Context

The context of learners

Activity (Part A): Your classroom

Think about a class you are teaching and the students in that class.

Write a list of words describing issues and factors that influence your students’ lives in the first column of this table (.pdf 114kB). Save this list in the folder you created for the documents associated with this course.

View this tag cloud.

Did any of the words in the tag cloud appear in your list?
Are there any you would like to add or change?

Text version (.pdf 106kB)

The changing world

Watch this video about today’s learners:

Our students live in a changing world with many contexts and influences. Our students are facing emerging issues such as global warming, famine, poverty, health issues, increasing global population, an explosion in social media and other environmental and social issues.

Consider some of the influences and contexts that may affect the lives of students in your classroom.

Today's kindergarteners will be retiring in the year 2067. We have no idea of what the world will look in five years, much less 60 years, yet we are charged with preparing our students for life in that world. Our students are facing many emerging issues such as global warming, famine, poverty, health issues, a global population explosion and other environmental and social issues. These issues lead to a need for students to be able to communicate, function and create change personally, socially, economically and politically on local, national and global levels.

Reference: What is 21st Century education?¹

Learners and the digital age

The amount of knowledge in the world is growing exponentially – and to make matters worse, it’s superseding itself quicker than ever before. So while it’s one thing to join the dots, new dots are popping up all over the place… we need to recognise meaningful patterns among distributed sets of information. This is the new process of learning.

Reference: Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age²

How learners connect

Experienced technology educator, Richard Doel-Mackaway, discusses how today’s learners interface with their world, and contrasts this with his own schooling years.

Richard Doel-Mackaway
Senior Learning Development Officer
NSW Curriculum and Learning Innovation Centre

Activity (Part B): Your classroom - revised

Refer to the list of words created in Activity (Part A): Your classroom. These words represent your reflection of the world in which your students live.

Modify the list and write your modifications in the second column of the table saved previously.

Presenter notes

Indicative time: 20 minutes

What is this tab about?

This tab provides a context of the changing world that our students live in. It contains an animated word cloud, two video clips and further readings to explore as an extension activity.

Delivery

Ask participants to think about the students in a class they are teaching.
Brainstorm a list of words that describe issues and factors that influence their students’ lives. These responses can be written in the first column of the PDF (click the words ‘this table’).
View the tag cloud now and ask participants if any of the words appear in their list.
Watch the video about the changing world. Discuss with participants some of the influences and contexts that may affect the lives of students in their classroom.
Read the quotes in the “changing world” tab and the “learners in the digital age” tab and discuss.
Watch the video of Richard Doel-Mackaway discussing how today’s learners interface with their world.
Revisit the list of words created at the beginning of this tab. Participants should modify the list accordingly. Share and discuss responses.

Completing activity 2: The context of learners

Participants need to complete Part A and establish their prior knowledge, before viewing the tag cloud.

Brainstorm words that reflect the issues and fill in the form collaboratively. Some key points to discuss:
- Are there words on the lists common to all participants?
- Are there words that are different? Why is this?
- How might the issues listed be different for different student situations and ages?
In Part B, participants revisit the list of words created in Part A and modify the list accordingly. Share and discuss responses.