Students these days learn differently?

I will probably repeat this in most of my blogs because I don't want to come across as someone who believes he knows everything. My world is shades of gray and without all the facts and opinions from peers, my opinions are not set in stone. I enjoy a good, well informed debate and looking at things from a different angle and point of view. So what I post here are my opinions, generated from my limited knowledge of the world. Please feel free to correct me or attempt to sway my opinion...attempt is the key word! :)

I hear more and more statements being made about how students these days learn differently. I am amazed by this statement! It's as if some how in the last 10 years or less, because of technology and social media, students brain patterns have evolved beyond traditional methods of instruction. The fact that more people, especially those of the lower classes, became more educated and could read after the invention of the printing press wasn't due to a difference in learning but due to the fact that the material was more readily available and affordable. I'm sure that when our forefathers starting using pencil and paper instead of coal and shovels there learning increased. Not because they learned differently but because it was easier to get the material done and resources were more available.

It is my hope that those who make this statement actually mean that students these days learn differently because they have more options, information is more readily available, they can collaborate with peers and experts, and they aren't limited to the knowledge of their teachers and outdated books. That they can learn from different media sources than were previously available. I have no problem agreeing with this but that is not the context where it is generally stated. It is generally stated after talking about social media, mobile devices and personal computers in such a way as to lead listeners or readers to believe that students are no longer responding to traditional methods and if they don't go 1 to 1 their students will somehow become ignorant cave dwellers, forgotten by society.

Student learning hasn't changed, just the tools and amount of information available. After the invention of books, teaching changed; after paper and pencil became more available, teaching changed; after schools became able to transport students, teaching changed. It is teaching methods that need to change but not because students are different, because the tools are different, society's different, methods are different. If you are one who says "students learn differently these days" please make sure your listener knows why you are saying that. They learn differently because the tools they have available are different, not because their brains processes the information in some foreign manner...Ok, we are talking about teenagers so that statement isn't totally without it's arguments but as compared to teenagers of days gone by, they are basically all the same.

Students don't learn differently, teaching just needs to incorporate and teach students to use the tools that are relevant and essential to make them competitive in today's world. I'll leave it to you to decide what those tools are in the context of what is being taught.