What I'm reading this week: "REWIRED-Understanding the iGeneration and the Way They Learn"

So, I'm reading Larry Rosen's book "Rewired: Understanding the iGeneration and the Way They Learn" this week. The basic premise underlying the book is that the minds of young students today “have changed – they have been ‘rewired’” through their constant immersion in digital worlds. Basing his argument on a whole battery of research about the diverse ways young people use technology, digital media, and social networks, Rosen argues that a “culture gap” has emerged between students (digital natives) and teachers, (digital immigrants). Consequently, in this book, which primarily seems to be aimed at parents and educators who struggle to understand the digital worlds young people inhabit, he makes a case for embracing technology and digital media within the classroom to reach students who are bored by traditional teaching methods.

Rosen provides a detailed introduction into the digital media worlds of members of the so-called iGeneration (those born in the 1990s and 2000s). Identifying their predilection for using their cell phones, watching TV, playing games and listening to music simultaneously, he advocates the need to change education by attuning teaching to the rewired behaviors of students outside the classroom. For example, he argues that the use of digital media such as podcasts or videos can give students the opportunity to learn at their own pace and provides them with the opportunity to review the information over and over again. He also offers a roadmap as to how to implement such new technologies in the teaching process (189 - 193). As he puts it, “the educational content is not the problem. It is the delivery method and the setting”.

In his discussions around the virtual world, Rosen argues that ‘the trick is the leverage and their love of social networks to create educational tools built around them’. While Rosen (2010) focuses on how social media could be used to strengthen students’ learning, the same messages around leverage and the love of social media could be applied to teachers and their use of social media for professional learning. Indeed, considering social media’s global use, it seems reasonable to suggest that many teachers are already users of these sites. Taking this stance, and as Rosen (2010) suggests, pre-engagement with social media, as opposed to Web 2.0 platforms, could act as a leverage to pedagogical dialogue.

In the end, Rosen’s Rewired is a manifesto for the introduction of more technology and digital media in the classroom as tools to enhance motivation, participation and fun while learning.

Citation:

Rosen, L. (2010). Rewired: Understanding the iGeneration and the way they learn. New York, NY: Palgrave MacMillan.