yourself if you forget the errand. —Woodrow Wilson
several other benefits. For
example, when the teacher
asked students to describe
how they felt about specific
learning experiences,
students had to recall the
learning, which triggered
mental rehearsal of that
information. He also asked
students to suggest other
ways they wanted to study
this material, which
provided fodder for differentiated instruction.
At first, many students
requested learning through
strategies like blogs or online
listening usually promotes empathy and
connectedness.
Discuss the experience as a whole
class. Ask how students felt about
talking and listening carefully to a peer
while disconnected from any digital
media. Did they notice facial expressions and body language? Did being
focused change the communication?
Let Them Teach
Our students’ digital expertise is an
important part of their world. We
should respect it. Encouraging students
to teach one another about digital skills
can help them see how they can use
their instant access to information to
This hyperconnectedness that
doesn’t always lead to connection
is a hallmark of the digital brain.
you don’t have to be tech savvy to guide
your students toward a healthy balance
between always being connected
through technology and connecting
with real people. Here are seven strategies to try.
Provide Reflection Time
After students search for information
online or learn new material, give them
time to reflect on what they’ve
absorbed. To reflect, a person must use
different areas of the brain and thereby
give some overworked areas of the brain
much-needed rest.
One high school teacher whose
school switched to a block schedule
considered how to use so much time
productively. He assigned journal
writing as a way for students to think
about their thinking. This forced
students to slow down and yielded
lessons. As the teacher balanced the use
of digital tools with face-to-face communication and low-tech materials,
however, students began to request
more face-to-face activities.
Disarm Them
Take away the toys occasionally and
encourage students to practice listening
to one person at a time. Explain how
uncomfortable you—and many
people—find it to converse with
someone who is reading or sending a
text message. Pair students and give
each partner three minutes to speak to
his or her partner about an assigned
topic. Each student must actively listen
to the other, make eye contact, and not
interrupt. After each partner has both
spoken and listened, have students
discuss together what each of them said
and how the experience felt. Attentive
help them evaluate and synthesize
concepts and create something new.
Henry was the Twitter king in his
middle school. Sasha’s blog was followed
by every girl in class. Wikis were Edgar’s
claim to fame. These three students had
a passion and talent for using digital
media and jumped at the chance to
demonstrate these tools’ potential for
21st century learning.
Edgar, for example, took his classmates to the Wikipedia site and searched
“causes of earthquakes.” He talked with
fellow learners about the entries that
came up and how to edit each entry. He
was very serious about adding information to a wiki with integrity, insisting
that this was a chance to add to a body
of knowledge, not a license to mislead
others. Most of Edgar’s classmates had
used Wikipedia, but they hadn’t realized
how interactive this site was or how to
