Who are 'digital natives'? How do they learn? In this webinar, Dr. Robert Starken of the University of Texas explores these questions and more as they relate to getting students to engage with the study of American Government.

1. Teaching
American
Government
to the Digital
Generation
Dr. Robert Sterken
The University of Texas at Tyler
Cengage Learning Webinar
November 28, 2012

2. "The man who doesn't read
good books has no advantage
over the man who can't read
them." ~ Mark Twain

3. Our Agenda
1. part 1: Who are
these people in
the Digital
Generation?
2. part 2: How do
they learn?
3. part 3: How can
we reach them
with our
American
Government
content?

4. Part One
 Who are these people in the Digital Generation?

5. The Net Generation is a distinct
generation.
 It is made up of the children
of the post-World War II
generation, the baby
boomers.
 They are spending 60+ hours
a week online.
 Students reported that media
– especially their mobile
phones – have literally
become an extension of
themselves.
 Mobile phones function both
as this generation’s Swiss
Army knife AND its security
blanket.

6. For context: Digital Gen’s in Time
 Television defined the baby
boomers (1946-1964).
 Generation Xers (1965-1980)
didn’t grow up with computers
 The Digital Generation or
Millennials (1981-2000) have
been around computers since
before they could speak.
 For them, ―technology is like
air,‖ necessary but invisible.
 They can’t imagine living
without it.

7. applause for the digital generation
 numerous concerns and accusations are commonly voiced about this digital
generation.
 You may have heard that members of the digital generation are
 selfishly addicted to their computers,
 have rotted their brains,
 destroyed their social skills, and left them violent and immature.
 Generally, the insults are without merit.
 This generation is definitely different from earlier generations, but how could it not
be? It’s the first generation to grow up taking digital technology for granted.

8. Distracted by Everything
Students today are among
the world's most engaged
and most wired.
They constantly multitask
with their tech tools.
They do not remember a
time when they were not
able to be online – almost
anywhere they went.

9. Digital Gen characteristics

10. Special  Have always been treated as
special and important
 Every milestone was marked
with celebrations and praise.
 They may carry a sense of
entitlement about them and
have an expectation of
frequent positive feedback.
 It’s been instilled in them that
they are vital to the nation
and to their parents’ sense of
purpose.
 They feel they are here to
solve world problems that
older generations have failed
to solve.

11. Confident
 They are motivated, goal-
oriented, and confident in
themselves and the future.
 They expect college to help
launch them to greatness.
 They may brag about their
generation’s power and
potential.
 They have high levels of
optimism and they feel
connected to their parents.
 In Canada the Millennial
generation is called the
―Sunshine‖ generation.

12. Team-Oriented  They are group oriented
rather than being
individualists.
 They prefer to learn and
work collaboratively
 They prefer egalitarian
leadership, not hierarchies.
 They do not want to stand
out among their peers, they
want to be seen as part of
the group.
 They dislike selfishness
and are oriented toward
service learning and
volunteerism.

13. Achieving
 The focus on getting good
grades, hard work, involvement
in extracurricular activities, etc.
is resulting in higher
achievement levels.
 They see college as the key to a
high paying job and success,
and may miss the bigger picture
of what a college education is all
about.
 They are pressured to decide
early on a career – and have
been put on a career track
orientation since grade school.
 Their focus is more on the world
of achievement rather than
personal development.
 The Boomer generation made
their mark in the humanities and
arts, whereas the Millennials
prefer technology, math, and
science fields.

14.  Tightly scheduled as children
Pressured and used to having every hour
of their day filled with
structured activity.
 They may struggle with
handling free time and time
management in general.
 They feel pressured to
succeed. They’ve been
pushed hard to achieve, to
avoid risks, and to take
advantage of opportunities.
 They may take on too much,
and then think others should
be flexible with them when
they want to negotiate
scheduling conflicts.
 They think multi-tasking saves
time and is a smart thing to do,
but aren’t usually aware of the
poorer quality of results.

15. They expect fast,
frequent
communication
Source: Millennials
Go To College by
Neil Howe and
William Strauss.

16. The Digital Gen has been ―bathed
in bits‖
 Since they have been
immersed in computer
technology their whole lives
– they are far more adept
than earlier generations to
embrace this brave new
world.
 This has produced a
―generational lap‖ in which
we boomers and Xers are
struggling to catch up with
and educate the younger
generation.

17. part 2  How do digital learner really learn?
 Where and how are they getting information?

18. Where do they get news?
• American college students today show no significant loyalty to a news program,
news personality or even news platform.
• Students have only a casual relationship to the originators of news, and in fact don’t
make fine distinctions between news and more personal information.
• Said one student, ―Although I will admit I do not actively keep up with breaking
news every day I do get a lot of information on a daily basis through social
networking, text messaging, and websites such as Gmail, where it does have
headlines on the homepage. It is very important to me to have some sense of what
is going on in the world on a daily basis, but I also focus in on issues that I do care
about, and I keep up with that particular issues progress. For example, the Equal
Rights campaign, or local and global environmental organizations, whose progress I
follow via Twitter, Facebook or their websites.‖

19. ‘We no longer search for news, the news finds us.’
• No matter where the students were from, the amount of information
coming to them via their mobile phones or the Internet – via text message,
on Facebook, Twitter, chat, Skype IM, QQ, email, etc. – is overwhelming;
students are inundated 24/7.
• ’140 characters of news is all I need.’
• Source: a global study of university students by the International Center for Media & the Public Agenda
(ICMPA).

20. Millennials are shaping us…
 Technology is influencing
the way the Millennials
think, behave, and
learn…
 but it’s a two-way street
 the way these kids think,
behave, and learn is
influencing and shaping
the way we must teach
and share information!
 We’ve got to change.

21. The Sage on the Stage

22. The book.
Written replaced oral at one point in human history.

23. Three Observations about teaching the Intro
to American Courses to the Digital Gen
Information is no longer just kept in specific places – like people’s
brains or encyclopedias – it is everywhere and anywhere.
It’s not about a trendy new tool or cool application - rather it is
about changing the way we do approach learning in and out of
the classroom.
The classroom now has no limits.

24. Lesson 1: information is EVERYWHERE.
Information that was once
scarce is not.
We once had to line up in
Ford assembly-line-like rows
to orderly obtain knowledge
and information from a
teacher - he/she had the
information in her mobile
storage unit – her brain!
Those days are long
gone…and your students

25. Lesson 1: information is EVERYWHERE
(continued)
Professors and books
were once kept in one
place -- students had
to come to these
sources for knowledge
and information.
Today - if you want to
know ANY piece of
information it is
readily available.

26. Lesson 1: our job is to help connect the dots!
Students (really all of us) have
an information surplus.
One of our most important
jobs to ENGAGE our students
and help students connect the
dots.
We must orchestrate
information – help students
see what is important, and
help them make sense of and
learn to use all the
information at their fingertips.

27. Lesson 2: learning by doing
 Students learn by doing.
 As I observed students…
 search, uncover, see, discuss
and create
 engage in real learning.
 Real experiential learning is
incredibly powerful.
 Experiential learning
empowered these students
with not only with
knowledge but with the the
skills and excitement to
learn beyond the walls of the
classroom and scope of the
course.

28. Lesson 3: no limits!
 The digital devices, software,
and the net have changed the
classroom from a closed box
with a teacher to a world
without limits.
 Teachers must responsibly
guide, help, and model
critical use of this wide open
wild world of images and
information.

29. Learning with Technology
 Technology allows
 The professor to…
1. bring to classroom to
life
2. engage students in the
classroom
3. ease the burden of
some of the more
difficult parts of
teaching (grading and
assessment).
 Students to…
1. Learn at their
individual pace
2. Search, See, and Do
3. Create, Learn, and
Present!

30. part 3  How can we reach them with our American
Government content?

31. Flipping the
Classroom
1. Khan Academy
2. http://youtu.be/oTbvYGH_Hi
w
3. Assign the lecture for
homework and homework is
now done in the classroom.
4. We remove the one-size-fits
all lecture from the
classroom and humanize
the classroom.
5. The classroom is used to
engage the students in
actively apply the concepts.

32. Rather than focus on technology…
 Teach with it – not against it
 Technology—video, hypermedia,
the Internet, etc.—is an excellent
tool to learn with.
 The emphasis is on learning to
solve problems.
 By concentrating on problem
solving with several specific
media, technology can be used to
engage students in meaningful
learning.
 Digital devices must be used to
foster learning.

33. Use the
devices…
• Embrace the devices
• Use video: students naturally take to being behind the
camera.
• Use multimedia as a new form of interactive literacy.
• Allow students to create a personal or group page for cyber-
mentoring.

34. Blogging & Twitter
• Have students
blog – write on
specific assigned
topics.
• Have students
tweet the blog
posts or other
information to the
class twitter page

35. Facebook
• How many visits each hour
• Create a professional ―like‖
page
• Video
• Eliminates the privacy
concerns?
• Allows you to remain in contact
• You do not have to see their
posts
• Most college students (81
percent) and younger
employees (73 percent) check
their Facebook at least once a
day and a third of those check
at least five times a day (Cisco
Connected World Technology
Report 2011).

37. The digital classroom meeting
 Mix it up
 Each presentation has a central goal or outcome.
 Start class with a blog or Facebook entry
 Ask a big question – let the students grapple with that question together
 The show a short video that complicates or further informs the issue
 Ask for responses – in clicker or in writing

38. Virtual visit
Go to the
places…
listen to the http://youtu.be/SUZGkNAUSvY
speeches…
Bring in the
voices and
images…

39. The Years Ahead…
The world that we are
preparing our students
for requires them to
 Students need to be taught
find, analyze, and use about the role of media in their
information. lives – how to distinguish
between fact and fiction, credible
 Does any life and non-credible sources,
important and unimportant
occupation or job information, and how to mindfully
require kids to stay in navigate multiple platforms for
their seats and quietly multiple personal and
professional purposes without
listen to a professor? becoming toxically overwhelmed
and distracted.

40. Take a Breath…
• Close devices - All eyes forward – on me
• Deep breath – a multitasking learning environment
does not work!

41. A Few Students were Uncomfortable
 A few students have remarked that my
classes make them uncomfortable.
 One student said in written
evaluation: ―Your class did not just
give us information and expect us to
regurgitate it back on an exam…and
that made it harder.‖
 Some students are not all comfortable
with the in class engagement, open
ended problems, search, and lots of
times they do not want to make a
presentation to the class.
 In the end, all reported that they were
glad that they had.

42. Helping Students Find Passion
Helping
students see
the big picture
Helping them
understand the
tools

43. Where to go next…
Please email me at rsterken@uttyler.edu with questions
or comments.
The links to the right are some of the most compelling
arguments for changing your classroom.
 RSA Animate - Changing Education
Paradigms
(http://youtu.be/zDZFcDGpL4U)
 digital_nation
(http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/fro
ntline/digitalnation/)
 Ken Robinson Schools Kill
Creativity
(http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robin
son_says_schools_kill_creativity.ht
ml)
 Khan Academy
(http://www.khanacademy.org/)