Margarette and Mike,
Thanks for your continued input. I'm floored too. Good for that high school. More students need help with writing.
Margarette,
Wow - you have great insight then from your presentations and experience. We too experience those "helicopter parents" and have a variety of students we work with. Thanks for your input in this forum.
My virtual classroom is more diverse than ever. I am always surprised at the age range and experience level of my students.
If I rise to meet the challenge of engaging all of these students, my course is of greater use to everyone.
F. Javier,
Definitely. We have a variety of students and they have a variety of skills. We have to keep working with them to build upon their existing skills to move to a higher level.
Russell,
Right. Just because students note they "understand technology" doesn't mean the understand all technology - PowerPoint, Excel being two of them. Good point.
Mike,
One of my current F2F students, about age 18, told me she had diagrammed sentences in HS. You could have knocked me over with a feather!
Sometimes I think we threw the baby out with the bathwater when it comes to teaching grammar, says the writing teacher.
I'm a cusp BB/Gen X and went to school during "the shift" between "teach them grammar" and "grammar is instinctive--they will intuit it" and while I wrote well, I didn't understand the why of it until I'd been teaching a while. Students would ask me the *why* and I'd have to read a grammar to learn it.
Now I'm one of those annoyingly precise people but I'm clear at least!
Margarette
Generational roles is one of my favorite topics, and I've presented on it at a few conferences. The generational sea-change we're experiencing is quite fascinating (to me at least!)
I'm one of those born in the shift years between the Boomers and the X-ers and often find myself with a foot in both camps. Because of my age, I was teaching before the Millenials (or Netgen, another appellation I prefer to use in teaching) were even in school. But then I also teach F2F in an urban community college, so many of the Millenials I teach have no computer skills.
So not only does one have to keep generational generalities in mind, one must also keep exposure in mind. Some of my boomers are more tech savvy than some of my Netgeners because the Boomers are out working in technology rich environments and became early adaptors by default.
But as the course reminds us, technological skills are not the only generational differences. Yet another name for the Millenials, or a sub section at least, are the "Hot House Flowers" with their "helicopter parents". I find this group the hardest to teach, and I find they bring out my inner Boomer. Dealing with them takes a lot more communication, as this group often has unrealistic expectations, and the reality of school can be a shock to them.
The Gen-Xers are actually the bulk of my students, and I find many of them are well suited to online learning, but they are also the fastest to complain when things go wrong.
But knowing where a student fits in generationally is important information teachers can use to help reach out to them.
Dr. Tena,
variety of students of different age is a fact in online courses, usually. Therefore, language (verbal and written), social, IT skills, for example, and other personal qualities, such as open mindedness, discipline, motivation, teamwork, etc. are not equally shared by the group. This fact might become a huge barrier in order to create the optimus online learning enviroment for students and instructor.
Regards,
Javier
Donald,
Right on. We all have different experiences and when students can share those experiences with their peers and learn from each other, we've got them moving in the right direction!
Thanks!
Tena/class,
Great question and I find that although the younger students are more familiar with texting, Facebook etc., they can lack skills such as PowerPoint, Excel etc.
This surprised me as it seems they know how to use technology that entertains them, but I am not sold that they understand how to use technology to help them in decision making etc.
Thus, I often find myself trying to reinforce in the discussion board how to use Google to find more on a subject, or having students create PowerPoint presentations if it is part of the course.
This way, they get comfortable with the technology as I found I used to just presume someone is 20 and they know how to use the computer well and that isn't the case (sometimes it is of course).
Different generations have different experiences. This does not mean the one generation is any better or any worse than any other generation. When the millennial's become old. I wonder you or how they will be characterized? How will the future generations of people characterize millennial's or generation Xers or baby boomers? Will the millennial's have the same kind of issues with new technology the baby boomers currently have? I think so. In other words, I tend to look at the different generations, not as a mechanism to divide people, but as a mechanism to unite them. It's not effective to think of reasons why people are different, because such reasons can be used to control people. What is far better is to look for reasons that unite people. This is my opinion.
Roland,
Thanks for your input. We do all communicate differently and it's great to try and understand how we communicate to move the conversation forward. Nice job.
The way and avenue students communicate effectively is certainly determined by generation. Some more 'mature' students are very astute and communicate well but are technically challenged. It is important to provide personal technical or institutional assistance. Understanding the social aspects with each generation allows the instructor to best decipher communication effectiveness and to provide the best assistance possible to individual students.
Jennifer,
Glad you found this section of the course helpful. I too think it's interesting to work with the different generations and learn from them as well. Thanks!
I instruct students across all of the generations discussed. I loved this section of the course because it reminded me that each generation does have a different method of communication and not everyone communicates the same way. Although I'm smack dab in the middle of Baby Boomers and Gen X, I need to remember this and be more aware of how my students need to be communicated too.
Anne,
Each generation brings something different to the table. However, what they bring can be utilized to our advantage in the classroom. Nice job.
Eric,
Good example. We are all different in our learning, communicating, etc. Thanks for the input.
Take care.
It is important to understand the role generations play in communication in the online community as it will assist us, as the instructor, in the teaching style and feedback style we may need to use with each particular generation.
I found it most interesting in relation to the generation X, which I am a part of, which stated that we do not like to have our time wasted with busy work. This is so absolutely true for myself. Knowing this I would be careful about sending out too many redundant communications to those students. In addition you know that when a generation Xer asks a question that they really have a question needing assistance with.
Greetings!
Each generation has a certain comfort level when using technology. For example, Gen X is more comfortable using technology than Baby Boomers. Thus, designers and instructors should keep this in mind when designing and facilitating courses.
Best, Eric Freeman
Jeremy,
Yes, they do. The more we understand our audience, our students, the better we can help them improve through our communication.
Thanks!
