Adapting to the Needs of the Internet Generation in our Schools

We all draw on our past when it comes to judging education. Better yet, we judge education by how well the children are doing. We want kids to be prepared to live successfully in the world when they become adults, and we expect schools to prepare them. Their world is the 21st Century.

The Internet Generation

If your children are in school now, they are N-geners, or the Internet Generation. The question is, “Are schools preparing the Internet Generation well enough?” We are no longer an agrarian society where folks must work farms or assembly lines. What are those things that will define them? What skills must they have to compete and prosper? There are many answers, but let’s hear what corporate executives are looking for.

In the article Rigor Redefined (2008), Tony Wagner interviewed many corporate CEOs to find out what they are looking for in today’s workforce. Wagner was surprised at some of the answers he discovered to his questions. For example, the President of BOC Edwards indicated that what he was looking for first and foremost was someone to ask good questions. He stated that while they could always teach the technical stuff, it is very difficult to teach someone how to think and to ask good questions.

Many of these company CEOs shared their need to hire people who can work collaboratively in teams to discuss and come up with out of the box solutions for today’s problems. All of this points to a need for educators to integrate into their teaching, meaningful activities with Bloom’s Taxonomy in mind. Throw out the old ditto sheets and give students real problems to solve. Give them opportunities to work in teams and make presentations of their work.

Redefine Rigor

Our schools must redefine their curriculum and their rigor if we are to meet the needs of today’s children. I tire of seeing the packaged curriculum materials that have now become the curriculum, rather than support materials. It worries me that teachers no longer have to think about their lessons since they are provided in the Teacher’s Guides. Districts are requiring scripted Planning and Pacing Guides to control what teachers must teach each day.

Essential to learning is the relationship between the teacher and the student. Students must feel met by the teacher with insight and understanding of who they are as learners. Teachers do best when they are empowered to create meaningful lessons that speak to their students.

Technology

This is the internet generation. We need to find ways for students to use technology in their learning. It is natural to them, and we can introduce them to the many ways technology can be used for good. The use of smart boards, projectors for PowerPoint presentations, classroom response systems, and even cell phones may be in our future as teachers. Rather than resisting this trend, we must find ways to embrace it and further connect to the children of the Internet Generation.

Integrated Learning

To avoid the dry and uninteresting approaches found in packaged programs and planning and pacing guides, integrate reading and writing into rich content. Use social studies and science to promote and practice what was learned in reading and writing class.

The current trend toward curriculum narrowing in social studies and science is sad indeed. Transfer those skills students need to practice and integrate them into everything else you are doing. Without sufficient social studies and science instruction, we are leaving our students bereft of essential background knowledge upon which other knowledge can be built.

Many of us are trying to raise student achievement for kids in poverty. 16.66% of all school age children are below the poverty line. This means we have children who lack essential background knowledge and vocabulary of the middle and upper class peers. Focusing on tested subjects of reading, writing and math, at the expense of social studies, science and the arts only intensifies this trend.

We must take seriously the building of cultural literacy through social studies teaching so that all our children have a chance to a better life. Psychological research has shown that to learn something new, we must be able to connect it to something we already know. Building a broad base of knowledge is essential for our poor and disenfranchised populations, and these students depend upon our schools for this.

Viable research has shown that cultural literacy is highly correlated with academic achievement, which in turn is correlated to annual income. If our job as educators is to prepare children for the 21st Century, then we must attend to the building of knowledge, not just teach them to read, write and do math.