Who are they?  Mutli-tasker  Net-generation learners  Millennial Students  Generation Y & Z  Digital Natives  Interactive & Networked

Effective teaching for the future... An effective teacher understands the children of the 21st century and the ways in which they learn best in the 21st century. Realising that sometimes they learn best with the combination of some methods and not categorising into a singular method.  Teachers needing to be technologically savvy as students of the 21st century will not only need it to gain and learn in this technologically advanced society, they will begin to demand it in their learning and ways of learning. 

 Be aware that we need to teach individuals (students), not the class as a whole.  The domination, control and authority figure of the teacher is shifting more toward the development of the student and being more collaborative with the student. However, the teacher will always need to maintain and guide students developing and learning, although it is needing to be adapted to the needs and styles of the 21st century learner.  Does all this mean that prior methods of teaching and learning, theories such as Piaget’s theory of intellectual development and Vygotsky’s theory of learning and development, just theories and methods of the past?

Models of the 21 st Century Learner Over time the learner has been the explorer of knowledge, its accumulator and skilled ‘access- or’. In the 21 st century challenges and demands are expanding and changing again. Our new society’s environment is one of rapid communication, action and change, of intricate social activity and a huge potential for new knowledge. (Lambert,M. 2002). What are the models of the learner for this brave new world? Retrieved from – Marc Lambert 2002http://ultibase.rmit.edu.au

Models of the 21 st Century Learner Cont.  the collaborator: for whom networks of knowledge, skills and ideas are the source of learning  the free agent: utilising flexible, continuous, open- ended and life-long styles and systems of learning to the full  the wise analyser: able to gather, scrutinise and use evidence of effective activity and apply conclusions to new problems  the creative synthesiser: able to connect across themes and disciplines, cross-fertilise ideas, integrate disparate concepts and create new vision and practice.

21 st Century Learner Collaborative The free agent The wise analyser The creative synthesiser

The Collaborator The Collaborator-learner:  seeks out and maintains links and networks  negotiates and exchanges ideas  uses new technology to support collaborative work (e.g. Hazemi et al., 1998)  contributes and adds value to cooperative learning processes  also exploits and derives value from them  is a team player, able to reach ‘win-win’ agreements.

The Free Agent  the free agent: utilising flexible, continuous, open-ended and life-long styles and systems of learning to the full

The Wise Analyser  This learner gathers evidence of effective activity, scrutinises it and applies it’s conclusions to new problems and new contexts.  The wise analyser is:  Reflective and critical  Skilled at the processes of research, testing of validity and the application of findings  Close to the world of work and opportunities for action research  Able to argue judgements securely  Able to apply and adopt arguments to new contexts and to use them in the management of change

The Creative Synthesiser  The creative synthesiser is a model of learners that connect the knowledge learned through interaction with different themes and disciplines, where separate concepts are integrated into their thinking while creating a new vision of the information in which they are developing their learning around. Lambert considers the many ways a learner with this type of learning sees the learning environment, these are: (Lambert, M p. 6)   has ‘new ways of seeing’  puts aside ideas that learning is linear and confirms to us that everything is inter-related and complex  is able to create, investigate and to seize opportunities for development and change.

FURTHER DESCRIBING TEACHING AND LEARNING IN THE 21st CENTURY.   It is quite evident that arguably the most influential factor on the 21st century education, of the learner and the teacher, is the rapid advancements in technology. These advancements in technology such as the Internet, computers, mobile phones, digital media and print for example, are the driving factors for the need of change and adaptation of teaching student learners.   Oblinger and Oblinger (2005, p.4.2) support the idea of technology as an important factor in the 21st century and being a driving change in education for the teacher and the learner as they state “But now technology is advancing at such a rate that traditional ways of teaching and learning are not pushing students and teachers to their full potential. By using IT properly in the classroom, teaching and learning are enhanced and given a new dimension.” Oblinger and Oblinger (2005, p.4.5) support the ideas of “Arman Assa … said that learning technology has not advanced enough to replace the social interaction in the classroom. ‘Historically, communal learning has always been the most effective way for educating the student and generating thought-provoking discussion in class. I don’t believe technology has reached a point where we can duplicate that effectively on a computer’.”