Lesson 3

Understanding Technology Learners
 

Today’s learners appear smarter, yet they can’t read as their parents do and they are addicted to the Internet. They become alive again through video presentations, activities and computer classes.

Digital Learners

·         Spend much time talking with their friends on their cell phones.

·         Sending text messages

·         Interacting through social media

·         Playing video games

·         Surfing World Wide Web

Let us know the concern for new learners is not well understood, it serves to know what scientists say, as follows.

·         There are positive benefits derived from the use of information technology or digital resources and these counterbalance possible negative effects of technology on children.

·         Daily exposure to high-technology-personal computers, video game gadgets, cell phones, internet search sites-stimulates the brain by strengthening and creating neural circuits.

·         A current technological revolution is creating an intellectual revolution, faster and better than ever before:

Digital Technology Resources

·         Ipod music devices

·         Video game gadgets

·         Computer games

·         Mobile phones

·         Internet

There is the phenomenon of the young generation taking on multi-tasking as they perform tasks simultaneously:

·         Watching video

·         Chatting on-line

·         Downloading pictures and music

·         Surfing the web

Jean Piaget's Traditional Learning Chart (1896-1980)

1-2 years	Susceptible minds
6 years	Acquiring communication skills
Teenage years	Transition concrete thinking
Adult years	Abstract thinking & reasoning

Research shows that multi-tasking characterizes professional work in the new world of information technology. There is the need therefore to balance the good and possibly detrimental changes observed among new learners of this information technology age.