First, a couple of definitions from Wikipedia:

A digital native is a person who has grown up with digital technology such as computers, the Internet, mobile phones and MP3. A digital immigrant is an individual who grew up without digital technology and adopted it later. A digital native might refer to their new “camera”; a digital immigrant might refer to their new “digital camera”.

Digital natives do more than just look at web pages and exchange occasional emails with others. They are participants, creators, and collaborators in an ever-changing digital world, learning and working – together – in ways that we couldn’t envision just a few years ago!

I recently heard a presentation that emphasized the difference. I couldn’t help thinking about what this means for education in real estate.

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In the past couple of weeks, we’ve seen two major accidents/disasters involving cranes collapsing …in Miami and New York City. What do cranes have to do with good instruction? Well, for me, these two incidents underscore the importance of putting a student’s learning experience on a good foundation, and then building it from the ground up!

In February at the ASTD TechKnowledge Conference in San Antonio, one of the speakers referenced “scaffolding” — a technique we can use to sequence training or instruction so that our lessons actually produce results!

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When folks come back into the classroom after a break, have you ever had trouble getting their attention? It’s a rare instructor who hasn’t faced this problem at one time or another! Often, students enjoy each other’s company SO much that they want to keep visiting and chatting with one another, when you desperately need them to refocus.

To paraphrase Robert Redford (from a movie that only older readers may remember: The Candidate), there IS a better way!

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Monday night in Nashville, the waiter takes my dinner order and then asked if I would like to order a salad with my entree. Thinking that an affirmative response would be the healthful response, I ordered the salad in addition to the steak and vegetables. Everything that was brought out and put before me was of high quality and well-prepared. The only problem was that there was too much to digest. I would have benefited more had I been more selective. Instead, I left feeling a bit bloated by too much of a good thing.

How many times have my students felt stuffed by my content rich (at least in my mind) delivery of morsel after morsel of “good” information?

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