21st Century Learners

The knowledge world is growing exponentially and not just growing, it’s overriding itself faster
than ever before. In this context, the meaning of learner and learning has undergone a
cataclysmic change. To accept the truth, one can’t know it all. There’s simply too much to
incorporate in dynamic state of values which are changing too quickly. 21 st century learner is so
well equipped with multiple resources of what he perceives as knowledge that we need to
connect to sources of information, and to form connections between them. Term can be
defined as “incorporation”, but in the business sense but self-organizing personal learning
networks as we don’t have all the knowledge, nor do we want it. We have to access it
whenever we need it. But facilitating incorporation of learner’s needs through good sources of
new information is only part of the solution. Context setting is particularly important. Let the
learners know that they don’t need to remember every word; nor do they need to learn the
vague details of every topic and sub-topic; nor do they need to learn by rote the dates and
data. Yet, they need to know where to get this information when they need it.
21st century learner is motivated, self-directed with diverse learning styles characterizing
wealth in terms in terms of access to media and communication, and they demand engagement
in
everything they do. The students of today have something that they do and that they are
good at, something that has an engaging, creative component to it. This “Internet Generation”
shares personality characteristics that they are special: they are very conventional and they are
achievement oriented. These learners also feel pressured. In terms of motivation, today’s
learners do not respond well to present system of instruction and evaluation but respond
better to on- going evaluation. In this context a teacher has to take on the valuable role of
explainer, context provider, meaning maker, and evaluator/coach et all rather than waiting
until the end of an assessment period of study to evaluate as the evaluation has to be en-route,
moreover covering the material and preparing kids for the test is not preparing them for the
future. Le them explore the knowledge world. Self-directed learners are active instead of
passive and the learning occurs when learners take responsibility for the direction of their
learning.
Of course, the teacher guides the learner, but eventually the learner begins to make crucial
decisions about what they think is important to learn, and how they will approach the learning
task. The video game playing learners are extremely self-directed so a students’ cognitive
processes such as curiosity and interest, goals and goal orientation and self-efficacy must be
deliberately imported into the structure of the classroom.
The classroom is nothing less than a physical manifestation of naïve assumption that to learn is
simply to acquire information, built for teachers to effectively carry out the relatively simple
task of conveying information. The adventure of reading novels under the desk, and
surreptitiously listening to Walkmans is passé. While most of our classrooms were built under
the assumption that information is scarce and hard to find, nearly the entire body of human
knowledge now flows through and around these rooms by laptops and iPods. We don’t have to
destroy the walls; we just have to stop pretending that the walls separate us from the world,
and begin working with students in the pursuit of answers to real and relevant questions.

Tribhuvan Mendiratta
Subject Coordinator – English
Puranchandra Vidyaniketan
Barra-2, Kanpur – 208027
Phone 9839021783