There are many baby boomers that have technical skills. All generations may have some level of technical skill, it's "what type of technical skill." However, the millennials and the next generation have even more.
Are you serious "Baby Boomers" do not have technical skills? Claude Shannon, Richard Bellman, Richard Shockley to name a few modernized the world. Technical knowledge is declining with the "baby boomers".
Jeanette,
I am glad this module was helpful. It's great to see how you are now thinking differently about communicating with and teaching students of all ages. You are right that it is very different than teaching face-to-face (F2F) with "typical" students.
Nice job.
Hi! I found this learning module to be very informative and eye-opening. In today's online classroom, I typically have students ranging from their late teens to their 60s in almost every class I teach. This is very different from teaching on a ground campus, where my students tended to be in the traditional range of 18-25. I saw myself as more of an authority figure with the younger students. Many of the Boomers I now teach are accomplished people, having raised families and had successful careers. They are often returning to college to prepare for a second career. I have to carefully watch the tone of my messages in order to communicate more as a facilitator and less as an authority. I want to be respectful with students of all ages. I agree that setting aside our communications to review later for tone is a valuable practice. Sometimes when hurried I will dash off a message to a student that later I see could be misinterpreted as condescending. I have learned to slow down and always reread my messages from the viewpoint of the recipient, as well as to always include a friendly greeting, when communicating with students. I am very interested to gather more suggestions for effective online communication with students of all generations if you could please recommend a book or article. Thank you!
Cheryl,
I'm thrilled this is relevant to your current teaching situation. Massey has a lot to say about the topic. And, you are right, assuming and generalizing many times just get us into trouble. Each class is made up of different students and we have to find out who they are to effectively reach them. . .where they are.
Thanks for the "link" to Massey where we can go look up more information on the subject. Nice job.
I was just talking to another instructor about this the other day. We have to make sure we do not make geral sweeping assumptions about how to respond to the whole class when we see an evaluation or two come out of one of the classes. Students submit evaluations at the end of class and sometimes if instructors are new to the teaching field they feel that if they just make a change in general to their whole syllabus ar class they will resolve the proble. However they may have just created a problem for the entire rest of the class. One of the things they quite often forget to do is look at the profile of the student the evaluation is coming from. If it is a Baby Boomer we need to address their concern in their terms. I will never forget one of the teaching I have way back in my Associates Degree. It was called "What you are is what you were when", I believe by Donald Massey (sp?) I had this class maybe 25 years ago and this was just one day so I am reaching to remember the name however the teaching had such a profound impact on me to this day. He spoke of how whatever era you were born into and whatever was going on around you during those first 8 formative years is who you are today at your core. This is what guides me as an instructor to remember not to generalize all students together and to address the generational needs each era has.
