Technology and Culture

The following matrix explores the relationship that computers and technology has on learning, as well as its interrelationship with culture.

Attributes Generally Sought in Students
Culture of Technology		Sustaining Learning Growth	Developing Prerogatives	Social Responsibilities	Perceptions of Individuality	Personal Motivation
	Technology Culture	Having and using the latest technologies requires learning how to access and utilize them.	The right to access and use technology to meet learning needs. Many, if not most, Net Generation students have never known a world without computers, the World Wide Web, highly interactive video games, and cellular phones. (4)	Sharing technological access and collaboration. The emergence of social networking technologies and the evolution of digital games have helped shape the new ways in which people are communicating, collaborating, operating, and forming social constructs … shaping the way we think, work, and live. (6)	Technology provides an easier means of individual / self-expression.	The intrinsic want / need to have and use the latest technology.
	Culture in Technology	Technology allows for greater differentiation of instruction and evaluation, granting students easier access to the curriculum. In the age of print, people thought of knowledge as fixed and hierarchical, something that only great minds could change in a slow process of discovery. Not so in the age of electronic learning, where knowledge creation is fluid, fast, and far more democratic. (2)	The right that students should be allowed to access the curriculum through their learning style. Today’s youth have been completely normalized by digital technologies—it is a fully integrated aspect of their lives. Many in this group are using new media & technologies to create new things in new ways, learn new things in new ways, & communicate in new ways with new people— behaviors that have become hardwired in their ways of thinking & operating in the world. (6)	Technology that allows individuals to become greater contributors to society.	Individual learning styles are recognized and targeted.	The internal need / want for self-improvement. Technology can aid greatly in achieving this goal. Digital games, whether computer-, game console-, or handheld-based, are characterized by rules, goals & objectives, outcomes & feedback, conflict / competition / challenge / opposition, interaction, & representation of story or more simply, purposeful, goal-oriented, rule-based activity that the players perceive as fun. (6)
	Learning in Technology Culture	Learning about the technology / media, how it can be used, and using it to accomplish an objective. More and more, the skills that our students need to take with them are those that will provide a strong foundation for their own lifelong learning, ones that help them navigate a much more complex and changing landscape of information. (1) Net Generation students have high expectations for faculty members' technology knowledge and skill. (4)	The right to use current and emerging technologies in learning environments. In this world, we can learn in spaces & places that look, feel & act nothing like our traditional classrooms – places where we interact with people who are as passionate as we are about whatever it is we want to learn; places where learning is the focus, not tasks, not assignments, not grades; places where we form communities & relationships in deeply meaningful ways, even though we may never meet other members face to face. (1)	To use methods of learning that are the most effective and applicable to today’s world and for the world to come. To not bring harm to self or others when engaging in a learning activity or exploration. Unfortunately, there are predators “out there”, and, ultimately, some of our students will put themselves at risk. So we must make sure that they are aware of those dangers, and that they have the skills to deal with those dangers should they appear. (1)	Technology allows for greater individualization of instruction and evaluation. For true technological advance to occur, the computers must be personal to each learner. When used properly and well for education, these computers become extensions of the students' personal self and brain. They must have each student's stuff and each student's style all over them, and that is something sharing just doesn't allow. (5)	The intrinsic fascination of having / using something new or of doing something differently. Educators are trying to tap into that quite committed effort that kids put into gaming … (3)
	Learning Without Technology	Recognizing that there are concepts that cannot be or not best learned through the use of technology and to seek out more appropriate methods. Students view expert faculty members who are committed to teaching as the key ingredient for learning success. (4)	The right to use the method of learning that best meets the students learning needs. Basic skills (reading / writing) will continue to be important, though even those literacies change when considering hypertext environments. (1)	Recognizing that technology has its place in the learning environment; however there are many instances where learning can occur more efficiently and effectively without its use.	The concept of differentiated instruction / evaluation recognized that importance of individual learning styles.	Providing possible opportunities more intimate learning experiences and interactions.

(1) Richardson, W. (2010), Locked in an irrelevant system? Network building and the new literacy, Education Canada, 47 (4)

(2) Cookson, P. W. (2009), What would Socrates say? Teaching for the 21^st Century, 67 (1)

(3) Vasagar, J. (2012), Technological innovations could revolutionise classroom learning, The Guardian

(4) Roberts, G. R., Technology and learning expectations of the net generation, Educause

(5) Prensky, M. (2005), Shaping tech for the classroom, Edutopia

(6) Klopfer, E., Osterweil, S., Groff, J., Haas, J. (2009), Using the technology of today, in the classroom today