Role+of+the+Learner

**Role of the Learner**
====The Learning 2025 team believes that learners should be empowered through learning, and take charge of their educational experience. Learners are at the heart of Learning 2025's plan, and the continued success of the changing learner is the reason for the "changing paradigms" vision. Learners must become autonomous, and take the reigns of the role as the "most important" in the classroom. Learners will be expected to prepare for jobs of the future, and demonstrate their knowledge and competencies. 2025 will become the "Year of the Learner". Teachers and education administrators will no longer decide what is important for students to learn without their input, and student learning style and needs will be consistently addressed in a curriculum that is living, personal, and adaptable.====

**Generation Z - Who are they?**
====Generation Z is the generation of kids born between 1994 and 2004. They are true digital natives - they have grown up with digital technology as part of their everyday lives, never knowing what it was like to not hav====

====Generation Z is also the generation that has grown up with social media. Being a part of an online community is second nature to them and because of this, their lives are very public. They are used to having their private lives broadcast online, and privacy doesn't seem to be an issue in the front of their minds. They thrive on small bits of information. This is not the generation that has been trained to read long textual books and information, since they have been trained to gain information from quick blubs on the internet (Lyon, 2010).====

**How does this influence the classroom of 2025?**
====Generation Z and future generations will continue to grow up with technology and Web 2.0 as a big part of their lives. They will come to expect to learn using these technologies, and schools need to keep these characteristics of the current and future generation in mind as they design learning in the future.====

**What is the role of the learner in the future?**
====One main role of the learner in the future is going to be to decide what they want to learn. Learning will be more and more individualized in the future, and it will really be up to the learner to decide what is important or interesting for them to learn. Take Maria H. Andersen's "Learn This" model/ideas - her idea is that a learner could hit a "Learn This" button much like a "share" or "like" button on current social media and news articles. When clicking the "Learning This" button an interface would pop up to help you learn about the content you are looking at. So this is a fantastic example of user driven/individualized learning. The learner will decide what they want to learn and at what depth them want to learn about the particular item (Andersen, 2011).====

====The learner will be involved in the educational process by planning for and reflecting upon learning and instructional experiences. The learner will not be confined to learning within a traditional school day. Learning will take place in a variety of settings, including in the community. Learners will not be grouped by ages, and will have the opportunities to explore classes and learning that interests them, rather than what their peer group likes or what a teacher determines is important.====

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====Although nothing is spoken in the video to the right, so much is truly said. Today's learners are used to being on computers, cell phones, and other technologies on a daily basis. They want to learn from methods other than reading outdated textbooks, doing pencil and paper homework, and taking memorization of facts assessments. Many students know more about technology and all of its educational opportunities than the teachers who are supposedly in charge of educating them. How is this a good thing for education? Students in this video voice there concerns through the use of signs. Their ideas, concerns, and questions are all very valid issues in the world of education and learning today. Learners ultimately are in charge of their education, but if the methods used during the school day to help them learn are so disconnected from the rest of their outside of school experiences, then what good is it.====

====Andersen, Maria H. (Jan.-Feb. 2011). The World is my School: Welcome to the Era of Personalized Learning. Retrieved from http://www.wfs.org/content/world-is-my-school====

====Lyon, Ethan. (February 23, 2010). Examining Generation Z: Stats, Demographics, Segments, Predictions. Retrieved from http://sparxoo.com/2010/02/23/examining-generation-z-stats-demographics-segments-predictions/====

"Vision of K-12 Students Today". (Nov. 27, 2008). Retrieved from @http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_A-ZVCjfWf8&feature=fvwrel