Digital learners

Attention is an important element in learning; if students’ attention is not gained, effective learning will never occur. We as 21^st century teachers should seek for technological resources and educational tools which engage students in their learning, thus students pay more attention.

This video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egRVc3R1u1U helped to intensely reflect upon very important issues that we as teachers are facing and will continue to face in our future teaching careers. We need to take into consideration how students learn therefore their learning styles. We have the responsibility to facilitate their learning through pleasant and enjoyable experiences and ultimately address their learning needs.

21^st century students are known as digital learners wherein in their personal lives they use technology frequently. Because of this technological phenomenon we need to create effective technological learning environments. Being Computing teachers we may take it for granted that our subjects on their own use technology but we still have to integrate technological resources in our subjects’ curriculum to fully gain students’ attention and participation since nowadays technology is an indispensable aspect in their lives. We have to reach our students through this technological aspect to entirely engage them in their learning experiences.

The WWW has a lot of effective potentials which can be exploited educationally by teachers. Through internet, teachers can dynamically teach, engage and reach students. There exist various web tools which can be integrated in teaching and learning such as wikis, blogs, games, forums, webquests, podcasts, e-portofolios, virtual worlds etc.

As the video illustrates, we should engage students enthusiastically in their learning rather than upset and annoy them through traditional teaching and learning. Thus e-learning systems would be the best solution to attract students where mostly all web tools can be incorporated in this environment and used actively by all students outside school premises. E-learning systems connect not only students’ altogether but also teachers, parents and other stakeholders. Hence building up communities where they can share ideas, information and even opportunities at a distance through technological means.