Students are currently enjoying the last gasps of summertime in most countries right now. They’re outside, engaging in social activities, and constantly on the move. So what would happen if these students were thrown into a slow-moving and old-fashioned classroom? The students would get distracted, disconnected, and feel lost.

Luckily, most classrooms are aggressively pursuing a relatively new type of approach to keep students engaged. Like John Palfrey and others wrote, these students are ‘digital natives’ and now Blackboard has coined the term ‘active learners.’ No matter what you call them, these students are ready to learn, have their creative juices flowing, and will be primed for innovative education as soon as the first bell rings.

To get you a bit more excited about engaging active learners, Blackboard and JESS3 created a new video that I thought would be helpful to share. It details a few key points on why you should try to engage active learners right now.

Whether it’s through the use of technology (iPads, IWBs) or trends (flipped classrooms, 1:1), the key is to just focus on what’s resonating with students. In other words, don’t get attached to just one method of reaching active learners. If they don’t respond to the flipped model or iPads, don’t force it. The key is to understand that active learners are all different except for the one main thread tying them all together: they’re eager to learn.

So be sure to check out this video (which is basically a video infographic and chock-full of interesting tips and factoids) and get inspired to engage your students in a whole new way.

Whatever you do, use the below video as inspiration on how to engage with active learners, digital natives, whatever you wanna call them. They’re students who are eager to learn so don’t waste the opportunity by just having them share stories about their summer, do some reading, etc. Get engaged, get physical, get connected, get learning!