“A powerful force to change the university is the students. And sparks are flying today. A huge generational clash is emerging in our institutions. The critiques of the university from fifteen years ago were ideas in waiting – waiting for the new Web and for a new generation of students who could effectively change the old model” (Don Tapsott in Macrowikinomics – see page 156)
The wave of new students has arrived and they have been dubbed “digital natives,” of which I am apparently one. This wave of new students use digital technology with ease, but are they actually well-versed in digital technology? Not in my experience. After all, I am still learning and have a great deal to learn about how the digital “stuff” I use actually works. I prefer to think of digital natives not as oppositional from digital immigrants ( those not born into digital tech), but as a diverse set of learners who are working with (or sometimes still waiting) for the education system to meet our needs. Let’s move away from simplistic sound bites about teachers being “old-fashioned digital immigrants” students as digital savants. Neither position is entirely true nor entirely off-base.
This is the stereotype but not the reality.
We can say that students who are digital natives are really artists of their own education using the palate of social media technologies and platforms to learn and study, conduct research, and collaborate with professors and other students alike. Social media is about sharing, while also about individualizing one’s own unique online experiences. So, as the new student is learning on their own steam, they are also interacting with a community that transcends their classroom. Thus, they are the global student. The new student can access lectures from renowned scholars from MIT for free, for instance. They also can use some free brush-up math or science help from the Khan Academy. This is unprecedented. The source of the plethora of information stems from the tools students have, in particular laptops and Smartphones (with their many array of apps), which allow them to manipulate, interact with, and network with the information they learn. This new wave of students relies on collaborative learning.
Collaborative Learning 101:
Interactive multimedia consists of text, image, audio, and video, which all collaborate to help students learn and create. The interactivity of these tools is revolutionary, as social media guru, Don Tapscott, prolifically acknowledges in his 2010 best-selling book, MacroWikinomics: Rebooting Business and the World: “we need to toss out the old industrial model of pedagogy – how learning is accomplished – and replace it with a new model called collaborative learning” (141). (Read our interview with Don by clicking here for the post and here for the prezi). This new pedagogy ensues all “participants would contribute to an open platform of world-class educational resources that students everywhere can access throughout their lifetime. We call it a Global Network of Higher Learning” (141). In schools, students are becoming part of a global network and the value of this is far-reaching, especially in regards to reshaping the global economy for a new century. Furthermore, students from an early age are not just becoming more marketable, but reaching potentials that move beyond the financial benefits of a good education. The new student has social media skills that seem inborn, but they have actually been actively trained by their exposure to social technology. It is the Millennial Generation (1980-1995) and Generation Z (1995-present) of which are now occupying schools and often face educators and curriculum that cannot meet their learning needs. This applies to all disciplines in education, from the humanities, arts, to the social and natural sciences. Due to the internet’s hybridization of information, students no longer separate information into categories. In other words, the average young person’s life is multidisciplinary and requires multi-tasking in order to be part of their demographic. The Wikipedia effect is an example that Tapscott has pointed out. Wikis are more than just sites, they are collaborative spaces which are shaped by readers, who enter, edit, and delete information. Wikis are more than just simple websites because each wiki is a site of interaction between multitudes of readers who are also simultaneously writers. Due to their exposure to this model of knowledge production, students are used to interacting with what they learn, therefore, the simple teacher/professor – student relationship is changing. This last point must be recognized. Collaborative learning, as Tapscott argues, is changing power dynamics on both microcosmic (in the classroom) and macrocosmic (in educational institutions throughout North America) levels. Instead of a hierarchy, classrooms and institutions will be more like communities, where power is shared and focused on serving the development of many individuals. Communities value trust over obedience and authority, therefore, students develop a sense of belonging on their own terms that will ultimately serve others. Ultimately, social media encourages community and communication because it is collaborative.
The Blog as a Unique, Collaborative Learning Tool for Student 2.0:
As pedagogy, social media is inherently experimental. A blog is a good example of a type of social media which is empowering students to experiment and shape their ideas. For instance, part of Dr. Sara Humphrey’s teaching methods is to allow students the option of doing a blog for a major assignment. Many students jump at this opportunity and use it as a new way of exploring a literary text. Since blogs are a dynamic way to express content, students can write blogs similar to essays and/or use different ways to present their interpretation of the text. Aside from producing analytical content, students also design the blog, which enables them to unlock creative ways to express an interpretation. We have provided a link to Dr. Humphrey’s own blog, “The Expendable Citizen,” below. In this blog, you will find links to student blogs from Dr. Humphrey’s courses. We are confident that you will be impressed! The blog as a learning tool provided these students with a unique challenge. Why is this relevant? For various reasons. The university is changing to accommodate social media on all levels. The challenge faced by universities right now is to incorporate it in the undergraduate classroom, in order to introduce students early on to using it, exploiting it for its value to their studies, and begin to develop an inter-disciplinary communication network with students throughout their academic career. Blogging as a digital media tool offers an introduction to an array of skills that helps students prepare for the future. Many students agree that a blog can be a step towards a professional online identity since blogs can be used as an addition to a CV or resume. Blogs may even function as a CV and such innovation is bound to encourage future employers that their candidate has unique skills ready for a digital world. Ultimately, blogs and other digital mediums open up a new dimension for educational institutions to explore. Digital media in the classroom is so promising because it encourages the five principles of digital media that Don Tapscott points out: collaboration, openness, sharing, integrity, and interdependence.
It is a whole new way being a student for a new age. The following resources offer examples of instructor’s embracing digital mediums in their teaching.
Dr. Diane Jakacki’s blog:
Dr. Sara Humphrey’s blog:
Dr. Constance Crompton is a postdoctoral fellow at the Electronic Textual Cultures Laboratory at the University of Victoria. She specializes in digital humanities, Cultural Studies, Victorian periodicals and popular culture, the literatures of transition (1880-1920), and gender studies. We have included her personal teaching philosophy on our site, as it expresses a particular exemplary opinion of digital media in the university setting.
Dr. Constance Crompton’s Teaching Philosophy: Dr. Crompton’s Teaching Philosophy