The way we learn, discover new things, get information, … is changing and has already changed for the children growing up in this informational generation. As educators, in the form of teachers, parents, or relatives, there is a need to take on a new perspective with the way children are learning nowadays. There’s a paradigm shift with the way children learn – from a push method to a pull method.
Consider the way individuals of older generations get information. It may look a little like this. You get off of work, head home, and sit down to the local news broadcast on TV. This is the “push” method. The information is being pushed out to you. Some questions that can be asked now are, “Who or what determines what news you see?” ”Who or what determines how much information you get?” ”When does the information come?” In this push method, the individual is passive because the news stations make all those decisions. The individual has no control over what information is presented. The only real control is to turn off the TV or not. This push method is true of the newsletter being delivered to your homes too.
The children in the current generation do not use this “push” method, but rather, the “pull method.” The current generation does not wait for the broadcast of the news or the newspaper to be delivered. Children in the current generation go out and pull the information for themselves, at their own discretion, at their own time, at their own pace, by their own means, in multiple forms. Children are increasingly able to do more technical tasks, multi-task, and are becoming more resourceful. They are the ones who can surf the internet to find the latest news, not just locally, but in remote parts of the world. They can be listening to their iPods, instant messaging a friend (often more than one), surfing for the latest YouTube video, and doing the research for a school assignment on Wikipedia all at the same time. They know what they’re looking for and where to look for it. And even if they don’t know what to look for and where to look for it, a simple Google or Yahoo search will give them so many results that they can pull from. The children of this generation “pull” the information for them to learn, discover new things, get information, …
Are we, as educators, able to teach them in ways that support, fortify, affirm, and/or align with this pull method?
