Planning to Effectively Motivate Digital-Age Learners by Addressing Their “High-Tech” Interests and Their “High-Touch” Needs - thematic article

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by dabgoudw

Authors present contemporary insights into how digital-age students at all instructional levels engage with “high-tech” interests and use, and how they also require “high-touch” learning support across different cultural contexts. The article aims to help educators design programs, projects, and assignments that both captivate current learner interests and meet enduring historical learning needs, thereby improving motivation and academic achievement. It integrates technology-use information (hardware, software, devices, and instructional applications) with social-psychology and education-change research.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages18

Reading Time45 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Introduction

Historical perspectives on “high-touch” and “high-tech” in learning

Technology’s growing presence and educational implications

Learner technology groups: digital natives, digital immigrants, and digital visitors

Planning to Effectively Motivate Digital-Age Learners by Addressing Their “High-Tech” Interests and Their“High-Touch” Needs Walter S. Polka Jerald I. Wolfgang Rosina E. Mete Father Augustine Ayaga Attique J. Khokhar ABSTRACT The authors of this thematic article present contemporary information about the “hightech” usage and interests of digital-age students at all levels of the instructional spectrum as well as information about their “high-touch” learning needs in various cultural contexts. The purpose of this article is to guide educators in planning and implementing programs, projects, and learning assignments that captivate contemporary student interestsand address their historical learning needs so as to improve motivation and academic achievement. Contemporary technological usage information including: hardware, software, personal communication devices, and instructional applications collected from various sources is identified to provide insight about the exponential growth of technology as well as its educational potential to capture the interests and motivate digital-age learners. This information will be synthesized with social psychology and education change research of the past half century that has demonstrated the significance of the organizational, social, professional, and personal needs of individuals associated with the successful acquisition of knowledge and skills as well as the implementation innovations. Thus, the focus of this article is to facilitate comprehension of the contemporary “hightech” interestsand usage rates of digital-age students as well as to encourage professional reflections about educational planning that combines those interests with their respective“high-touch” learning needs. Thus, the intended outcome of this article is to provide useful information in order to promote effective curriculum and instruction planning to increase student achievement in both developed and developing countries in the second decade of the Twenty-first Century. INTRODUCTION Educators have historically, but often reticently, employed “high-touch”approaches with their respective contemporary “high-tech” tools to effectively motivate learners. However, educators have also historically questioned the applications of innovative technologies in learning settings. Some have even found it very difficult to use new learning tools and replace their previously successful approaches. Consider the following historical commentaries identified by Rinaldo (2013) from educators concerned about their students’ use of “innovative” technologies in their respective learning settings (as cited by Williams, 2008, p.213): • “…Students can no longer prepare bark to calculate problems. They depend instead on expensive slates. What will they do when the slate is dropped and Educational Planning 51 Vol. 21, No. 4 breaks?” as questioned by an educator in the American colonies in 1703. • “ …Students depend on paper too much. They no longer knowhow to write on aslate without getting dust all over themselves. What will happen when they run out of paper?” queried an educational leader at a professional meeting in 1805. • “…Students depend too much upon ink. They no longer knowhow to use a knife or sharpen a pencil…”, as exclaimed by a teacher at a National Association of Teachers conference in 1907. The above educators’ commentaries about technological usage by students amplify that technological changes in the educational process are often feared and misunderstood. However, our contemporary world is “flat” and is getting “flatter” every day due to the technological revolution that has occurred since World War II (Friedman, 2008; Friedman & Mandelbaum, 2011) . Technology has become pervasive in our everyday life and most people are using more technology atan earlier age in order to complete several of their daily living functions (Healy, 1999; Jukes, McCain, & Crockette, 2010) . Figure 1 illustrates the pervas

FAQs

What is the main goal of the article for educators?

To help educators plan and implement programs, projects, and learning assignments that capture digital-age students’ contemporary “high-tech” interests while addressing their “high-touch” learning needs, improving motivation and academic achievement.

How does the article use technology-related information?

It identifies contemporary technological usage across hardware, software, communication devices, and instructional applications to explain technology’s exponential growth and its educational potential to motivate learners.

Why does the article distinguish between “high-tech” interests and “high-touch” needs?

It emphasizes that effective motivation and learning require combining students’ current technology engagement with supportive learning needs shaped by cultural and historical contexts.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by dabgoudw