The “Connected Generation” (“Generation C”) is defining its own learning journeys with mobile devices, apps, social networks, tablets, and personal tools to learn and play.  How does school leadership decide the best avenue to secure digital tool equity and access to digital learning and teaching opportunities? I still struggle as an educator when I say instruction and learning can be tied to one type of learning platform and one programmed…

What are the essential tools to help the connected Generation C be successful?  I bounce around the idea that in fact it may not be technology at all — rather, the vision of the integration of the new essential tools that promote connectivity.  Perhaps the new educator mindset should really focus on the ability to re-tool the cognitive skills of Generation C to promote higher level thinking. Everyone has followed…

Generation C will live through the greatest educational transformation during the next three years. This transformation will not pushed by education reform but instead by the world in which we live and the transformation of what it means to be “learned.”  Generation C (that is, the Connected Generation) already can master tech tools and information sources, leaving the greatest challenge of the education system: to encourage and inspire this generation to…

Michelle Pacansky-Brock is the author of the new book Best Practices for Teaching with Emerging Technologies. After you read this post, please join Michelle in a special VoiceThread Book Chat!  Author Book Chat Learning From Life: How Heart Surgery Transformed My Teaching In August, my new book published, Best Practices for Teaching with Emerging Technologies. This blog post tells the story of why emerging technologies transformed the way I teach…

Seeing the world through our learners’ eyes? Digital tools, communication, social networks, and even money redefine how we think about leading our Generation Connected (Generation C) students.  Information literacy, technology connection tools, and efficiency in daily tasks — all with digital tools — are forcing education to change.  The current generation of learners has always had digital cameras and touch-screen tools and may not ever know what the term “land…

First Five Days: Day 3 from Alas Media on Vimeo. In Scotland, thousands of school students will return to school this week after their six weeks of Scottish summer: rain, clouds, and the occasional glimmer of sunshine. Already, Scottish teachers like many others around the world are turning to those first days of school: What will we do? How will I engage my new classes? And what about those new…

“Generation C,” defined by communication and collaboration, is redefining its professional world around the term Personal Learning Networks (PLNs). The goal of Generation C educators and students is to create a streamlined source of information that meets personal education needs to become engaged, educated, and entertained. An evolution of these networks — from human to the Web to now social networks — can be seen during the career of a veteran educator who now…

It used to be that connecting with students involved face-to-face conversation, visual instruction, and personal encouragement. We now live in a connected age, where interactive classroom tools and digital books allow students to create their own personal learning networks. The evolution of personal technology and instant access to knowledge is reshaping education for today’s students, who have far more experience writing text messages than essays. How will today’s education leaders…