First Lesson....

Reading the material this week in Chapter One was actually better than i thougt it would be. I learned some pretty interesting facts about the "digital student" and computer systems of the twenty-first century. I never really sat down before to think about how different the current teenage generation of the 21st century is compared to those of the twentieth century. The book was explaining how the teens of this day and age function on totally different avenues than teens of previous years by using the electronic resources that are easily accesible to them. The teens of today are multitaskers, play oriented, hypercommunicators, and are fantasy-based learners. The teens of yesterday were single taskers, work oriented, passive communicators, and reality based learners. It seems to me as if our generation is a lot more resourceful and bright (that's good to know)!
In 1983, John Keller established a creative way for students to be motivated in the classroom and be aware of their performance, status, and what they are actually learning from the lessons in which they are taught. The ARCS motivational model consists of four components that are key to the students everyday activities: Attention, Relevance, Challenge/Confidence, and Satisfaction/Success. I thought that this was an excellent way to get the students motivated and anxious to learn and come to school.
I found it interesting that even elementary and middle school children and faculties could have online pen pals in a well-guarded community and wesite that is linked through the school. Technology is just getting better and the school systems are taking advantage of the resources that they are fortunate enough to have access to. This week was also interesting for me because i learned how the class will normally flow and i got a feel for the type of exercises that we will be completing as the semester goes on.