Steve+Wheeler+Keynote

Transformation and inspiration through social media. //**"Our students are different. It is not about what is right or wrong but understanding the differences." **// I enjoyed this keynote because it highlighted the ways that our children are evolving differently and our responsibility to guide them to find a balance. “How many important things are going on around us that we don’t see because of the tyranny of the urgent?” Lee helped emphasis this point by showing us a video and asking us to count how many passes are made between the students wearing white shirts. Count the number of passes for yourself by clicking on the image below to take you to the YouTube video. media type="youtube" key="IGQmdoK_ZfY" height="390" width="640" align="center" __**Are schools preparing students for this world?**__ Unlike us - this generation grew up with a mouse in their hands. They also have the belief that the stuff on the screen is not PASSIVE. This keynote highlighted the difference between the //Digi Learners - "just in time"// and //Traditional educators - "just in case"//. This generation will have an estimate of 10-17 **careers** by the age of 35. They will perform jobs that dont technically exist yet and will require totally different skill set. Traditional education focusses on standardised testing reflecting the just in case model of teaching. Digi learners revolve around just in time. Steve Wheeler suggests that 4 year degrees will be replaced with 40 years of doing and undoing.

Books and research is telling us that digital bombardment - digi generation are quickly adapting - they have develeoped a cultural brain. Brain changing physically and chemically. Our kids are neurologically wired differently to us - hyperlinked minds. They process info in a parallel manner - not sequentially. Brains are malleable and plastic. Previously thought that the brain stopped developing at age 3. We now understand measureable intelligence rises and falls depending on stimulation.  Eyes process content of photos 60 000x faster than text. Track differently. New research Kent State Uni - their Digital generations eyes first scan bottom then sides then read in an F pattern - different to 'our' generation. Consiously avoid bottom right of screen (is this where the ads are?!). Specific colours of text appeal to digi gen. Red/Pink then Green then Orange with Black then blue background. Will ignore black text unless highy engaged to read it.  Digi learners prefer to learn info from multiple sources. Implications - many teachers do not process this way. Digi learners process info very quickly. To really connect with digi learners - need to... If we ban digi devices we are missing a huge opportunity to connect with our digi learners. Digi learners prefer multi tasking and parallel processing of info. Continuous partial attention - multi tasking. Happens faster in our digi kids.  Old school study environment very different to children of today - mess with music etc - and they are still bored! Music helps them to concentrate - contrary to what they think - they are not as effective if they are multi tasking than if they focus on a singular task. //**They need to appreciate both sets of skills.**//  Digi learners prefer to process photos, videos and sound to text. Role of text is to provide clarity to image - not the other way round (as it was). Participants could recall 25 000 pictures 90% accuracy 72 hours later even if only viewed for 10 seconds each. Recall rates a year later still hover around 60%. Presented orally or text only - 72 hours later 10% of content. Need to create 'presentations' based on images not text. (I had a classic example of this in the classroom when Shani and Louise "published" their instructions onto their blog! The digital access gave them greater creativity...) <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Multi-sensory - gaming. Words complement images - sharpened their visual literacy. Highly developed visual spatial skills. Moving towards right brained society. Colour sound and graphics mixed in interesting ways. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Random access preferred to hyperlinked multimedia access by our children whereas educators prefer linear, logical, sequential access. Children are developing hyper-linked minds - moving from info at the speed of thought. They feel that books are an antiquated interface.

<span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 140%;">It is not us or them - wrong or right - but equally essential. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Digi learners prefer to network with multiple.... Hundreds of ways to communicate. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">We can become dependent on this media. Digi learners have internalised it. Kids interact socially different. We do not need to teach technology anymore - they know it - they have internalised. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Need to teach communication skills, problem solving skills, creativitiy, design skills to harness this. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Which world are we preparing them for?