This is an excellent article and ties in with so much of the discussions we have been having lately.

topics we have been discussing lately. 

A couple of selections from the article:

(permission has been granted to post)

First, the abstract:

This

paper explores the issues and challenges associated with the transformative

nature of digital media and devices on teaching and learning. It proposes

that current students may think and process information differently

than their teachers and suggests that we adopt the term digital mind

as a way to explain this phenomenon. It explores the relationship of

societal changes to the learning styles of current students and suggests

possible ways to alter classroom activities to accommodate not just

the inclusion of devices, but the learning styles associated with digital

minds.  

Then these great suggestions

for effective instruction as relates to digital minds:

Brown

following suggestions:

1. Focus on

   Outcomes Rather Than Techniques 

   Provide students with opportunities to put information to work. Allow

   them to do something and not just to know something. Reality based learning,

   learning in context, situated cognition, and problem√based learning

   are strategies that should resonate with digital minds.

2. Provide

   Options for Learning 

   Universal Designs for Learning (O≠Neill, 2001) suggests that students

   will excel with options in learning. Multiple options to express learning,

   multiple representations of content, and multiple ways to engage learners

   will help digital minds in the classroom.

3. Respect

   Parallel Thinking and Multitasking 

   People who grew up with the WWW, mobile phones, MTV and video games

   are used to dealing with many streams of information coming in at one

   time. And while we, as teachers and digital immigrants, may see it as

   disruptive, they really can do more than one thing at a time in class.

4. Highlight

   Key Points 

   New learners are surfers and scanners. While we had limited sources

   for writing papers they essentially have every library in the world

   available to them. They make decisions quickly based on side heads and

   highlighting. We must provide them with cues they recognize and

   help them to slow down and process when needed.

5. Involve

   Learners in Setting Learning Goals 

   Provide them a role in establishing learning goals, building the learning

   community, setting up the rules for the class and in writing the rubrics

   that will be used to judge their performance.

6. Provide

   Active Learning Environments 

   Allow learners to use what ever tools they may need in an assignment.

   Allow them to play to their strengths, be it media production or artistic

   expression in assignments and activities in appropriate ways.

7. Allow Learning

   to be Social 

   We have long recognized the importance of working in groups. It

   builds social skills and provides students with the ability to work

   in the type of environment they will be working in as adults. Working

   in groups means that people will need to talk, discuss and interact,

   activities that are typically discouraged in most classrooms.

8. Provide

   Opportunities for Reflection 

   Lest we think we must only allow people to do things that are fast moving

   and lack depth of processing, we must provide digital minds not only

   with the time to reflect, but the requirement to reflect. A digital

   mind does not mean a better mind necessarily. We should provide opportunities

   for both experiential and reflective cognition.

Good points to keep in mind!  All of them have really got me thinking. I particularly

the authors for letting me share their good work!