James,
Right on. We do need to get to know our students and understand general traits. Nice job.
April,
Love your term "learning table." This provides a visual in my mind as students all learn from each other. Thanks for your input.
Linda,
Right. We can't put all of the students in the same category. They are all different. Non-traditional are just one component of your students.
Kenya,
We do have to keep reminding students. Keep up the good work. Thanks!
Kenya,
Our students are very diverse and it is important to understand them to become better instructors. Thanks!
Nancy,
Just keep reminding. :-) I also do not give credit on discussion boards if texting language is used. This also helps emphasize the point.
Nancy,
Understanding your audience, your students, does help you provide course content in a variety of ways to make them more successful. Thanks for your input.
Nancy,
Right. It's a matter of just understanding our audience which is our students. Thanks for your information.
Hello everyone,
Students come into the virtual classroom with vastly different backgrounds, and their familiarity with various forms of communication, which is so very often conditioned to an extreme degree by age—can have a tremendous impact upon how readily they acclimate themselves to the online learning environment. I have had students from vastly different age groups: young students, just out of high school, who grew up in the digital world; much older students for whom computers, throughout much of their lives, were simply fantastical machines one saw in movies or on television. Failing to take into account students’ disparate generational familiarity with communication technology will only assure that some students will face disproportionate challenges in the online classroom.
Mark A. Coppelli
I agree - I spend a lot of time correcting papers and demonstrating a better sentence structure, correcting spelling mistakes, and it is rewarding when a student actually takes all of those suggestions, and demonstrates improvement!
Susan
Each generation approaches life based on their experiences and availability of technology. I find that younger students need to be reminded when writing formal papers to avoid "conversational" English or even "texting" English. On the other hand, I have spent many hours walking baby boomers through setting headers for a paper, as well as understanding other features in Word to format their paper to APA style, for example.
Aspects for a good facilitator require the ability to understand the role of generations, and promote communication among all age groups present in the class - promote social opportunities and aid with technology for the baby boomers, make communication relevant for the Generation Xers and help Millenials gain a different perspective of the world. Not always easy, but in some classes, the blending and learning from each other, takes the burden off of the facilitator and the class becomes a cohesive unit of their own.
Education is always an opportunity!
Susan
Nicole,
You make several important points. If feel that one of the most important things that an instructor can do is help students in the different generations understand their differences and communicate with each other.
Jim
It is important to understand the role generations play in communication in the online community because different generations (in general) have different strengths and weaknesses when communicating online. It is important for the instructor to understand and beware of this. This allows the instructor to take appropriate steps to help any generation communicate effectively with the instructor and students in other generations. It also helps the instructor to understand and evaluate the communications of a specific generation of students.
The role that generations play is even more important in the online community than it is in many on-ground classes, in my opinion. The online environment, unlike many on-ground classrooms, typically requires all students to participate in discussions in some manner. Therefore, all in a class, which is often composed of students from more than one generation, must communicate and work with one another. An instructor's understanding of what each generation can bring to the "learning table" can enhance the learning of all in the class. The social skills of the older students can help the younger students in completion of group projects, for example. The technological skills of the younger generations can aid the older students in completion of group projects, for instance.
It is important to understand the generations when communicating with members of an online community because it gives us clues into how they behave and think. We can adapt our own thinking when we respond to them based on what we know about them. It teaches us not to put all students in the same category. Studies have shown that roughly 50% of our students are now nontraditional students, so this says a lot about how we should approach teaching.
Dalena,
I find that I too need to remind my student to write scholarly when posting to the db area and emails.
In an online environment you will find a wide spread of generations. As such, it is important to know who your students are because the more mature generation may not be technologically savvy. Then you have the younger generation that have been born in this technology, all they know is technology and therefore have a great amount of knowledge.
As such, once again it is important to recognize the differences in the generations of students and to motivate the students that are tech savvy and empower the students that are not.
Lewis,
Right on. You are right on target. Thanks again for your input on these forums. We continue to learn from each other.
Dr. Tena B. Crews
William,
Simply learning more about others can help us appreciate our strengths. Thanks for your input.
Dr. Tena B. Crews
Jennifer,
There are several of us who may be in one generation, but crossover into another generation. We are all different and we should celebrate those differences. Thanks.
Dr. Tena B. Crews
