Session 6

Rethinking Teaching: Guiding Digital Natives in the Classroom

Session Description:

Educational technologies have become so pervasive on our campuses today that students and faculty can not ignore them. Growing investments in technology (Cuban, 2001; Oppenheimer, 2003) coupled with the increasing access to technology resources characterizes digital natives in our campuses. Today’s youth are exposed to digital technology in many aspects of their day-to-day existence – this has a profound impact on their personalities, including their attitudes and approach to learning. The digital natives frequently use the Internet for Education, Communication, Entertainment, and Self-expression. This generation is distinctly different in their characteristics and learning expectations.

The tools familiar to the digital natives such as cell phones, text messaging, Podcasts, MP3 players, CD-RW, DVD, can all be used to educate them. Lectures dominate college classrooms, but in order to reach out and really educate the digital natives, faculty might require a different approach to teaching. Faculty will need to provide more flexibility in their curriculum as well as integrate digital media, online collaborations, and virtual learning communities into their teaching. Such approaches could result in an interactive and open-ended authentic type of learning that could benefit the digital natives.

The challenge then facing instructors is to recognize the learning styles of the digital natives and to develop learning offerings that are appropriate to their cognitive learning patterns. This paper argues for active strategies to guiding digital natives in the classroom. Oblinger and Oblinger (2005) note, “Whether the Net Generation is purely a generational phenomenon or whether it is associated with technology use, there are a number of implications for colleges and universities (p.2.10). One obvious implication is that teachers need to change their teaching style. They will need to incorporate, for instance, blogs, iPods, and video games in their pedagogy as well as learn to accept divided attention spans.

Presenters: Jared Keengwe, Dr. Assion Lawson-Body, Mrs. Laurence Mukankusi

Jared Keengwe is Assistant Professor of Education at the Department of Teaching and Learning at the University of North Dakota. He graduated in 2006 from Indiana State University with a doctoral degree in Curriculum, Instruction, and Media Technology. Dr. Keengwe has recently published articles on pedagogical uses of computer tools, faculty integration of computer technology into instruction, and students’ perceptions of computer technology use to enhance their learning.

Dr. Assion Lawson-Body is an Associate Professor of Information Systems at University of North Dakota. He obtained his Ph.D. and MBA in MIS from Laval University, Quebec, Canada. He also received DESS-CTCI from IAE of Montpellier, France. Assion is also a Visiting Professor at IFGCar (Institut de la Francophonie pour la Gestion dans la Caraibe), Port-Au-Prince, Haiti. His publications have appeared in numerous Journals and Reviews. He has also published in several conference proceedings.

Mrs. Laurence Mukankusi is a Lecturer of Accountancy at University of North Dakota. She obtained her MBA from University of North Dakota. She also received her BBA in Accountancy from Laval University, Quebec, Canada. Her publications have appeared or will appear in Journal of Electronic Commerce in Organizations and other outlets. She is also working in several conference proceedings. Her current teaching and research focuses on Accounting Principles, E-Health, Revenue Recognition, E-commerce, E-Business, and E-government.