In a New York Times article, “New Class (room) War:  Teacher vs. Technology (11/07/07),” Professor Michael Bugeja, director of the journalism school at Iowa State University, noted that "The baby boomers seem to see technology as information and communication. Their offspring and the emerging generation seem to see the same devices as entertainment and socializing." Where our teachers want to explore applications with students and develop online courses, the students’ eyes see the social possibilities that the laptops bring. There is a profound disconnect and we realize that we need to find ways to bridge the gap. 

One teacher jumped right into the fray and tackled many of the issues that accompany the laptops. Her view is that teachers need to multitask in the classroom to meet the students where they are. She moved her entire science class online: students use electronic lab notebooks, submit assignments online, and she designs dynamic PowerPoint presentations that make use of the best of YouTube, Google Images, and songs. She has two teenage children of her own and she knows where these middle school students are headed. But, it takes a certain fearlessness to approach teaching this way. She is not afraid to fail; she routinely seeks input from the students on how to use applications and how to maximize learning with technology. Not every teacher is where she is. She gave a presentation at a staff meeting and shared all of her techniques and strategies. Many faculty members stared in awe at all that she does.  However, one faculty member stated, "It's great that you are doing all of that, but there is no way I can do that. I'll stick to paper and books."  

Even teachers who admit to being technology novices recognize that curriculum needs to meet the students in this area. In a unit on expository writing, one such teacher decided to use a mock trial simulation to facilitate the use of technology and dialogue around the issue of cyberstalking. The topic was timely, given the tragic suicide of Megan Meier, the thirteen-year-old girl who fell prey to an appalling hoax on My Space. Megan’s story acted as a backdrop to the trial. One of the written assessments asked students to compare her story to that of the victim in the cyberstalking mock trial. This activity captivated the students and they soared with a deep, meaningful learning experience and authentic uses of technology. Each legal team created a blog to share legal strategy. Students posted late into the night. Jury members took careful notes on their laptops during trial proceedings. Using the video camera on the laptop, students videotaped opening and closing statements and assessed their performance. Instead of the laptops as a distraction to learning, in this situation, they enhanced teaching and learning. Where earlier in the semester this teacher had battled students over appropriate use in the classroom and staying on task when writing, she now had success in harnessing their collective energy around a genuine learning experience. 

At Kansas State University, in an Introduction to Cultural Anthropology course, 200 students began a brainstorming exercise thinking about how students learn. With the use of Google Documents, these students quickly gathered input and created a short video entitled, “A Vision of Students Today”, highlighting the outdated nature of teaching and learning today. The video offers a wonderful snapshot into the mind of the current generation of students. The camera flashes across the lecture hall and finds students holding up placards with different tidbits of technology use over the course of a year, from the number of pages of emails read (500), to the number of Facebook profiles read (1281) to the number of web pages read (2300). The point: these students learn differently and pedagogy needs to keep pace.

As the recently released MacArthur Foundation study on digital youth stated: “they (kids) are often more motivated to learn from peers than from adults […] to stay relevant in the 21st century, education institutions need to keep pace with the rapid changes introduced by digital media.”