Educating the digital native
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_M_336pDWoM]
Source: teachertube.com
Developed by Darren Draper at T4-Jordan School District in late 2007, this clip has been viewed close to 900,000 times on YouTube alone. What I find interesting is that, just over a year later, the world has moved on. There is no mention of micro-blogging and the Twitter revolution. This confirms my belief that the ‘long term’ is little more than a year in the realm of online learning.
Just saw this slideshow and set me thinking how I can engage the Singapore Armed Forces soldiers, and especially the cadets at the SAFTI Military Institute. My colleagues and I conduct lectures to these military personnel, using somewhat backdated methods, like Powerpoint slides or tutorials. They are all digital natives, having grown up with technology, but when they step into the military, they are forbidden to carry any camera handphones, not allowed to blog about the military experience or set up any social networking sites to network with their army friends. How can I use the power of the handphones to engage them? Using a mobile broadband with a SIM card, I can possibly ask them to SMS their answer to a quiz, and see how many of them could get the answer right. At least they will be wanting to see what’s the answer, and what the rest of the people’s answers are! How else can we engage them before and after class, using technology?
Rather than SMS, you could experiment with Twitter. You could also set a Ning site for them for social networking purposes. Good luck!