Section 2 Summary

There are four dominating forces coming together, leading us toward different ways of learning for the 21st centruy: knowledge work, thinking tools, digital lifestyles, and learning research. Knowledge work in the 21st century demands well trained workers that use brainpower and digital tools to accomplish their daily work: digital tools such as cell phones, web conferencing, and databases just to name a few. Technology and digital devices and services are the thinking tools. The rate at which these technoligical thinking tools are growing is astounding. People age 11-31 are growing up in a digital lifestyle. Today, there are many portable devices that people can retrieve communication on: ipod, cell phone, PDA, etc. Learning research is reasearch about how people in the 21st century learn. They learn best through real life examples, internal motivation, personalized learning, and social learning: technology can meet all of these areas of learning. The quote I found interesting is on p. 25: "Computer microchips continue to double their processing speed every eighteen months. The average cell phone has more processing power than all the computers used to plan and run the early space missions." These 2 facts demonstrate that technology is growing at an astounding rate, and as educators, we need to prepare our future generation for that.