The Challenges of Educating Digital Natives!

Ian Jukes is a dynamic, passionate, thought provoking and convincing speaker. Ian spoke to us about some incredible new brain research regarding the emergence of a digital culture. This research supports that chronic bombardment of digital experiences changes the way kids receive, process, interpret and learn new information. This has amazing implications for the way we design and implement instruction. His message was clear. The children in our classrooms are more prepared with 21st century skills than the teachers who are responsible for educating them.

Brain research is not new to our field. For many years we have been trying to understand the implications of this research in terms of differentiated instruction and multiple intelligences. In our district we are finally beginning to see the results of this research and the impact it has on instructional practices and student learning. But Ian is right. This new brain research implies that the brain is highly adaptable and the intensity and duration of experiences can change students’ neuro-procesing powers enhancing visual memory and visual processing. Our students think graphically. They are not auditory or text based learners. They are visual or visual kinesthetic learners.

This raises so many questions for us as we move forward. We have asked ourselves, how do we provide our students with the skills they need to be successful in the 21st century? According to Ian, they already have these skills. So the real question is, how do we prepare our teachers to understand the needs of the 21st century learner and adjust their instructional practices so that students can capitalize on the skills that they already possess? How are our universities preparing new teachers to address this new generation of “digital first language learners”? How do we help our seasoned teachers to understand that students think and process information differently and their instructional practices must respond to the needs of this new generation of learners?

I found this session very enlightening and validating but left with more questions than answers. Ian challenged my thinking and will change the conversations I will have in my district. The implications of this new research impacts curriculum, instruction and assessment practices and cannot be ignored.