Learners 2.0 (Pt. 1)

I remember learning about the motivational set in my first year in the College of Education.  This seemed like a great idea, and it is something that should still be employed; however, upon further reflection, there is something wrong with this element of a well-crafted lesson plan: it happens at the beginning of a lesson or unit.  What about the rest of the time?  Are we to assume that this five minute activity is to engage the learner for the next month?  We need to engage students throughout the unit, lesson, and year.

As noted by Dr. Rodgers et al, the 21st Century learner has many educational traits that older educators may not be familiar or comfortable with.  Today's learners are digitally literate, mobile, always on, experiential and social.  Other traits of the 21st Century Learner include:

• hypertext minds
• crave interactivity
• read visual images easily
• have strong visual-spatial skills
• prefer inquiry/ discovery
• enjoy finding and making new connections
• look for faster response times and feedback- "Ring a bell and I'll salivate, how'd you like that?" (thank you Barenaked Ladies for giving props to Ivan Pavlov and making Classical Conditioning fun again)
• Unfortunately, this response time might also be leading to shorter attention spans, but we'll move on...

OK, given that we all have short attention spans now, a short video by M. Wesch should explain the changes in the way we find, store, create, critique, and share information.

As I always have my students ask, "So what?" 

Well, consider this:

• the future of our students is full of unknowns
• it is likely that many of our students will work in jobs not yet invented
• what do our students need to learn and do in order to prepare for their future?

Hmmm... driving you to think?

At this point, you might also be asking: "What does this have to do with gifted education?" Good question.  Check out Learners 2.0 (Pt. 2) for more.


Rodgers, Dr. Michael. (2006). The 21st Century Learner. Retrieved from http://depd.wisc.edu/series/06_4168.pdf