The Net Gen Learner

The students in today’s classrooms play an intricate role in the changes that are occurring in education curriculum and how teachers are presenting subjects and areas of academics to these students. Well, at least that is what should be happening in the classroom, but in actuality these students are more advanced and knowledgeable in using technology then the classroom has access today. With all the resources through technology that students have access to that they use as lines of communications, it’s no wonder that hearing someone stand in front of them lecturing is boring and loses their attention quickly. Students today have been raised in the internet age. They can look up anything on the internet that they want to find out about or learn. Having this power and access at their fingertips has changed the way students learn. Twenty years ago if you needed to do a research report on zebras you would go to the library and start with looking in the encyclopedia. Today’s students can just Google zebras and a much larger amount of information then an encyclopedia could ever offer then is right there in front of them. Most students today probably take for granted the fountain of knowledge that they have access to. Having this access has greatly changed the way these students learn compared to the encyclopedia students of the past.


Relationships for kids today have changed greatly due to technology. The way they speak to their peers and their parents is done through technology so why wouldn’t their way of learning be affected by technology too. If students feel more comfortable in using technology to learn that is should be implemented into schools. Unfortunately technology comes at a price, which is usually too high for public schools to afford the best of the best, especially with all the recent economic struggles. Not only is affording the technology for the classroom expensive, but you also need to train teachers in how to utilize it in the classroom. We are just starting to have teachers entering the workforce that are at the edge of Net Generation and understand technology, but there are a lot of teachers that are out there that it’s very new to them and the thought of using something they are not knowledgeable in or comfortable with scares them, but this is how students of today learn so it’s important for teachers to learn how to use it.

Technology in the classroom for students should not be used to replace the teacher, but the assist the teaching in reaching the learning levels of students today. Students are used to video games, tv, internet, cell phones and iPods and often these items are used at the same time. Students are reading less because of these devices in their life. Most students learn from experience of doing something rather than reading directions. Any student that buys the newest video game gets home and put the game on right away and starts playing rather than pulling out the instruction book that comes with the game and reading about it first. They are learning by doing. Just this past week end I had an experience with this. I helped my Mom (baby boomer generation) buy a new cell phone and when we got it home and looked in the bag from the store for the instruction manual. She thought they forgot to put in in the bag when they took her phone out to set it up so she called the store and they told her that they no longer print the manuals, but she could go online and read the manual if she needed. This is a perfect example of how technology is changing how we learn. If I was the one who got the cell phone I would get home and play with the phone to figure out how it worked rather then read the instructions. If this is how our students are learning we should be adapting education to fit their needs.

We can not replace the human contact we have in life. It is bad enough that we communicate more through text messages and face book with our family and friends then actually talking face to face, but this is what is happening with technology and how it changes out lives. We still need teachers in the classroom to work face to face with students and through research it is still apparent that students want to learn from teachers rather than learning everything through online contact. There are always students who need the motivation from a teacher in order to stay on task with school work. I think that teachers could become even more affective to students that need that motivation if they implemented technology to the student’s level of learning to make it new and interesting to students and not as boring as a lecture. The use of blogging or message boards in classrooms to discuss areas of study is something that today’s student understands and might fine more beneficial in learning then writing a research paper. We need to use the technology that the Net Generation is comfortable with to improve learning, but we can’t use it as a replacement. Students still need the fundamentals of reading and writing, but using games or computer programs to get students to learn these fundamentals is what they need today compared to the students of decades past. Maybe the use of Kindles in classroom would make reading a classic novel for an English class more enticing to students then reading a paperback version. Schools need to start small and build the use of technology in teaching students. School is also a great place where students can learning the importance of proper use of technology and how to keep yourself safe from the dangers that are out there on the internet. Parents of these children may be naïve when it comes to their children and the internet so schools need to teach the responsibility of technology if they are going to use it in the classroom. It is not going to be cheap to take these routes of using technology to teach to students of today, but if we want to reach the students of the Net Generation we need to start thinking like they do and seeing these through the digital age.