Child Research Net SYMPOSIUM 98 The Kids of the '90s: Learning to Learn with Multimedia Internet Technologies

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Learning to Learn

In the "analog" age, everything you needed to know was encapsulated in the classic 3 "R's": Reading, Writing and Arithmetic. In the age of hyperlinked digital media, however, new skills are needed to supplement these "basics."

You must be able to find what you need among multiple sources. With access to so many sources, if you don't know how to search, or "explore," it is very difficult to find the information that you want.

You need be able to express yourself in a variety of media. Most new PCs not only empower kids to send and receive email, but also to record and mix sounds, and to produce digital artwork. Some kids (the lucky ones) even have the opportunity to produce interactive multimedia at home or in school.

You must always be ready to exchange what you've found with other kids. Communication and sharing are very important to kids in their everyday lives, and their online lives are no exception. The Internet and digital multimedia have increased kids' ability to check-in with each other, to find out what's cool, and what's happening to an unprecedented extent.

The greatest challenge in guiding kids into the age of information technology and the Internet is to successfully integrate the 3Rs with the 3Xs, so that Reading, wRiting, and aRithmetic become intertwined with critical information-age skills like eXploration, eXpression and eXchange.

Every time the Clickerati go online, they are "learning to learn" exercising the 3Xs:

1) eXploration with new-media technology (i.e., their ability to navigate in and understand information);

2) eXpression and experimentation with digital tools (i.e., their ability to evaluate and select tools and build knowledge projects with digital tools); and

3) eXchange of ideas and projects with digital media (i.e., their ability to communicate about their own and other students' learning, ideas, and knowledge-artifacts with new technology).

If we implement the 3Xs in schools, it will radically change the relationship between teachers, learners, and their tools. Now is the time to develop powerful models to learn how to effectively join the 3Rs with the 3Xs.

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