Effective+Learning+Experience

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**Photo: (http://www.signage-digital.co.uk/, 2009) Creative Teaching and the Learning Experience** 

Teachers may at first be apprehensive when developing unit plans and lessons for the digital natives in their classrooms. These students already know how to use the technology in the classroom along with their own cell phones and other wireless devices. Digital natives thrive on fast-paced digital stimulation, so if teachers neglect to teach in this manner they will quickly lose their students.

Fortunately for teachers, using creative technology in the classroom is becoming faster and easier. Teachers can now develop glogs or wiki sites, and use videos and graphics to teach lessons. Teachers can even take risks and begin to integrate student's hand held devices such as cell phones and mp3 players in their teaching.

In Donovan R. Walling's article, //Idea Networking and Creative Sharing, // he stresses the importance of using the same technology students are familiar with in order to develop creative learning environments. Walling states: "When students engage with technology to produce media, impetus and inspiration often come from the work of others. In today's new media environment in which students blur the line between school-based technologies and personal devices and engagement, educators find themselves standing on a railroad track facing a speeding high-tech train. They can stand pat and get run down. They can step aside and get passed by. Or, if they recognize the promise of tech-savvy teaching, they can swing aboard and join their students on a fascinating journey of discovery." (2009, pg 22)

Creating and effective learning environment for digital natives does not mean teachers have to completely ignore the past. Digital natives should learn to appreciate the creative technological advances that caused the digital era to develop. Roman (2009) suggests teachers use the arts and media to examine creativity in the digital age. Roman's article suggests that teachers have students "examine the area of computer graphics and animation. Look at the pioneering work of Walt Disney and other cartoon makers of the 1930s-1960s and see how their field has changed. Disney pioneered all sorts of fascinating camera and lens technology for his animation wonders. How has computer animation radically changed what is possible? How are the highly popular voice-over animations today made, compared to earlier times? Where might our digital technology take us in the coming decades?" (pg. 14)

As far as creating an effective learning experience for digital natives is concerned, the ideas are not much different than creating effective learning experiences in the past. Digital native or not, students need to be captivated. Lessons should be exciting and worth remembering. The only difference is the tools teachers will use to deliver lessons.