Technological Trends in Learning: Generation Net
How to Learn
To fully understand the impact of the many changes occurring for learning in the digital age, we must look closely at trends arising from technology. Technological trends show that new values and practices have transformed the traditional student from a passive recipient into an interactive participant in learning through their engagement in digital communication forms. Known as "generation net," students entering the University during the digital age no longer prescribe to traditional roles in the classroom and bring with them a vast repertoire of skills and interests. Norton and Wiburg describe this generation as students using:
"new electronic technologies to help create a culture of learning, where the learner enjoys enhanced responsibility, interactivity, and connections with others. Rather than relying on teachers and other adults to serve as the source of facts and theories, N-Geners partner with peers and adults to learn socially. These students are creating a new, more powerful and more effective learning paradigm" (Norton and Wiburg 8).
Scholars who have devoted themselves to the study of digital technology have noticed several trends emerging. Murphy and Gazi note that "three compatible trends in the internet age are constructivism, development of a sense of community, and experiential activities" (78). Similarly, Tapscott takes this vein further and examines how technological change has marked eight essential shifts in learning: (1) From linear to hypermedia learning; (2) From instruction to construction and discovery; (3) From teacher-centered to learner-centered; (4) From absorbing material to learning how to navigate and how to learn; (5) From school to lifelong learner; (6) From one-size-fits-all to customized learning; (7) From learning as torture to learning as fun; (8) From teacher as transmitter to teacher as facilitator (142-149). Between the two lists I have provided, we can see that there is a general turn towards construction, social or community-based learning, hands-on learning, and a general shift in power for learning to the student. Given these trends in learning, it becomes increasingly important for education to shift from a teacher-centered model to learning how to navigate and decode complex systems and how to learn. William Klemm supports this idea when at the "Learning and the Brain" conference he states, “the more you teach students how to learn, the less time you have to spend teaching curriculum because they can [understand] it on their own…I think the real problem is that students have not learned how to be competent learners...[we need to] spend more time teaching learning skills (Klemm as cited in Schwartz). Switching to a "how" model of learning requires two significant shifts in the classroom which, I believe, bears on memory and transfer: teacher as designer and collaborative learning.
Teacher as Designer
Technological trends are pointing towards a new role for teachers in the classroom as designers of an environment focused on encouraging learning and transfer through student engagement and experiential learning. No longer are teachers the authority imparting knowledge to open receptacles. Norton and Wiburg write, "the teacher as designer recognizes the centrality of planning, structuring, provisioning, and orchestrating learning." (43). Becoming an educational designer requires broad awareness of resources, new models of assessment, and willingness to learn alongside students. In this view, students become "agents of integration" or active participants in their own learning and potential for transfer (Nowacek). This change incites "a transformation of the learner from a passive receptacle of information to one who is actively engaged in the process of constructing knowledge and personal meaning" (Norton and Wiburg 164). This transformation pays big dividends for increasing long-term memory storage and improving outcomes for transfer by making learning more meaningful and enlisting greater sensory reception. Meaningful and sensory-rich learning leads to greater connectivity and retrieval accessibility in long-term memory, thus optimizing the conditions for future transfer of learning.
Collaborative Learning
Technology has transformed the way we work, learn, and communicate and, in so doing, has increased the value we place on collaboration. This growing trend towards collaboration extends the capacity of individual student memory by merging it with other group members. As Ong writes, "writing [new technology] does not kill memory...it transforms it to collective memory" (81). In collective memory, an individual responds to collective stimuli which alters originally stored memories as they are retrieved and remade. In this sense, collective memory not only offers a greater store of prior knowledge, through individual contributions, but it is malleable and pushes beyond individual student bounds of knowledge by composing memory as a group. Composing memory collectively adds to our group memory (through group collaboration, writing, and digital media) and holds the potential to dramatically restructure our culture and cultural memory through the use of technology. It is, as Ong calls it, “a welcome leveler: everyone becomes a wise man or woman” (80). Digital technology is especially equipped to engage in collaborative learning and collective memory practices through social media and communications online. Kimberly Lacey in her dissertation, "Making Memory: Techne, Technology, and the Refashioning of Contemporary Memory," writes, "Because certain sites encourage users to contribute to universal knowledge, new media outlets such as Twitter, (the now defunct) Google Wave, Wikipedia, and blogs explicitly increase the possibility for persuasiveness by way of collective memory" (13). Not only are these collaborative means available for use in school, work, or personal life, but researchers Milrad, Spector, and Davidsen argue that collaboration is needed for learning and transfer. They assert that when learners "engage peers in dialogue concerning challenging new concepts" and "work in collaboration with colleagues on difficult tasks...improvements in understanding" persist (Milrad, Spector, and Davidsen 15). Collaborative learning provides context and multiple representations of knowledge which should improve retention and transfer (Milrad, Spector, and Davidsen 17). However, we would do well to remember that there are also limitations to collective memory systems. Bohannon uses Wegners Theory of Transactional Memory to remind us that in group learning people rely on others to share the "labor of remembering certain types of shared information" (277). Similar to the google effect, learners rely on others to remember certain things instead of remembering themselves. Collective memory, therefore, creates a dependence on members of the community or group to access knowledge by retrieving it via cues of "who is holding the memory." While accessibility and reliance on group members may pose challenges to transfer and memory, trends in learning and technology support collaboration as a method for improving student engagement, meaningful learning, expansion of ideas through group memory, and yields in retention.
To fully understand the impact of the many changes occurring for learning in the digital age, we must look closely at trends arising from technology. Technological trends show that new values and practices have transformed the traditional student from a passive recipient into an interactive participant in learning through their engagement in digital communication forms. Known as "generation net," students entering the University during the digital age no longer prescribe to traditional roles in the classroom and bring with them a vast repertoire of skills and interests. Norton and Wiburg describe this generation as students using:
"new electronic technologies to help create a culture of learning, where the learner enjoys enhanced responsibility, interactivity, and connections with others. Rather than relying on teachers and other adults to serve as the source of facts and theories, N-Geners partner with peers and adults to learn socially. These students are creating a new, more powerful and more effective learning paradigm" (Norton and Wiburg 8).
Scholars who have devoted themselves to the study of digital technology have noticed several trends emerging. Murphy and Gazi note that "three compatible trends in the internet age are constructivism, development of a sense of community, and experiential activities" (78). Similarly, Tapscott takes this vein further and examines how technological change has marked eight essential shifts in learning: (1) From linear to hypermedia learning; (2) From instruction to construction and discovery; (3) From teacher-centered to learner-centered; (4) From absorbing material to learning how to navigate and how to learn; (5) From school to lifelong learner; (6) From one-size-fits-all to customized learning; (7) From learning as torture to learning as fun; (8) From teacher as transmitter to teacher as facilitator (142-149). Between the two lists I have provided, we can see that there is a general turn towards construction, social or community-based learning, hands-on learning, and a general shift in power for learning to the student. Given these trends in learning, it becomes increasingly important for education to shift from a teacher-centered model to learning how to navigate and decode complex systems and how to learn. William Klemm supports this idea when at the "Learning and the Brain" conference he states, “the more you teach students how to learn, the less time you have to spend teaching curriculum because they can [understand] it on their own…I think the real problem is that students have not learned how to be competent learners...[we need to] spend more time teaching learning skills (Klemm as cited in Schwartz). Switching to a "how" model of learning requires two significant shifts in the classroom which, I believe, bears on memory and transfer: teacher as designer and collaborative learning.
Teacher as Designer
Technological trends are pointing towards a new role for teachers in the classroom as designers of an environment focused on encouraging learning and transfer through student engagement and experiential learning. No longer are teachers the authority imparting knowledge to open receptacles. Norton and Wiburg write, "the teacher as designer recognizes the centrality of planning, structuring, provisioning, and orchestrating learning." (43). Becoming an educational designer requires broad awareness of resources, new models of assessment, and willingness to learn alongside students. In this view, students become "agents of integration" or active participants in their own learning and potential for transfer (Nowacek). This change incites "a transformation of the learner from a passive receptacle of information to one who is actively engaged in the process of constructing knowledge and personal meaning" (Norton and Wiburg 164). This transformation pays big dividends for increasing long-term memory storage and improving outcomes for transfer by making learning more meaningful and enlisting greater sensory reception. Meaningful and sensory-rich learning leads to greater connectivity and retrieval accessibility in long-term memory, thus optimizing the conditions for future transfer of learning.
Collaborative Learning
Technology has transformed the way we work, learn, and communicate and, in so doing, has increased the value we place on collaboration. This growing trend towards collaboration extends the capacity of individual student memory by merging it with other group members. As Ong writes, "writing [new technology] does not kill memory...it transforms it to collective memory" (81). In collective memory, an individual responds to collective stimuli which alters originally stored memories as they are retrieved and remade. In this sense, collective memory not only offers a greater store of prior knowledge, through individual contributions, but it is malleable and pushes beyond individual student bounds of knowledge by composing memory as a group. Composing memory collectively adds to our group memory (through group collaboration, writing, and digital media) and holds the potential to dramatically restructure our culture and cultural memory through the use of technology. It is, as Ong calls it, “a welcome leveler: everyone becomes a wise man or woman” (80). Digital technology is especially equipped to engage in collaborative learning and collective memory practices through social media and communications online. Kimberly Lacey in her dissertation, "Making Memory: Techne, Technology, and the Refashioning of Contemporary Memory," writes, "Because certain sites encourage users to contribute to universal knowledge, new media outlets such as Twitter, (the now defunct) Google Wave, Wikipedia, and blogs explicitly increase the possibility for persuasiveness by way of collective memory" (13). Not only are these collaborative means available for use in school, work, or personal life, but researchers Milrad, Spector, and Davidsen argue that collaboration is needed for learning and transfer. They assert that when learners "engage peers in dialogue concerning challenging new concepts" and "work in collaboration with colleagues on difficult tasks...improvements in understanding" persist (Milrad, Spector, and Davidsen 15). Collaborative learning provides context and multiple representations of knowledge which should improve retention and transfer (Milrad, Spector, and Davidsen 17). However, we would do well to remember that there are also limitations to collective memory systems. Bohannon uses Wegners Theory of Transactional Memory to remind us that in group learning people rely on others to share the "labor of remembering certain types of shared information" (277). Similar to the google effect, learners rely on others to remember certain things instead of remembering themselves. Collective memory, therefore, creates a dependence on members of the community or group to access knowledge by retrieving it via cues of "who is holding the memory." While accessibility and reliance on group members may pose challenges to transfer and memory, trends in learning and technology support collaboration as a method for improving student engagement, meaningful learning, expansion of ideas through group memory, and yields in retention.