Studies have identified some of the learning characteristics
of the Net (Gamer) Generation as: employing scientific ways of thinking, risk
takers, persistent, sociable and preferring to get information digitally. A Linn County school district has in
place teaching/learning strategies to take advantage of and build on those
characteristics. In seventh grade
students post their writing on the course website and then post responses to
their classmates’ writing. In their
course, Career Tech, students use the computer and Internet all the time to do
modules and other activities. They experiment with a robot-like computer controlled carving devise.
In ninth grade a
teacher uses Google Docs to host a course website. Students can access the site 24 hours a day from school or
home to get assignments, read teacher posts and other activities, such as
building a rollercoaster. Parents also have access to some parts of the course
website. The teacher uses an interactive white board with remote input to encourage
student collaboration in the learning process.
The high school
Physics teacher continues the use of a course website for posting pretests,
problems, access to a digital online text as well as research. Notes and other material to help absent
or struggling students can also be posted. Projection equipment with computer software allows students with
laptop computers to post data from experiments and view the data from other
students. The software can also
produce a graph of class data, allowing comparison with individual data.
By Dean Hartman,
April 6, 2010