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Home and Family Parenting Preparing the Internet Generation for the 21st Century
Home and Family Parenting Preparing the Internet Generation for the 21st Century| Preparing the Internet Generation for the 21st Century |
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| Written by Donna Newberg-Long |
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When judging education, many of us look to our past experiences. However, a better gauge may be to judge how well our kids are performing. It is our expectation that schools will prepare our children to become successful adults. This must happen in their world of the 21st Century. The Internet Generation The Internet Generation, or N-Geners, consists of the students of today. What we need to be asking is: are our schools giving these students the tools they need to have a successful future? Our country is no long reliant on farms, manual labor and assembly lines to provide our professions. What will define our citizens in the future? What do our students of today have to learn to compete and thrive in our new society? While the answer can be found from many sources, I would like to explore what corporate managers and executives feel about these questions. Tony Wagner, in his article entitled Rigor Redefined (2008), asked a number of executive managers and owners what they need from the employees they are hiring today. The answers were surprising. As an example, one corporate president revealed that his first priority was to find someone who could as meaningful questions. He told Mr. Wagner that it is easy to teach someone the technical details of a job, but it is not as easy to teach someone to think for themselves and the ask relevant questions. A great number of these high level managers shared a common desire to find employees able to cooperate as a team to talk over and solve the immediate problems their company face today. Educators need to understand these real world needs and prepare our students by providing the tools to help them contribute quickly in the real world. Provide real case studies and problems to solve and forget about standard worksheets that dont help the students think for themselves. If they have the opportunity to work in groups and present their findings in a real world way, they will be better prepared for the work force. Redefine Rigor Schools today need to understand the needs of their students and adjust their curriculums to meet those needs. It is a real concern when I see packaged curriculums used with no supporting real world examples attached to them. It is troublesome that the Teachers Guides provided to teachers require them to proceed with a lesson without really thinking about the real world applications. And School Districts are requiring teachers to report on planning and pacing guides the lessons taught every day, leaving little room for teaching outside the box. Essential to learning is the relationship between the teacher and the student. Students must feel met by the teacher with insight and understanding of who they are as learners. Teachers do best when they are empowered to create meaningful lessons that speak to their students. Technology Teachers today are educating the Internet Generation. As such, it is critical to integrate technology into the learning process as often as possible. Technology come naturally to our students, and it is our job to show them the practical and real world ways technology can be used. Our future holds classes and lesson plans using all forms of technology, including smart boards, PowerPoint presentations, cell phones and classroom response systems. These advanced teaching techniques are critical to the success of the Internet Generation and it is the educators job to embrace the opportunity to connect with the children. Integrated Learning An integrated approach is the best solution to avoid boring and mundane lesson plans that dont speak to the Internet Generation. By using topics such as social studies and science as the topics for reading and writing class, the students will get an experiential approach to their lessons that will make them more relevant in the long run. It is disappointing that most public schools now focus on curriculum narrowing rather than enriching. It is such a simple solution to integrate the skills children need to develop in reading, writing and math into a wide array of subject matter. By limiting our students exposure to social studies and math, we are depriving the children of knowledge and information that is critical for building other skills and knowledge. Many school districts have the added struggle of teaching children from poor families. Almost 17% of all school age children come from families existing below the poverty line. These children dont have the same opportunities as middle and upper class peers to gain background knowledge or vocabulary skills. A narrow curriculum focused only on tested subjects of reading, writing and math, rather than integrating secondary subjects such as social studies, science and the arts will only make these trends more noticeable. It is the job of parents and educators alike to commit to building cultural literacy through science social studies and the arts in order to give the Internet Generation the best opportunities in life that we can. It is a proven psychological fact that the best way to learn new things is to be able to apply it to something we have already experienced. Children, especially those with limited opportunities to experience new things outside of school, must be given a broad base of experiences in which to build. Viable research has shown that cultural literacy is highly correlated with academic achievement, which in turn is correlated to annual income. If our job as educators is to prepare children for the 21st Century, then we must attend to the building of knowledge, not just teach them to read, write and do math. About the Author: Donna Newberg Long, aka Principal Donna has been an educator for over 20 years. As the founding principal of 2 schools, she brings a wealth of knowledge to her counseling with teachers, principals and boards. Donna is available for consulting services for start ups and schools in need of advice. Visit www.AskPrincipalDonna.com for more information or call 303.280.5220 to discuss your schools needs. Kindly provided by 4Girls.dk You are welcome to use this article on your own website, if you include this link. |
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