Norma Ghamrawi and 2Tarek Shal
Today's students grow up with developing technology, access to internet anytime and anywhere being available. In fact, they are citizens of the 21st century who read, communicate, collaborate, socialize, work, explore, and learn with personal technologies. They are addicts of social networking sites, follow streams of information from web page to web page, and use technology in almost every aspect of their lives. Marc Prensky coined the term "Digital Natives" describing 21st century learners. They are the native speakers of the digital age and developing technology. They are fluent in using computers, internet, mobile phones, messaging and console gaming. However, schools are failing to capitalize on the talents and interests of this collaborative, resourceful, and innovative generation of thinkers by bringing them the tools that they are already familiar with and use them for their academic achievement. The purpose of this paper is to a) provide an argument on the importance of using technology and social networking tools in teaching and learning, (b) suggesting means for using such tools, and (c) highlighting a success story from Lebanon.
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