This document discusses using emerging technologies to promote lifelong learning skills in students. It argues that overcoming students' resistance to new technologies is the first step, and allowing students to use their own devices (BYOD) can help engage them through familiar systems. While BYOD has benefits, it also has challenges around infrastructure, security, and digital divides. The document suggests educators should focus on using technology's full potential through student-centered learning, not just digitizing old methods. This involves developing skills like searching, evaluating online information, and contributing to online discussions.

1. Running head: TEACHING STUDENTS TO FISH WITH BETTER POLES 1
Teaching students to fish with better poles:
Promoting lifelong learning through emergent technology
Bethany Marston, M.S. Ed., Learning Center Coordinator, Rasmussen College Rockford Campus
Steve Honeywell, M.A., Senior Instructor, Rasmussen College Rockford Campus

2. TEACHING STUDENTS TO FISH WITH BETTER POLES 2
Teaching Students to Fish with Better Poles: Promoting Lifelong Learning through Emergent
Technology
Many people have a love-hate relationship with technology. We depend on technology
that we do not understand and are pleased to use this technology, at least when it works. New
technology is often seen as frightening or difficult simply because it is new. In short, it needs to
be learned before it becomes useful to us. This is an impediment both for teachers and for
students. Even something as simple as a clicker used for a PowerPoint presentation needs to be
learned to be used effectively. This technological divide between what is available and what is
familiar is a constant problem for both students and educators. Despite this, technology remains
one of the most effective methods of engaging students and emergent technology holds even
greater promise for teaching students how to learn, demonstrating the value of learning, and
promoting lifelong learning habits.
The digital divide remains one of the most significant problems for students and
educators alike. While many students are aware of available technology, through reputation if
nothing else, they are often unwilling to take the necessary steps to acquiring the skills and
knowledge to appropriately use such technology to their advantage. A case in point is Rasmussen
College’s use of the software Noodlebib. This software allows for the quick and painless
generation of reference/bibliography pages for written projects. Learning the system generally
takes students 15 minutes, and once learned saves as many as five minutes per source used in a
project. The potential time savings for a new student are enormous, and students are given free
access from the first moment of their first class. Despite the ease of use, the majority of students
are initially resistant, even when aware that the use of this software is fast, convenient, and most
important, guaranteed to be accurate.

3. TEACHING STUDENTS TO FISH WITH BETTER POLES 3
Similarly, Rasmussen College made the decision to convert to ebooks when available for
all classes independent of modality. The initial announcement was met with significant student
resistance that included a student-led, student-signed petition to to retain the more traditional
paper books. Despite these objections, Rasmussen has moved forward, with all students
receiving ebooks beginning in April, 2014. Technology marches forward for good or ill, forcing
students and educators to keep up or risk being left behind. In practical terms, this means that the
first step in utilizing technology in pursuit of the skill of learning is overcoming the digital
divide.
This digital divide expresses itself in a number of ways. For many students, the divide
comes in the form of the technology being used in the schools surpassing what they encounter in
their daily lives. For many others, however, the digital divide is the precise opposite: students,
particularly younger students, are more adept with and more familiar with using technology than
they are allowed to express in the school environment (Henderson, 2011). While educators are
responsible for bringing the digitally backwards students up to the current available levels of
technology, educators themselves are responsible for bringing themselves up to the knowledge
and standards of many of their students.
Regardless, even with students who are comfortable further along the cutting edge of
technology, particular skills are required to enable students to develop the lifelong learning skills
they will need both in school and out of school. Among these skills are the proper use of search
engines, determining the quality of information located through search engines, professional
conduct online, appropriate use of social media, and the ability to successfully contribute to
online resources, allowing students to become a part of the ongoing conversation (Sandars,
2012). Without these skills, even the most technically savvy student will not make good use of

4. TEACHING STUDENTS TO FISH WITH BETTER POLES 4
the available technology in general, and certainly not in the development of lifelong learning
skills and practices. Teaching such skills are beyond the scope of this paper; we will assume
from this point that both students and educators possess these skills as concerns suggestions and
ideas that follow.
As mentioned previously, most people are uneasy around new technology. For students,
this fear may be compounded by the need to not only learn the subject in question but the new
technology as well. The most significant advance in this area is the creation of the BYOD (bring
your own device) movement. There are a number of specific benefits to allowing students to use
their own, familiar devices for learning, not the least of which is that students can learn using a
device with which they are already familiar. This is also a current trend in the business world,
with more and more companies allowing employees to connect to the corporate network with
whatever device they already own. BYOD allows for an inclusive environment, albeit in an
environment where a percentage of the students do not possess any technology. Increased use of
cloud-based services allows for much simpler infrastructure and fewer IT problems on the
school’s end (Sangani, 2013).
The BYOD movement is hardly a panacea. Allowing students to use any device requires
that the structure of the assignments using such technology be as flexible as possible, and
requires some knowledge on the part of the instructor. SAs many as 40% of students do not have
access to smart technology. For some students, particularly younger ones, this lack of technology
may be specifically economic; their parents do not have the resources to buy their children a
smartphone. (This reason for lack of access will decrease as the prices of smartphones continue
to drop.) Many parents are leery of allowing their children unrestricted access to the internet and
have concerns of cyber-bullying, which is frequently fostered by smartphone use. Additionally,

5. TEACHING STUDENTS TO FISH WITH BETTER POLES 5
in any educational environment, smartphones and tablet devices are a potential distraction
(Sangani, 2013).
Most of these issues are moot in the post-secondary education environment where
smartphones and tablets are used for more than social media and taking pictures. A recent survey
of 500 students suggests that the vast majority of students with a smart device, some 98%, have
used that device in connection with school (Violino, 2012). This data, while far from conclusive,
suggests that schools that do not being incorporating such devices into the curriculum are losing
out on an opportunity to further engage students both in and outside of the classroom.
One of the main benefits of a BYOD system is that such a system keeps infrastructure
costs low. Rather than requiring a device or computer for each student, each student supplies his
or her own, removing the cost from the school. It does, however, require the infrastructure to be
much more complicated that supporting a system of identical devices would be (Sangani, 2013).
Additionally, the school has no control over student-owned devices, no say in the applications
downloaded and used, and far less control over those devices when connected to the network
(Sangani, 2013). The school must make a decision what devices will be supported and what level
of support will be provided. Proactive, strong security measures and guidelines are required for
any system to both work well and provide enough security to be worthwhile (Violino, 2012).
One of the main benefits of such a system is more immediate student engagement, since
students do not need to learn a new system. In a sense, they don’t have to learn how to work the
system to get the necessary assignments and information; they are already familiar with the
operating system. Further, this allows for much more diverse learning possibilities. In addition to
the traditional classroom and the now-familiar online classroom, mobile technology in a BYOD
system allows students to participate in m-learning (learning using a mobile device) and u-

6. TEACHING STUDENTS TO FISH WITH BETTER POLES 6
learning (learning through various ubiquitous computer technologies accessible via any device
capable of internet connection). By giving students this additional freedom, students are
permitted to engage in “smart learning”; learning that is self-directed, informal, and centered on
the students themselves (Lee & Son, 2013).
This student-centered, student-focused learning requires significant adjustments both in
and outside of the classroom. “The potential for TEL [technology enhanced learning] is huge, but
if all it entails is putting lectures on podcasts, making a PowerPoint to a flash e-learning module,
and putting paper text on the web, then we have not really used the technology to fulfil its
potential” (Dror, 2011, pg. 6). Itiel Dror (2011) suggests that in addition to using the technology
to its best effect, we should also concentrate on making that technology “brain friendly.” He
offers the example of computer passwords as a non-brain friendly situation. The ideal password
should be unique, meaning that each time a password is needed the user should create a new one.
This prevents someone discovering one password from infiltrating other accounts of that user.
Passwords should also be of a minimum length (often 8 characters), contain symbols, numbers
and both upper and lower case letters. Additionally, they should be changed every six months
and should never be written down. Such a system, recognizing all of the passwords that a typical
person needs—work networks, banking, personal accounts, online shopping, Facebook and other
social media—quickly becomes untenable.

7. TEACHING STUDENTS TO FISH WITH BETTER POLES 7
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