Young Minds, Fast Times: The Twenty-First-Century Digital Learner

Subtitled "How tech-obsessed iKids would improve our schools," this article by Marc Prensky in edutopia (George Lucas Educational Foundation) explores engaging with and asking young people what the learning experience is like for them and how they would improve it. It is mostly about high school-aged students who will be our students on campus soon. It concludes:

After hosting dozens of these conversations, I realize one thing: We just don't listen enough to our students. The tradition in education has been not to ask the students what they think or want, but rather for adult educators to design the system and curriculum by themselves, using their "superior" knowledge and experience.
But this approach no longer works. Not that the inmates should run the asylum, but as twenty-first-century leaders in business, politics, and even the military are finding out, for any system to work successfully in these times, we must combine top-down directives with bottom-up input. As the students have told me on more than one occasion, "We hope educators take our opinions into account and actually do something!" Until we do, their education will not be the best we can offer.