Reconstructing childhood

The main issue being discussed in "What Next? Toddler Netizens" is that there's a new generation of learners emerging and as a result we can not sit back. The writer asserts that the concept of childhood as we knew it when we grew up is being redefined since we now live in an Information technology saturated world.Our children are spending a lot of their time watching T.V and playing video games. Thus, as teachers we too need to change our approaches to teaching in order to keep up with these new crop of learners.Even though we've met new technologies with apprehension we can no longer take a back seat and assume that our children will still grow up as traditionally defined by Piaget,Kohlberg or Chomsky.I feel that in order to produce "sophisticated learners" we need to understand their learning styles and be in tune with what they are being exposed to .We have a choice to either being savvy consumers and spearhead the content these new literacies brings or be passive and allow our kids to be blown away by the advertising of software that in essence fails to address significant issues. Children are being introduced to different media at a very young age due to parents or guardians being busy.Playing video games or watching T.V has become the easy quick fix in most households so we can free ourselves to do other things. Within the classroom, I think that learning should take a different approach. The traditional “I’m the expert and I’ll model this strategy for you and then you’ll practice it on your own” is not the only best practice anymore. Children should be exposed to different learning opportunities such as "brainstorming, trial and error, practice, and discussion.” I agree that letting students learn naturally in groups without any of them being specific experts-just through interactions and collaborations in learning communities will go a long way to developing “sophisticated learners.” It's amazing how the children in "Gathering of the Elves" emerge as a sophisticated learning community without being even aware that they are learning.Wow!