Digital Youth Portrait

 

The changes caused by electronic revolution in 21^st century concerned all the possible fields and the education is not an exception. For this digital generation education needs rapid changing and this change is mainly technical based. Such changes in humanity’s educational needs also require changes in pedagogy; teaching methods need to accord with subject material. There is no sense to compare the thinking, understanding and world conception of this generation with the previous one. And it is not at all surprising: hello smart boards, good bye blackboards, you don’t need a piece of chalk you can use your finger instead to tap on the board, you need more information than the teacher provides, don’t worry, go online you will learn more and more: there is an abundance of information; you can find enough information even to teach your teachers.

The digital youth portrait of 21 century amazes me, and it really makes me feel good and proud. It’s really impressive to see the creativity, the curiosity and the engagement of little kids in this digital world. Nowadays children have the possibility to learn more, to get more information and this leads to a greater desire to discover, to understand and to apply what is new for them. They are not only able to use the internet, to search for things they crave applying it, discovering new things and demonstrating it to others. They know exactly what they need and they manage to find it without any problem. 

In these conditions teachers’ role becomes highly difficult. We need to organize classes in a way to make it more interesting, more informative and more engaging than what children can find independently at home. So, teachers are the ones who need to be involved in this digital world in order to understand, help and give something new to children. Because the children that are digital natives today are still children and they still need to be taught and the most important role that a good teacher may play in their life is to give them right directions and to help them learn how to learn independently. 

Useful links:

http://digitallife.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/06/14/6856773-how-the-internet-revolutionized-education?chromedomain=technolog 

http://digitallifeacademy.com/blog/archives/63