Revisiting 21st Century Learner

I have been thinking a lot about my previous post about my current experiences with the lack of technological support in my classes this semester at the University of Illinois. Granted the professors and TAs are of an older generation which views facebook, twitter, cellphones, etc. as distractions in the classroom, there are other professors on campus which are trying to keep up with the times.

Here are a few examples I have seen:

• Calculus professor trying to use facebook as a discussion space for students (through trial and error, has decided to use a different form of social media).
• My Professional Issues for Teachers course (EOL 440) professor initiated a Moodle chatroom during a class discussion so that those on laptops could communicate with each other.
• The use of wikis for classroom websites, posting information relevant to the course online so the students can access it from anywhere.
• A class twitter account to tweet questions to the professor without needing to be formal, allowing for quick interactions between students and professors.

I wanted to explore deeper what it would mean to be a 21st century learner as well as a 21st century teacher in college, at the University of Illinois. I am currently a section leader for Calculus II at the university of I have a class of 20+ freshman new to the university. On my first day of class I did an informal poll on the use of technology, social media, etc. Most students used facebook, about half of the students used twitter on a regular basis, and most students had a laptop. To qualify that last statement, each student in my class had a laptop but one, this student only brought a tablet (the iPad) to college to use.

Being in the same classroom as these students, only separated by 3 years, has shown me how much change has occurred in the use of technology. I am already outdated, the methods that I use in my own learning come second nature to these students. So how does this compare to my professors and the other professors here at the university?

What if I was the student who only brought an iPad to college? I want to explore this question in detail later.

So what do I think 21st century learning would look like at the University level?

• Classroom management software like Compass or Moodle would be more prevalent, and actually use the majority of capabilities (such as the chat feature in Moodle, online quizzes, a place to make resources available to students in which they can also contribute, forums, blogs, and many more)
• Flip classrooms - This is a topic showing up a lot in middle and high schools where the lecture is what is assigned for homework and the students watch the lecture at home, class time is reserved for group work and questions because that is the time crucial to forming understanding.
• I am already seeing this at the university level in our general Physics classes, previewing lecture material is part of the online coursework portion of the class.
• If you are in a course that has a separate discussion section then this wouldn't be necessary.
• Posting lecture slides beforehand is the first step to this, allowing students to think about class material before it is presented can help further classroom discussion.
• Students would have better access to electricity and the internet throughout campus. In most of my lecture halls there are very, very few outlets for me to actually bring my laptop to class to use.
• The dorms are starting to allow wifi access, but not all dorms have this. For those students with technologies which require wifi (like the tablets), this renders them useless.
• The introduction of IllinoisNet versus UIUCnet has allowed many smartphone users to stay connected without having to go through QuickConnect. This encourages smartphone use in classrooms.