Motivating Today's Students -- and Tomorrow's Workers
I think John Seely Brown's quote really grounds this chapter of Wagner's work. He says, "...we're just beginning to see the full effect of the World Wide Web and other technologies on our lives -- and most especially on the lives of the young people who've grown up with new and radically different communication, information, and creativity tools." (page 171). As educators we MUST take note of the fact that today's students are coming to school with a completely new and different set of experiences and expectations. Wagner suggests looking at how kids learn today to influence our practice, specifically learning through multimedia and connection to others, learning as discovery, and learning by creating.
- Learning through multimedia and connection to others. Today's students need to be engaged with multimedia digital tools. They are used to gathering information from their laptops, and tweets, and YouTube videos -- except at school. And they're used to connecting with like-minded individuals -- except at school. To engage our student we need to be more student-centered and look at what they're choosing to do away from school as our inspiration.
- Learning as discovery. Our students are doing this on their own, away from school, by playing online games and googling to find out anything. Yet in a classroom the opportunity to discover is very limited and that needs to change. I do think it's important to keep Wagner's caveat in mind, that "... the desire to constantly "do" and interact often comes at the expense of contemplation and reflection -- essential aspects of both learning and growth." (page 184)
- Learning by creating. Web 2.0 tools provide students with amazing opportunities to create, and to share their creations. Knowing that what is being created can be shared with the world adds a level of authenticity that will push students to up the quality of their creations.