaming site Roiworld surveyed 600 teens ages 13 to 17 in late April and found that teens spend at least two hours per day online on average, 80% of which is spent using a social network.  Mashable http://mashable.com/

46. How should we respond? andWhat do we need to learn?The real problem is not adding technology to the current organization of the classroom, but changing the culture of teaching and learning • Engage them • Employ children in meaningful work; they can and should make contributions to the learning community • Provide rigorous and motivating learning opportunities to prepare them to be productive in our global economy (November) • New roles in which students make contributions to their learning communities (screencasting, podcasting)

47. Role model • Continue to learn and integrate • Demonstrate how to harness the power of information and global communication. • Tap our students’ interest in digital tools to design more rigorous and motivating assignments. • Rigorous and more motivating assignments that better prepare students for the new global economy • Take down our “generational firewall”

48. Alan NovemberCurriculum21 chapter 11 “Power Down or Power Up?” • “Student as Contributor: The Digital Farm” • Tutorial Designers www.mathtrain.tv • Document learning and problem-solving processes • Camtasia (www.techsmith.com) • Jing (www.jingproject.com) • Official Scribes • Use online collaboration tools to create one set of perfect notes instead of everyone taking their own • Shared blog, wiki, google docs • Researchers • Use the one computer that is always in the room as a research station; one student finds all of the answers to the questions that come up in class. This can be an opportunity to learn more about accurate information, too.

49. Collaboration Coordinators • Connect with other classes and subject experts around the world; a team can establish and maintain these relationships. • Skype (www.skype.com) • Get different perspectives on an issue, write and ask questions of an expert (globalization, American Revolution) • Contributors to Society • Use issues as a platform to teach social justice and empathy • www.kiva.org; micro loans to entreprenuers in developing countries; build understanding while raising funds • Curriculum Reviewers http://www.bobsprankle.com/blog/C1697218367/index.html • Create materials for continuous review as resources come together through other efforts http://www.bobsprankle.com/bobsprankle/index.html

50. So – What do you know now? What more would you like to know? • Café session #2 • K-W-L • Who are these people? What are they like? • Why do we need to respond to them in a unique way? • How should I respond? What do I need to learn in order to be as effective as possible?