Reaching net-generation learners

with social technologies

Maarten Cannaerts – DE NAYER

“I find it very difficult to concentrate myself on boring courses.”

I'm sorry that I am apparently an inconvenience to your precious time, but you are my advisor and I'm pretty sure it is your job to clarify any misunderstandings that I might have….. maybe you should reconsider your role as an advisor….I thought communicating with an actual person might be more helpful than trying to search for one particular answer in twenty pages of information.

i dont mean too bother u but": Student Email and a Call for NetiquetteBY DENISE D. KNIGHT AND NORALYN MASSELINK

Maarten Cannaerts and Greet LangieW&K – campus DE NAYERDepartment of Industrial Sciences

Walter LauriksK.U.LeuvenDepartment of Physics and Astronomy

www.linkedin.com/in/maartencannaertswww.slideshare.net/maartencannaertsmaarten.cannaerts@denayer.wenk.be

www.slideshare.net/maartencannaerts

Uses E-mailUses InternetKnows WikipediaUses WikipediaKnows blogsReads blog(s)Writes blog(s)Knows social bookmarking (del.icio.us)

Knows collaborative filteringKnows social networking (facebook)

Uses social networking

Reaching net-generation learners

with social technologies

Maarten Cannaerts – DE NAYER

“Net generation” learners

1. Who are they?

2. Are they really different?

3. What can we do?

Who uses mail daily?

“E-mail is for old people.”

FRAND, “The information age mindset” (2000)

A quiz with 7 questions…

(disclaimer: sorry, no prize for the winner)

................................................... are not technologyComputers

................................................... replaces television

Internet

................................................... is better than writingTyping

................................................... is a way of lifeMultitasking

.............................. is more important than knowingDoing

..................

..................

..................

..................

.................

is essential, everywhere and alwaysConnectivity and communication

.............................. is preferred to conventional logic

Nintendo

Trial and error

TIRO –> teens and ICT,risks and opportunities

…9 out of 10 does instant messaging; 18,2% has an own website, 40,7% a blog. About 50% claims to have an online profile page…

(TIRO)

“Infomania worse than marijuana”

http://www.collisiondetection.net/mt/archives/2007/10/quick_can_you_d.html

Less than 40% of

the -30 year olds knows his/her own phone

number

Urban dictionary (word of the day)

Attention spam:A condition resulting in a failure to process basic facts, due

largely to having a mind full of useless information.

Today’s students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach.

M. Prensky

Education is what remains after what has been learned has been forgotten

(B.F. Skinner)

1975 2006

26/1

2/20

07

“Life in the fast lane”

Modern Times

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a6/DOWNTOWN.jpg 700m, Dubai

Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it

will be killed.

Every morning a lion wakes up. It knows it

must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve

to death.

It doesn’t really matter whether you’re a lion or a gazelle. When the sun

goes up, you’d better start running.

(The world is flat, Thomas Friedman)

eBay for software development?

We are currently preparing students for jobs that don’t yet exist . . .

(former Secretary of Education Richard Riley)

• Viral marketing specialist• Embedded lover• Valorisation coordinator• Technology marketing analyst• Digital media consultant• E-marketeer• Search-engine optimiser• Ambient technology expert

We don't know who discovered water, but we know it wasn't the fish.

Marshall McLuhan

http:

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ngbo

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net/

2008

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Is “the net generation” different, or are they just adapting (better) to a different and changing world?

It’s not my problem!

• It’s getting our problem:

– We are training engineers in a changing world• Adding more content to the curriculum isn’t going to help• (msn)

– The students don’t want to learn what we want• Can we show them the relevance?

Creepy

Treehouse

Effect

Creepy Treehouse:

A place, physical or virtual (e.g. online), built by adults with the intention of luring in kids.

http://flexknowlogy.learningfield.org/2008/04/09/defining-creepy-tree-house/

What can we do?

• Stories, multimedia (video/ audio…)

– Trigger more senses

– http://www.brainrules.net/attention

• Make the learners more autonomous

– I want to choose my tools and methods

– I skype, you skype, we all skype

• Open up the learning

– Weblogs, anyone?

(been there, done that)

• We’ve been doing this!

• Adapting to the net generation =– adapting to a changing world – thinking about good education – attracting external experts, making learners

autonomous, using many different instructional techniques…

ww

w.z

azzl

e.co

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What can we do?

What did we do?

What’s a wiki to you?- Wiki is my middle name!- Wiki – hmm… heard of it- Wiki? Pedia?

• Information literacies

What’s Lonelygirl’s secret?

80% claims having good search-skills, but barely 50% does quality control on the search results

(Mediappro)

“High horsepower, poor steering”(OECD – Understanding the brain)

http://www.webdrain.com/2005/10/google-fun-google-2084.html

‘Work’ shop

“Net generation” learners

1. Who are they?

2. Are they really different?

3. What can we do?

The Personal Learning Environment?