TY - CONF
T1 - Informal and tacit learning experiences of the digital natives: Their impact on tackling learning situations
AU - Jones, B.
AU - Hernández-Serrano, M.J.
AU - Miller, B.
AU - Dujo, A. García Del
N1 - Our first case study analysed the kind of knowledge generated by university students when they looked for information on the Internet (type, object, quantity and structure). 60 undergraduate students were recruited from different educational degrees in the University of Salamanca (Spain). Findings showed that students were not strategic in their learning approaches. We noted how students approach learning with simplicity, even if they have complex internalized modes of learning. Their reference framework when tackling a new learning situation appeared as not based on an in-depth reflection and strategic "reading" of the new context, but on a process of generalization of ways of learning based on simplicity, rapidity and shallowness (Hernandez, 2009). These results provoked a number of questions: Do students act quickly and superficially only in extra academic learning contexts, such as when seeking information on the Internet? Or do students extrapolate this learning mode, where they are capable of generating knowledge in interaction with technology, in a formal way, quickly and without intermediaries, to a formal situation requiring more structured higher order thinking? This last question underlies crucial themes for educators to consider as to the real impact of the digital culture on these subjects and how belonging to this culture modulates their construct of what is learning together with their abilities to learn in other formal contexts? In other words: their cultural influence determines the handling of all information that students locate, select and use?This last question lead us to a second experimental study in which we hypothesized around the influence of the variable of awareness about their own way of learning. We developed a methodology for learning oriented Internet searches, in order to demonstrate that by eliminating the opaque elements of their way of learning, teaching and instruction could more ably facilitate efficient information seeking and knowledge generation. Our study design type was a non-equivalent control group. The sample consisted on 24 undergraduate students, 12 in each group tested. Our results demonstrate how students do not understand the need for strategic learning or searching until they become aware of the deficiencies in their own learning mode. We conclude that meeting the learning needs of students who have a culture defined by attitudes and behaviour specifically related to the technological world in which they live must determine a widening in educational thinking. Meeting these needs must go beyond technological instrumentality and into a full understanding of a cultural evolution, where the effects of the informal and tacit modes of learning are precipitating changing norms, values and attitudes that redefine the roles and spaces of all educational agents.
PY - 2011/4/13
Y1 - 2011/4/13
N2 - This paper presents the results of two studies concerning student learning experiences in the context of notions of students as “digital natives” and where their instructors are “digital immigrants” (Prensky,2001), using methodologies and approaches determined in a pre-digital age. For digital natives, new and emerging technologies and information ubiquity impacts on the way they live out and experience learning: there is no personal or cultural memory of a time preceding the digital culture (Carrington,2007). Their learning history and consequent learning styles are being differently shaped under the influence of a tacit component (Jones & Miller); as they learn often quite autonomously, while they search, shop, play and network. For them, the perception of what efficient learning means is different.
AB - This paper presents the results of two studies concerning student learning experiences in the context of notions of students as “digital natives” and where their instructors are “digital immigrants” (Prensky,2001), using methodologies and approaches determined in a pre-digital age. For digital natives, new and emerging technologies and information ubiquity impacts on the way they live out and experience learning: there is no personal or cultural memory of a time preceding the digital culture (Carrington,2007). Their learning history and consequent learning styles are being differently shaped under the influence of a tacit component (Jones & Miller); as they learn often quite autonomously, while they search, shop, play and network. For them, the perception of what efficient learning means is different.
KW - tacit knowledge, information ubiquity, digital natives
M3 - Poster
T2 - CAL 2011 Learning Futures: Education, Technology and Sustainability
Y2 - 12 April 2011 through 15 April 2011
ER -