Understanding Technology Learners

Today’s learners appear smarter, yet they can’t read as their parents do and they are addicted to the Internet. Even in classes, their concentration is questionable as they are uneasy to simply sit and listen. They become alive again through video presentations, group activities and computer classes.

The concern for new learners is valid. On the other hand, it is to be admitted that our teachers today generally use the traditional education program applicable to learners of the past, acquainted with linear, textual, and sequential learning. They fail to realize that the new generation of the 21st millennium is not the kind of learner that they were, but are information technology or digital learners.

It is observed that, the new learners spend much time talking with friends on their cell phones, sending text messages, interacting through social Internet media like the Facebook, playing video games and surfing the World Wide Web.

Lest the concern for new learners is not well understood, it serves to know what scientists say, as follows: There are positive benefits derived from the use of information technology or digital resources and these counterbalance possible negative effects of technology on children.
Daily exposure to high technology-personal computers, video game gadgets, cell phones, Internet search sites-stimulates the brain by strengthening and creating neural circuits.
A current technological revolution is creating an intellectual revolution, faster and better than ever before.
The 19th century psychologist Jean Piaget presented a chart from childhood to adulthood with the first two years of susceptible minds, six years of acquiring communication skills, teenage years of transition concrete thinking, and adult years of abstract thinking and reasoning. Given the digital age today. Piaget’s traditional learning chart may have to be redefined. Even at a very early stage at preparatory school, computer-aided instruction is offered as digital tools. Digital technology resources, such as Ipod music devices, video game gadgets, computer games, mobile phones, and the Internet contribute to their digital acculturation.

Truly, there are valid concerns which must be met, and among these is the feared underdevelopment of new learners along social face-to-face interaction skills. On the other hand, there is the phenomenon of the young generation taking on multi-tasking as they perform tasks simultaneously: watching video, chatting on line, downloading pictures and music, surfing the Web, etc. 



True to say, research shows the multitasking can be detrimental since this prevents concentration and the completion of specific tasks. However, multitasking characterizes professional work in the new world of information technology. There is the need therefore to balance the good and possibly detrimental changes observed among new learners of this information technology age.