chuka,
you are right that they definitely like to get their information very quickly & with this we have to educate the Gen Y learner on how to be a good consumer of the vast amounts of information available at the click of a button.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
INFORMATION IS OBTAINED EASILY AND THIS MEANS THAT THIS GROUP GENERALLY HAVE LESS PATIENTS FOR RESEARCH. WHEN RESEARCH IS DONE, A QUICK AND EFFECTIVE MEANS IS KEY TO KEEP THIS GROUP INTERESTED
Dear Instructor/learners,
The point you made is very important. I was born at the end of gen X/ beginning of gen Y. So, i did experience my families first Television and first computer. I understand and appreciate that technology is critical to Gen Y learners. As instructors, we should try to use Gen Y learners attention to technology in our teaching.
Today's instructors must find cleaver ways to incorporate technology within course lectures and discussions. Otherwise, the Generation Y learner demonstrates no respect for the spoken word or appreciates the value of it.
My school is a vocational school and therefore I have yet to have the chance to teach a Gen Y child. Although I have to say, the younger kids I teach are a lot more challenging. I am comfortable with technology, but even with the various technological aids it is hard to capture and sustain the attention of the younger kids. I would imagine that as Gen Y kids come into my classroom I would have to be more and more creative in my teaching.
It seems the younger the students are, the more occupied they are with electronics. In response I have unforced a no phone policy during class time that has worked beautifully.
Hello Ryan and current class participants.
I am very pleased to have the opportunity to enroll in this course and enjoying it very much! Thus far in my teaching career, I have designed course curriculum for traditional and online learning platforms. In each of these courses, I always introduce students to the importance of empathy toward individuals based on human factors, which include age-related experiences within the generation they belong.
Gen Y learners may be future supervisors of those Boomers and Xers still working when they graduate from college/university degree programs; therefore, the instructor will engage students in the classroom with activities that facilitate conversation and understanding.
I have a human resources corporate career-focus and enjoy teaching courses in management, leadership, organizational behavior, business ethics, and professional planning. A successful leader appreciates the importance of generational characteristics when managing performance and employee development. This online course offers an excellent overview of the four generations and I look forward to the learning modules ahead.
I was born end of boomer/beginning of x.I dont recall labeling of students/people in this regaurd.People are just differant,and slower people had to work harder to keep up,and faster slowed down.Y gen.seem to think they all deserve the same grade and it dosnt matter if they are slow.ADAD,as well as other excuses,are used to justify thier unwillingness to focus on the job at hand,yet they still expect the same compensation/grade even though the work is not complete.I dont see in most cases the technolegy being used for learning,just meaningless communications.
With the majority of the learners in my classroom being Gen Y, I need to plan my class to accommodate that type of learner. Of course, I have all three generations in my classroom ( I have not had any veterans yet!) so I need to address all types of learning but I cannot avoid the fact that the majority of my students are Gen Y. I noted that many of the instructors touched on the fact that this means that I need to keep moving! If you lecture too long, you lose their interest and they stop learning. You need to change gears every once in a while. I find that the baby boomers and Gen X are open to this as well. Even though these two generations have been taught in the more traditional style and they are more used to it, that doesn't mean they like it more!
Leslie Morgan
I think the characteristics of Gen Y make it more difficult to keep students engaged. Because of their constant availability to connect with others, often without understanding the proper etiquette of when and where are proper, they feel they can and do those things during all times of the day. Keeping these students focused is difficult and strategies must be implemented to do this so as to not 'lose' them during class.
Must remember that Generation Y learners also come from an era where they were bombarded with environmental hazards (lead in gasoline, chemicals all around them, preservatives in food). We are just now learning the long term effects from these individual hazards and not even coming to close to knowing the synergistic effects of them.
I think that we must always keep the socio economic status of our students in focus and tailor each and every classroom to the needs of the students (regarding technology)...on a side note being static in any field, whether science, education or business, leads to ultimate failure. We must avoid the "that's the way its always been done" mentality in all aspects of life. Being a "fluid" instructor and recognizing the needs of our students based on individual characteristics is what differentiates a good teacher from a AWESOME teacher.
Integration of technology is important in the instructional stratgy targeted towards Gen Y. I observed that most Gen Y students in my class get more engaged once it has to do with technology.
Some of the characteristics of Generation Y students are that they are technologically dependent; they prefer to be connected to others weather technologically or face-to-face with others; they are self-focused and; they do not compartmentalize different aspects of life, such as school and work. Knowing this would make me consider using many different types of technology to convey lessons so that the students could utilize things they are comfortable with to absorb information. I would also use lots of group learning techniques to keep them connected, so that they feel comfortable learning. Lecturing can cause the class to drift or loose focus, so it is important lecture in small segments of time, take breaks or change activities often so that their self-focus doesn’t get in the way of learning. Another thing is to try and relate the lessons to their lives somehow. Since they combine school, home and work, it important to show them the relevance of those things in the lesson.
Jeff,
yes, this generation is accustomed to fast moving programs & information & we must work within these parameters.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
I think ADAD can be a cruch for some people
understanding that you have to keep things constantly moving for gen y is super important or you will lose them in no time at all. It becomes very hard to get them back.
Robert,
this is a great analysis of the type of learners that you are serving & a great way to present the material in a way that is most effective for them.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
Gen Y students possess several characteristics that if managed and allow to develop in the classroom can be beneficial to the learning process. These characteristics range from having a technology based foundation when they come into the classroom to a global perspective to hope and looking for jobs with meaning. As educators especially educators who are boomers or gen xers it is hard to incorporate new learning for these students.
As the presentation of this section ended, we need to focus and find ways for Gen Y students to connect between school, home, and work. In order to do this, curriculum and lessons need to be developed or revised that focus on characteristics of technology, globalization, and job related skills, thus preparing them for the future.
We had Apple Remote Desktop in a computer lab where I teach, and I monitored a student as they were making their rounds in Social Media, and I would encourage anyone else to do so if you have the opportunity. Fornicate the privacy issue, especially if it is in your classroom on a school computer, as it is extremely important for us to understand what they are addicted to. It is incomprehensible especially for a Boomer like myself, as to what is this thing that is controlling their lives. From what I could see, it was pretty much a waste of time.
It is really warping society, as it is very narcissistic, vying to be the center of attention, lurking on other people’s pages, etc., and probably in the long run becoming out of touch with dealing with people in real life situations. As noted above, as soon as they are out of the class almost all of them are immediately on the phone or texting they are so addicted.
I have this theory, which has been percolating though my brain for a while, and is being presented here for the first time, of the Silicon Clitoris or if you prefer, Silicon Penis. It stems from me busting a student, who had been warned twice before in the same hour to put her phone in her purse, in the following unkind manner, as I had had it for the day. “What are you doing, playing with yourself?†And she looks at me with WTF face (a Gen Y acronym if I ever did see one). And I said “You have your hands in your crotch and doing something extremely vigorous with them.†As far as I am concerned, this incessant texting and what have you is a form of masturbation. A fantasy world, built around the student as the center of all they virtually see.
I know that this might sound a bit tacky, but I think that the Freudians amongst us would tend to agree! And might pay off and become someone’s Ph.Ed thesis!
Hmmm, well, the good news is, that in a Trade School environment, one thing shared by each generation is that they are all predominantly visual learners. They prefer doing to memorizing, which is true for the Boomers, X's and Y's, so labs and hands on training still work well for all of them. This also means that across all of these generations, they tend do do poorly on written exams. In terms of planning, using hands on activities, PowerPoint, role playing, etc. seem to work the best. For the Y's, Internet research can also engage them; however, these same activities can be daunting for a Boomer, who has limited computer skills.
