Journal of the Effective Schools Project, Volume 18, 2011 Page: 22
79 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Dublin ISD: Providing Students with
21st Century Tools
Paige Worrell, Shaun Barnett, and Jennifer Miller.Teachers are constantly striving to
meet the learning needs of all stu-
dents. This is becoming an increas-
ingly difficult task as the charac-
teristics of today's students contin-
ue to change. How many times
have you thought, "I would never
have acted like that in class," or "I
would have died before question-
ing my teachers' authority"! The
reality is that students of today do
not act, nor learn, the way their
teachers did. They have had very
different social experiences and
are using technology that was non-
existent in previous generations.
Prensky (2001) summarized the
research of social psychologists in
the following statement: "The en-
vironment and culture in which
people are raised affects and even
determines many of their thought
processes" (p. 3). He suggested
that these students (Digital Na-
tives) crave interactivity-an im-
mediate response to their each and
every action [and] "traditional
schooling provides very little of
this" (p. 4).
Today's students have been re-
ferred to as Generation Y, Millen-
nials, Digital Natives, and Genera-
tion NeXt. Using terminology that
now has new meaning, these stu-
dents are described as having
grown up "connected" and they are
"plugged in" 24/7. The use of so-
cial networking sites, online multi-
player games, and access to the
plethora of information has
changed the way students interact
with each other and information.
The only constant in their life ischange. Schools and teachers
must seriously consider the impli-
cations of this phenomenon on the
learning environment and their
instructional planning. Teachers
must also understand and embrace
the way the students interact with
technology and leverage the tech-
nology to provide more effective
instructional experiences. Accord-
ing to Taylor (2010), "Pedagogies
of activity and engagement, espe-
cially those that use recently avail-
able Web- and technology-based
tools and resources, can be more
effective" for the Generation NeXt
learner than traditional methods of
instruction" (p.192).
Dublin ISD has embraced the need
for instructional change. In the
first complete year of a one-to-one
laptop initiative, Dublin ISD hoped
to increase student engagement by
using technology integrated in-
structional strategies. The district's
technology initiative created
changes in the curriculum that
aligned with students' use of lap-
tops in all classes. In addition to
the laptop computers, all Dublin
classrooms have SMARTBoards
with software that allows the class-
room teachers to prepare daily
agendas and web links related to
the content and concepts being
taught. To create an overall learn-
ing environment, district level pro-
fessional development is structured
to include technology training and
introduce the concept of profes-
sional learning communities.
Because research suggests thatThe reality is that
students of today do not
act, nor learn, the way
their teachers did.22
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Tarleton State University. Effective Schools Project. Journal of the Effective Schools Project, Volume 18, 2011, periodical, 2011; Stephenville, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth201694/m1/26/: accessed March 29, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Tarleton State University.