Digital natives are attracted to learning via technology for three key reasons, according to Susan Kovalik (Federal Way Mirror, The Ins and Outs of Student Engagement, December 10, 2008). Kovalik writes, "Today’s students are more thoroughly engaged in those activities that appeal to their creativity, their competitiveness, and their need to socialize than any time in our history." Being the father of three teens, that is an understatement.

Creativity, competitiveness, socialization. Those three ideas are a far cry from the image of a college student up at 2:00 a.m., alone, competing against none other than a grade scale, attempting to recreate in her mind the professor's understanding of four chapters of textbook, which is in turn a mental construct of a stranger's view of the course. Effective engagement of digital natives is the challenge of this decade and it is closing fast. Kovalik is very helpful as she attempts to bridge that canyon. She goes on to lay out nine elements of learning and then connects them to digital resources, as outlined below.

Ideal Learning Environment

1. Absence of threat
2. Meaningful content
3. Choices
4. Enriched environment
5. Movement to enhance learning
6. Adequate time
7. Immediate feedback
8. Collaboration
9. Mastery (application)

1. There is an absence of threat at some level where peers or a teacher are not present.
2. They make content meaningful using a variety of tools in a combination of ways to suit individual needs and interests.
3. There are unlimited choices in the gathering and presenting of information; their learning becomes interactive and multifaceted.
4. They enrich their research with a variety of modes of presentation skills, developing new forms of evaluation formats and critical thinking opportunities.
5. Movement — with the assistance of mirror neurons, the neurons that watch movement, their bodies are mirroring the action; their bodies are reacting even as they watch others on their screens move.
6. They are in charge of their own time and will work at their own pace as long as their curiosity and interest is sustained.
7. As they discover and uncover information, there is immediate feedback that allows them to expand their thinking, check other sources and engage experts where possible.
8. They collaborate/socialize with those they have something in common with expanding their connection worldwide and paving the way for their future.
9. They will stay with a "game" or project until they have achieved mastery.

Educational institutions serve their faculty and students well when they clarify which technologies can be best used to address an ideal learning environment as described above. Providing clear guides and support for how to use those services for dynamic student engagement would be even more excellent.