Going Native to Reach the Digital Natives: New Technologies for the Classroom

Abstract

<p>There is increasing pressure as educators to promote engagement in the classroom by being not just deliverers of content, but facilitators of the learning process. While there are many approaches, technology integration tools are compelling as many of our students are part of the millennial generation. Digital natives or millennials are transitioning to a screen-based society and are bored with traditional methods of learning . From this teaching approach, the implementation of relevant technological tools into the classroom was prepared utilizing two unique items – Plickers and Flipgrid. The teaching approach objectives of these tools were (a) to address the changing learning needs of students by enhancing the course engagement, (b) to increase student involvement during lectures, (c) to promote students verbal reflective development outside of class, and (d) to help instructor gauge student understanding of course concepts.</p>