Published Oct 31 2018

Educating the digital generation - A Different Lens (Generation Series)

Susan
Elliot
Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President (Education)
Michael phillips
Associate Professor, School of Curriculum Teaching and Inclusive Education
Kris ryan
Academic Director, Monash Education Innovation
Zlatko skrbiš
Senior Pro Vice-Chancellor (Academic)
Rosie mackay
Manager, Strategic Learning Transformation, Monash Education Innovation
Sharon pickering
Vice-Chancellor and President, Monash University

The days of chalk and talk, textbooks and passive learning are fast becoming things of the past as the first wave of digital natives – students brought up during the age of digital technology – challenge the old model of education rooted in linearity and conformity.

“This fourth industrial revolution that we're going through really means a fundamental change to how we educate, how we communicate with people, and how we prepare people for the future,” says Professor Susan Elliott, deputy vice chancellor and vice president (education) at Monash University.

Today, technology is at the centre of the student learning experience. They use it for lectures, for workshops, to complete assignments; everything they do.

Using different forms of digital technologies not only enhances students' content knowledge, but it also enhances a range of 21st Century skills.

They’ve built powerful online personalities and want to engage differently with the world of education, through collaboration and creativity, leaving the old teacher/student dynamic in its wake.

“When I first started teaching, I think students still believed that the person that stood in front of them had all the answers,” says Sharon Pickering, Dean of the Faculty of Arts.

Read more: The value of quality teaching

“If only they paid attention closely enough, they too would have the answers.

“I look now, and students are so much more capable and able of figuring out not only what the answers are, but what the more important questions are that we should be asking, and I think teaching and learning is undergoing a revolution to catch up with that.”

In this education future, problem-based, collaborative learning replaces simply presenting the student with information, and neuroscience has proved the effectiveness of this type of “active learning”.

“We know now that your retention from a lecture is about 5 per cent to 10 per cent,” says Deputy Vice Chancellor Elliott.

“If they're actively learning, answering questions, teaching each other, talking in class, problem solving, doing quizzes, sharing stories, their retention goes up to 60 per cent to 70 per cent.”

It also means students are better equipped to enter the workforce because they have learnt and applied their knowledge.

“Using different forms of digital technologies not only enhances students' content knowledge, but it also enhances a range of 21st Century skills, like communication, collaboration and teamwork,” says Michael Phillips, senior lecturer in the Department of Education.

Watch the latest episode of A Different Lens to find out more about the future of education.

Read more: Six reasons why AI will never take over from human teachers

 

Watch more episodes from A Different Lens:

About the Authors

  • Susan elliot

    Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President (Education)

    Professor Susan Elliott AM leads a dedicated Education portfolio at Monash University and is responsible for providing an integrated approach to the education elements within Focus Monash. As Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President (Education), Professor Elliott is focussed on actively promoting engagement and advocacy in shaping the University’s education agenda.

  • Michael phillips

    Associate Professor, School of Curriculum Teaching and Inclusive Education

    Mike is the Associate Professor of Digital Transformation in the Faculty of Education. His work focuses on the knowledge expert teachers develop when integrating educational technologies into their practice. Additionally, he researchers the ways in which expert teachers make active decisions about their classroom technology integration.

  • Kris ryan

    Academic Director, Monash Education Innovation, Office of Learning and Teaching

    Kris is known for his animated and highly interactive approach, combined with his use of technology to reach large audiences. He has led course reviews, introduced contemporary teaching approaches, laboratories and novel teaching facilities. In his role as Academic Director, Kris leads a multi-disciplinary team to establish and implement the university-wide education technology roadmap, and provide academic input into learning and teaching spaces university-wide.

  • Zlatko skrbiš

    Senior Pro Vice-Chancellor (Academic)

    Zlatko is responsible for Monash course and curriculum content, education policy, learning and teaching quality and student academic experience. He also oversees the University’s digital strategy, the Professions of the Future framework, graduate research policy and administration, supervisor training and the Monash Doctoral Program.

  • Rosie mackay

    Manager, Strategic Learning Transformation, Monash Education Innovation

    Rosie is a Melbourne-based educator dedicated to high quality teaching and learning with experience in primary, secondary, tertiary, domestic and international markets. Rosie has led global projects in educational change management, focusing on redesigning graduate capabilities and curriculum and assessment frameworks across disciplines to better facilitate student-centred learning.

  • Sharon pickering

    Vice-Chancellor and President, Monash University

    Sharon is Vice-Chancellor and President, Monash University. She is an internationally recognised expert in criminology, refugees and trafficking who has written extensively on irregular border crossing with a focus on gender and human rights. She is the Founder and Director of the Border Crossing Observatory – an innovative virtual research centre across 12 universities, led by Monash and driven centrally by a collaboration between Monash, Oxford and Oslo universities. Sharon leads a series of Australian Research Council projects focusing on the intersections of security and migration, deportation, and police and community responses to Prejudice Motivated Crimes.

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