In my previous article, Learning for the Always-On Generation, readers were introduced to several learning attributes of the digital generations. Thanks in large part to digital bombardment; the pervasive exposure to television, smartphones, computers, gaming consoles, and tablets regularly, today’s students are neurologically wired differently and prefer to learn using different methods and tools than learners of the past.

The first attribute, digital learners prefer receiving information quickly from multiple, hyperlinked digital sources, directly opposes the traditional classroom practice of releasing information from a single source in the classroom – the teacher. The second attribute, digital learners prefer parallel processing and multitasking, debunks some popular myths about multitasking and what exactly digital-age learners are doing as they try to juggle multiple interfaces and tasks all at once. The third attribute examines how digital learners prefer processing pictures, sounds, color, and video before they process text.

What follows next are the six remaining learning attributes of the digital generations.

Learning Attribute #4 - Digital learners prefer to network and collaborate simultaneously with many others.

In the past, the traditional educational practice has been to initially have learners work independently, before exploring what they had learned with their classmates. In fact, outlets of communication were not as prevalent as they are today. Outside of school, interactions with their friends were generally limited to conversations that were either made in person or by phone. However, today, children have grown up with literally hundreds of ways to communicate with one another. The new digital landscape allows the younger generations to connect anytime, anywhere, with anyone using digital tools to communicate. 

The digital generations are highly social - although not in the same way that the older generations are. They use computers, laptops, tablets, smartphones, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, video mashups, Instagram, Snapchat, Skype, Facebook, texting, tweeting, social networking, and hundreds of other tools to collaborate and learn independently or from one another. Based on current trends, being able to transparently communicate and work with others in both virtual and face-to-face teams is becoming an increasingly critical skill.

Educators can align their instructional strategies to tap into this learning attribute by:

- Using collaborative teams during projects.

- Using Google Drive to migrate common application types online and provide the means to share access to these documents with others using links and permissions.

- Using Socratic Seminars to create and answer thought-provoking questions.

Learning Attribute #5 - Digital readers unconsciously read text on a page or screen in an F or Fast-pattern.

As a result of digital bombardment and the constant urge to rapidly skim, scan, and scour through digital resources, a ‘new’ reading pattern has emerged for the always-on generations. Before the proliferation of digital screens and web-based content, traditional book readers engaged in a reading pattern similar to the letter ‘Z.' Traditional readers would start their reading experience at the top left of a page. Then the reader’s eyes would read to the right until it reached the end of the text line. Next, the reader’s eyes would move diagonally down to the next line and repeat the reading pattern from left to right.

Today, as a result of constant exposure to digital reading formats, reading also involves viewing the layouts of things such as social media pages, websites, tablets, smartphone screens, ebooks, and video games. New research has emerged that demonstrates that digital readers don’t read pages the way older generations do. Instead, their eyes first skim the bottom of the page, then scan the edges of the page, before they start scanning the page itself for information in what’s called an F or fast pattern.

The reading behavior occurs as follows:

1. Users read in a horizontal movement, usually across the upper part of the content area. This initial element forms the F’s top bar. 

2. Next, users move down the page slightly and read across in a second horizontal movement that typically covers a shorter area than the previous movement. This additional element forms the F’s lower bar.

3. Finally, users scan the left side of the content in a vertical motion. This last element forms the F’s stem.

 Z-Pattern                                      F-Pattern

Educators can address this learning attribute by:

- Strategically teaching students the difference between deep reading versus superficial reading.

- Placing images or important text features on the bottom, right side of resource pages to force their student’s eyes to focus on that area (since it is often ignored).

- Using a mixture of images and text on a student resource.

Learning Attribute #6 - Digital learners prefer “just-in-time” learning.

Traditionally, schools use the “just-in-case” approach in their academic programs. Learners are introduced to concepts “just-in-case” they will be on a test, “just-in-case” they are needed for a good grade, or “just-in-case” the concepts and knowledge are eventually required when they grow up. However, as mentioned earlier, the world has fundamentally changed, and continues to change even more each day. The global economy has created a new division of labor that rewards people who can make swift, well-informed decisions utilizing multiple information sources. At the same time, it penalizes those who lack the modern-day skills needed for the new workforce and workplace. As a consequence, learners are entering a working world where they need to be continuously upgrading their skills just to stay current - let alone move ahead in their careers. The digital generations must prepare for a life of constant learning, unlearning, and relearning if their skills are to stay relevant in emerging work environments. 

To be successful, they must embrace a “just-in-time” mentality - just-in-time to learn a new skill, just-in-time to accomplish a new task, just-in-time to solve a real-world problem, just-in-time for a new job, or just-in-time to fulfill a new passion.

Educators can align their instructional strategies to tap into this learning attribute by:

- Allowing students to use their preferred tools to perform research such as Wikipedia, YouTube, or non-digital reference materials.

- Encouraging students to explore their passions inside and outside of school.

- Using Ted Talks or TED-Ed to learn a wide variety of topics.

Learning Attribute #7 - Digital learners are looking for instant gratification and immediate rewards, as well as simultaneously deferred gratification and delayed rewards.

Digital learners have grown up in a world with access to the new digital landscape and the tools needed to navigate it once they get there. One of the most influential factors that keep them coming back for more is the constant feedback they receive from their digital habits. Digital tools provide instant and ongoing feedback to their users. As the digital generations dive into their virtual environments, they receive feedback and gain immense and immediate gratification for their efforts. Why do they keep coming back?

The answer is simultaneously complex, yet easily observable. If an aspiring photographer adds a photo to Instagram and immediately receives 50 likes from followers, then they are receiving both immediate feedback and instant gratification. If a young man shares a tweet on Twitter that is favorited and retweeted a dozen times by friends and strangers alike, they receive immediate feedback and instant gratification. If a young lady posts a video onto YouTube, and it receives 75,000 views and hundreds of likes, then she receives immediate feedback and instant gratification. If a young gamer reaches Level 100 in their favorite video game, they receive immediate feedback and instant gratification. 

And while these digital milestones provide immediate feedback to the digital generations, they also simultaneously provide deferred gratification and delayed rewards. Let’s consider the previous examples through a less immediate lens. The aspiring photographer puts in the time to take the perfect photo. They may have taken hundreds of shots before settling on the best picture to share with their Instagram followers. The young man sharing his ideas on Twitter has to understand his audience and the type of content they want to read and tweet with others. HE may be sharing a passionate blog post, an essay on tectonic plates, or a drawing that took hours to complete. The young lady had to carefully plan, record, and edit her video to make it appealing to the millions of media-hungry viewers searching YouTube for entertaining or informative content. Finally, the young gamer may have spent hundreds of hours to develop their video game skills and experiences to achieve a milestone coveted by players of a lesser rank. All of these examples are powerful representations of deferred gratification and delayed rewards. 

Things like smartphones, video games, and social media tools all tell the children of the digital age that if they put in the time, and if they master the game or tool, they’ll be rewarded with the next level, a win, a place on the leaderboard, or a skill that’s respected and valued by their peers. What they put into a task determines what they get out of it, and what they accomplish or discover is clearly worth the hundreds, if not thousands of hours of effort they put into developing these skills. But at the same time, video games and digital technologies give kids immediate feedback for their efforts and quench their constant thirst for instant gratification.

Educators can align their instructional strategies to tap into this learning attribute by:

- Using games and game-based learning.

- Displaying examples of extraordinary work.

- Providing positive calls home.

Learning Attribute #8 - Many of the digital generations are transfluent. Their visual-spatial skills are so highly evolved that they have cultivated a complete physical interface between the digital and real worlds.

Due to the constant use of digital tools and regular immersion into the digital landscape, the always-on generations live a hybrid existence - one part constructed from real-world experiences - and the other part, in a virtual environment. The older generations may develop a digital presence, but many of them continue to see the real world and the digital landscape as two separate environments. On the other hand, many members of the digital generations are transfluent—their visual-spatial skills are so highly evolved that they appear to have cultivated a complete physical interface between their digital and real worlds. Their digital existence is just as relevant and impactful as their existence in the real world. Consequently, the digital generations have difficulty separating real from digital experiences. That’s why cyberbullying has such a powerful effect. For them, text, images, or videos viewed on a screen have the potential to cause equally as much psychological damage to the victims as real-world events. 

Fortunately, there are also many positive forms of digital interaction that are experienced by the younger generations. For example, they conduct multiple discussions with friends and family members using virtual environments (often simultaneously) and regularly participate in activities related to scholarly or personal research, social activism, altruism, or crowdsourcing.

Although the digital generations covet their smartphones and tablets, they don’t think about them because they have become transparent. They have outsourced parts of their brains to their smartphones. The devices are just a means to an end, not an end in itself. The digital generations use their tools to create seamless, transparent gateways between the real and virtual worlds. They create unique and useful solutions to real-world problems by transforming raw information into new knowledge that they can connect to existing knowledge, which is the definition of transfluency.

Educators can align their instructional strategies to tap into this learning attribute by:

- Facilitating virtual field trips with their students.

- Hosting online discussions using tools such as Flipgrid or Padlet.

- Teaching digital citizenship skills

Learning Attribute #9 - Digital learners prefer learning that is simultaneously relevant, active, instantly useful, and fun.

As educators, we must ask ourselves some critical questions. Will our learners remember performing the play, The Odyssey, for the student body? Will they remember the campaign undertaken to clean a local reservoir that has been fouled with pollution? Will they remember the Skype interview conducted with an astronaut from NASA, or a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, or a local politician explaining some of the critical issues their town is currently facing? OR Will they remember the countless hours of worksheets and homework assigned as busywork? Will they remember the endless days of standardized tests they had endured before they graduated? Will they retain the content of the hundreds of stand-and-deliver lectures they received during their time in school? How many teachers have ever been told by a former student that a standardized test changed their life?

Digital learners prefer learning that is simultaneously relevant, engaging, active, instantly useful, and fun. Outside of school, learners are always connected to others in a global intelligence. They are immersed in virtual environments that promote a participatory culture that encourages them to not only interact with their friends and classmates but also with others in far-off places. However, in many classrooms today, learners continue to be unplugged. As a result, the digital generations can become easily resentful and disengaged, because many of them have a digital life outside of school, while they have a non-digital life in school. 

Beyond the classroom, members of the digital generations have a considerable measure of control. They pick what video games to play, what blog posts to read or write, what causes to advocate for, what videos to like, which friends to text, what music to listen to, or what passion project to embrace. However, in schools, many of the digital generations have little sense of, or opportunity for, ownership of their life or learning. They lack the choices as to what books to read, what instructional tools to use, what products to create, or how to learn new information.

Educators can align their instructional strategies to tap into this learning attribute by:

• Providing opportunities for learners to use their hands (makerspace projects, manipulatives, work stations, centers, etc.)
• Allowing learners to demonstrate what they have learned by selecting their own end-product
• Encouraging passion-based learning opportunities such as in genius hours or 20 percent time.

Anyone who has felt the passion of teaching can tell you that the secret to success in the classroom has very little to do with being a good disciplinarian, classroom manager, or content dispenser. It has everything to do with creating engaging teaching methodologies that compel learners to want to be there. It’s not about making learners learn. It’s about getting them to want to learn. If learners have no motivation to learn, there will be no learning. As an educator, ask yourself this question - would learners choose to be in your classroom if they didn’t have to be there? 

The most powerful technology in the classroom - the killer app for modern learning - is a passionate teacher with a love of learning, an appreciation for the aesthetic, the esoteric, the ethical, and the moral — a teacher who transforms their classroom into a nexus of knowledge, creativity, and innovation. 

About this post

This post is a part of The Brief History of the Future of Education series. Based on the newly-released book written by Ian Jukes and Ryan L. Schaaf, this series will explore the TTWWADI mindset in schools, examine school’s challenges of teaching in the Age of Disruptive Innovation, traverse the new learning attributes of the digital generation, predict what learning will look like 20 years from now, observe the essential next-generation skills schools must cultivate in its learners to prepare them to survive and thrive in the future, and consider the new roles educators must adopt to stay relevant in the profession.

About the Author

Ryan Schaaf is an Associate Professor of Educational Technology at Notre Dame of Maryland University and faculty member in the Digital Age Learning and Educational Technology program at Johns Hopkins University. His passion is working with educators to explore the potential of gaming in the classroom, the characteristics of modern-day learning and learners, and exploring emerging technologies and trends to improve education. Follow him on Twitter @RyanLSchaaf