Teaching the iGeneration Workshop

Dallas, Texas

You know what the iGeneration looks like in your classroom: iGeners are plugged in, having inherited a world with almost universal access to the Internet. Earbuds hang from backpacks, and cell phones are stuffed in pockets. Text messaging has replaced telephone calls, streaming video has replaced waiting for television shows to start, Wii has replaced Atari, digital photography has replaced film, and cable Internet has replaced dial-up modems.

But iGeners aren’t always the best students. Working quickly instead of carefully, they “info-snack” their way through class, flitting from instant experience to instant experience. Reading deeply, considering multiple perspectives, and interacting meaningfully with others are pushed aside in a race for instant gratification.

Moving learning forward begins by introducing teachers to ways digital tools can be used to encourage higher-order thinking and innovative instruction across the curriculum. Today’s students can be inspired by technology to ponder, imagine, reflect, analyze, memorize, recite, and create—but only after we build a bridge between what they know about new tools and what we know about good teaching.

Learning Outcomes

• Explore the characteristics of the iGeneration and 21st century classrooms.
• Review the essential skills—information management, communication, collaboration, problem solving, persuasion—that are always successful.
• Examine the way that new digital tools—social bookmarking, blogs, wikis, video editing applications, RSS feed readers—can make work with essential skills more effective and efficient.
• Study sets of practical handouts and processes designed to structure digital learning projects in the 21st century classroom.
• Master the basic steps necessary for using common web 2.0 applications to support responsible instruction.
• Develop a plan for implementing new digital tools in the classroom.

Participants are encouraged to attend as a team because time will be provided each day to support the collaborative planning of projects that can be implemented across subject areas and grade levels.

Bring hard copies of your standards, curriculum, current projects, and any other resources relevant to the design process. Laptop computers for each participant also are recommended in order to enable experimentation with new tools and services.