Understanding the Digital Generation: Teaching and Learning in the New Digital Landscape

by Ian Jukes, Ted McCain, Lee Watanabe-Crockett

Overview

An innovative look at reshaping the educational experiences of 21st-century learners!

Inspiring thoughtful discussion that leads to change, this provocative resource for teachers and administrators examines how the new digital landscape is transforming learners and learning. It makes the case for rethinking teaching processes in the face of these emerging developments within an environment of standards, accountability, and high stakes testing, and for providing informed leadership that supports 21^st-century learning.

The book provides strategies, ideas, and compelling viewpoints to help leaders deepen their understanding of how educational thinking and instructional approaches must translate into relevant classroom experiences for today′s learners. Understanding the Digital Generation describes implementing educational approaches that build critical thinking skills, and discusses the role of digital media and technology used by students and how that fosters the crucial development of new 21^st-century fluency skills. In reader-friendly terms, the authors provide:

• A comprehensive profile of digital learners′ attributes
• An exploration of the concepts of "neuroplasticity" and the "hyperlinked mind"
• An approach to educational models that support traditional literacy skills alongside essential 21^st-century fluencies
• An examination of appropriate methods of evaluation that encompass how digital generation students process new information

For staff developers leading study groups, this text provides powerful chapter-opening quotes, built-in questions, and additional tools to generate reflective dialogue and an open exchange of ideas.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781452239446
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
Publication date:	02/11/2010
Series:	The 21st Century Fluency Series
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	176
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Ian Jukes has been a teacher, an administrator, writer, consultant, university instructor, and keynote speaker. He is the director of the InfoSavvy Group, an international consulting group that provides leadership and program development in the areas of assessment and evaluation, strategic alignment, curriculum design and publication, professional development, planning, change management, hardware and software acquisition, information services, customized research, media services, and online training as well as conference keynotes and workshop presentations. Over the past 10 years, Jukes has worked with clients in more than 40 countries and made more than 7,000 presentations, typically speaking to between 300,000 and 350,000 people a year. His Committed Sardine Blog is read by more than 78,000 people in 75 countries.
Ted McCain is coordinator of instructional technology for Maple Ridge Secondary School in Vancouver, BC. He also has taught computer networking, graphic design, and desktop publishing for Okanagan College, Kelowna, BC. He is the author of six books on the future, effective teaching, educational technology, and graphic design. In 1997, McCain received the Prime Minister’s Award for Teaching Excellence for his work in developing a real-world technology curriculum that prepares students for employment in technology directly out of high school. For the past twenty years, McCain has done consulting work for businesses and school districts on effective teaching for the digital generation and the implementation of instructional technology. His clients have included Apple Computer, Microsoft, Aldus, and Toyota, as well as many school districts and educational associations in both the United States and Canada. He is passionate in his belief that schools must change so that they can effectively prepare students for the rest of their lives.
Lee Crockett is a national award-winning designer, marketing consultant, entrepreneur, artist, author, and international keynote speaker. He is the director of media for the InfoSavvy Group and the managing partner of the 21st Century Fluency Project. Lee is a "just in time learner" who is constantly adapting to the new programs, languages, and technologies associated with today’s communications and marketing media. Understanding the need for balance in our increasingly digital lives, Lee has lived in Kyoto, Japan, where he studied Aikido and the tea ceremony, as well as Florence, Italy, where he studied painting at the Accademia D′Arte.

Table of Contents

The 21st Century Fluency Project
Foreword
Introduction
Part I. Understanding the Digital Generation
1. The Need for Balance
2. The Problem of the Gap
3. What We Know About the Digital Generation
4. Learning Preferences of the Digital Generation
Part II. How Should Education Respond?
5. An Impending Tragedy
6. It’s Time to Catch Up
7. A Shift to Whole-Mind Instruction
8. Teachers Must Move Off the Stage
9. Teachers Must Let Students Access Information Natively
10. Teachers Must Let Students Collaborate
11. Teachers Must Teach Students Visually
12. Teachers Must Re-evaluate Evaluation
13. A Need for Balance and Leadership

Editorial Reviews

This book explores critical questions that intrigue today’s educational leaders: How do I balance the best of the past with the opportunities and realities of the present? How do I balance all that I know with all that we are becoming? And how does all this create the best possible learning environment for our students? A great guide to the future!

Nikos Theodosakis

"While many assume that 21st-century education merely demands access to hardware and the Internet, our greatest limit is one of pedagogical vision. Jukes, Mc Cain, and Crockett consistently push us to re-imagine the entire premise of learning and collaboration in the future. Best of all, they know how to guide us through a strategic process that ensures our students will remain intellectually agile in a future that extends far beyond the traditional schoolhouse. "

Christian Long

"Understanding the Digital Generation is grounded in the recognition that today's students are very different from those in the past, and it outlines new approaches to schooling with technology that should be heard and acted upon now. "

Frank Kelly

"The authors make a compelling case for the need to transform 20th-century classrooms into 21st-century learning environments to engage digital learners and prepare them to successfully collaborate, create, and compete in the mulitnational workplaces and communities of the new knowledge economy. "

Janis Jensen

In their new book, Jukes, Mc Cain, and Crockett have broken new ground. While focusing on 21st-century skills, this group of authors has laid important groundwork for lifting our thinking into the 21st century. As they so aptly point out, we cannot correctly identify the skills for the 21st century with thinking still grounded in the 20th century. Jukes, Mc Cain, and Crockett challenge our thinking first and then lead us to what is important for our students to be able to do in this new century. They are right on target for truly understanding the future of educating children.

Donna Walker Tileston

The students populating today’s schools are fundamentally different from those of previous generations. If we are serious about educating them for life in the 21st century, we must acknowledge this difference and rebalance our approach. In Understanding the Digital Generation, Jukes, Mc Cain, and Crockett fully deliver on their goal of providing a greater understanding of the digital generation and sparking ‘...deep thinking about how instruction should change to teach them effectively.’

Brian Celli

Jukes, Mc Cain, and Crockett offer up a highly readable, terribly important summary of the attributes of today's technologically enhanced children and explore the urgent implications for today’s schools. Get this book and read it. And then pass it along to your administrators!

Doug Johnson

This book dramatically documents the need for educators to recognize that 21st-century learners do not learn like their predecessors. The included research and suggested strategies for change provide hope for the future. As a former Ohio school superintendent and staff development director, I believe this is a must-read for those truly interested in educational reform.

Steve Franko

"For academic advisors this book is a good resource to provide an understanding and appreciation for the digital generation of students. I recommend this book for academic advisors seeking to better improve their understanding and interactions with students of the digital generation. "

NACADA Journal - Douglas A. Smith

A book that captures what real learning is all about. Thank you Ian, Ted, and Lee for sharing your knowledge and casting new insight on digital kids. A must-read for every teacher, teaching in this modern, high-tech, digital online world. This book equips teachers to meet these challenges and is the first of its kind to make a significant shift in focus from how teachers teach to how students learn.

Nicky Mohan

Jukes, Mc Cain, and Crockett have laid out an excellent road map for learning in the 21st century. Readers will have clearer understanding of this digital generation and why our classrooms continue to teach analog students in a digital world.

James Cisek

"A highly relevant book that gives specific reasons for educators to shift to meet the needs of digital natives. This book is loaded with vignettes and cases to demonstrate how the kids of today think and learn, with strategies to help educators engage today’s tech-savvy students. "

Beth Madison

Jukes, Mc Cain, and Crockett provide an excellent argument of why schools are not effectively preparing our students for the 21st-century global workforce. This shift of the paradigm where students move from consumers of knowledge to creators of their knowledge is paramount to students’ future successes.

Matt Mc Clure

“Jukes, McCain, and Crockett provide an excellent argument of why schools are not effectively preparing our students for the 21st-century global workforce. This shift of the paradigm where students move from consumers of knowledge to creators of their knowledge is paramount to students’ future successes.”

Matt McClure

"For academic advisors this book is a good resource to provide an understanding and appreciation for the digital generation of students. I recommend this book for academic advisors seeking to better improve their understanding and interactions with students of the digital generation. "— Douglas A. Smith, Academic Advisor, College of Education

NACADA Journal