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Showing posts with label millennials. Show all posts
Showing posts with label millennials. Show all posts

Thursday, August 15, 2013

Internet: Pacifier of Digital Natives?

Is the Internet the Digital Pacifier of our Digital Natives? 

This is a question that was posed by Bill Lammers.  He conveys an incident in his high school classroom where the students were working intently on their assignments when . . . suddenly . . .  the Internet Died.

Some students squirmed because they didn't think that they would be able to work on their assignment without the Internet.  Others squealed in delight when they realized that they didn't have to work on their assignments but moaned in anguish when they decided that they "couldn't do anything else" because their window to the world, The Internet, was down.

Read Lammers' posting at The Pacifier of the Digital Natives

Blammer (Bill Lammers) makes an interesting observation when he notes how tied to the Internet his students were. I was talking with a reporter the other day who told me that some of his interns were literally lost without their GPSs. They had no problem finding places when their smartphones had full access to the web, but they had no idea about how to read a map. They had no idea how to find north and what all of the squiggly lines on the map meant.

Is this a crime or merely a Symbol of the Times? What do you think?  Read Lammers' article and then join in the discussion here about being connected to the world through the Internet has changed the skill set for our digital natives.

Join the discussion in the comments section below.

Z
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Monday, October 15, 2012

ITEC 2012 - Making Learning Meaningful for Millennials



What does it take to make learning meaningful to your millennial students?  That is a question that should be on the lips of every teacher.  The first thing that we need to do is realize that our students today are different than 20 years ago.  They are the first generation to live in a digital world.  They may not be born knowing how to use technology, but they have grown up in a world where digital answers have always been available and they are Digitally Comfy (as Angela Maiers says).

I am sharing my ideas about how we can best address our Millennial students' needs.

Here are the resources that I used. If you have additional ideas, please add them to the comments below.

We will be using technology throughout the session so let's begin with some of the opening resources:

Twitter: For all of your twitterers, we will use the hashtag #ITEC12 When you tweet, include this hashtag in your message so that others can follow along with your ideas. If you want to see what was posted, click on the hashtag above and it will show you what has been said.

Collaborative Notes: We will also use collaborative note taking. This is a Google Doc that I created and then laid open to the world for anyone to edit.  This means that you just need to click on the link and it will take you to the Google Doc. You don't have to sign-in but you will be known as Anonymous???? when you are entering your ideas.  Go ahead and add the info that you find interesting.  Go out on the web during the session to find relevant information and add the link to the document.

The Slideshow


Who Are the Millenials?
Readings, Watchings, Listenings and Doings

Millennial Mindset

    I hope that this session has been useful for you. I am interested in knowing if and how this material has been useful to you. I hope that this is just the beginning of our connection.
    • Subscribe to this blog using the link in the right column.
    • Send me an email at zeitz@uni.edu
    • Follow me on Twitter:  @zeitz
    • Let's visit on Skype:  leighzeitz
     How else can I help you?

    Z

    Thursday, May 10, 2012

    Joe's Non-Netbook

    We are constantly talking about how our "digital native" students are trying to learn in our 19th century classrooms.  Our Millennials are connected 24/7 except when they come to class are expected to unplug.

    Here is a video that I found where Joe is having problems making a book work because it doesn't have the elements of the ebooks he is used to reading.

    What do you think?  Is this a problem in your room?

    iPaper
    I added this to the posting on May 21.  Just thought that this spoof fit well and didn't have to create a new posting.


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    Thursday, November 03, 2011

    Making Learning Meaningful for Millennials

    Today I have the opportunity to provide a session at The Way Up XXV conference in Des Moines. This is an opportunity for about 100 women from Iowa higher education to experience learning opportunities in seeking leadership. It is a wonderful opportunity for networking both professionally and personally.

    I am sharing my ideas about how we can best address our Millennial students' needs.

    Here are the resources that I used. If you have additional ideas, please add them to the comments below.

    We will be using technology throughout the session so let's begin with some of the opening resources:

    Twitter: If anyone is twittering, we will use the hashtag #WayUpXXV. When you tweet, include this hashtag in your message so that others can follow along with your ideas. If you want to see what was posted, click on the hashtag above and it will show you what has been said.

    Collaborative Notes: We will also use collaborative note taking. This is a Google Doc that I created and then laid open to the world for anyone to edit.  This means that you just need to click on the link and it will take you to the Google Doc. You don't have to sign-in but you will be known as Anonymous???? when you are entering your ideas.  Go ahead and add the info that you find interesting.  Go out on the web during the session to find relevant information and add the link to the document.

    Making Learning Meaningful for Millennials Slideshow.
    You can review the slideshow at slideshare.com.

    Who Are the Millenials?
    Readings, Watchings, Listenings and Doings
    Millennial Mindset
    Personal Learning Network 
    Gaming

    I hope that this session has been useful for you. I am interested in knowing if and how this material has been useful to you. I hope that this is just the beginning of our connection.
    • Subscribe to this blog using the link in the right column.
    • Send me an email at zeitz@uni.edu
    • Follow me on Twitter:  @zeitz
    • Let's visit on Skype:  leighzeitz
     How else can I help you?

    Z

    Friday, August 05, 2011

    Is Gaming "As Real As Your Life?"

    David Perry                      Michael Perry via WikipediaOnce again, TED comes through with a video that made me think about the future. This isn't just any future, but it is the future brought to us by David Perry where he suggests that our perception and interaction with the world will be moderated or at least affected by simulation gaming. David Perry is a game designer who has created games like Enter Matrix, The Terminator, Aladdin, and Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles,

    Perry does a stupendous job of taking us through the evolution of various types of games including game boarding, basketball (from stick figures to life-like player where you can see the sweat rolling off his brow), boxing, StarWars, and 1st-person shooter games. It's easy to see how things on the screen can be mistaken for reality.

    The most effective part of the talk was the excerpt he played from Michael Highland's film, As Real As Your Life. Highland explains that he was born in 1984 (the beginning of the Millennial Generation) and his constant involvement with video games has changed his life. The border between his real world and video world have blurred. His interaction in the virtual world is helping mold who he is in the real world. He has driven over 32,000 miles in virtual cars while he has only put 25,000 miles on his real car. 

    How will this affect our learning? It has a dramatic effect in who we are and what we do. Does it make us a better or worse person? No. Learning through video games is no different than learning through real life except the learner/teacher has some control over the situations where the learner is learning. This can provide a much richer and more skilled learner because s/he can be experienced beyond his/her years. Look at how this is used with astronauts, pilots, police officers, soldiers and doctors. They have learned to react or proact in situations they have never before experienced in real life. At least when they experience it in the virtual world, there are few repercussions from mistakes that they may experience.

    The gaming world can provide a rich experience for learners inside and outside of the classroom. The only problem is that it can be quite complex and more difficult to create such an environment. It is much easier to simply create a lecture with a few poorly-made PowerPoints.  The advantage is that once the gaming environment has been created, it can  reused without much more work on the part of the teacher. It should be continually reviewed and updated as necessary, but it is not like creating a whole new learning situation.



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    Thursday, August 19, 2010

    Millenials: They Have Different Learning Needs

     

    drzreflects.com                   
    In the UNI workshop on our Liberal Arts Core, I mentioned the need for educators to consider our students' needs and address them - not the other way around. 
     At UNI the average undergraduate student is 21 years old. This places this audience right in the middle of the Millennial Generation. 
    Don Tapscott completed $4 million worth of research into the millennial generation and shared his results in his book, Grown Up Digital.   Many of the attendees of this workshop asked me for the citation so I am placing it on here on my blog.  This is a quick and easy post and I will write more in-depth  at a later date, but here are some links to his books and YouTube videos.

    Books:
    Videos:
    I will be adding additional resources in the near future.

    What is your opinion about the needs of millennials?  Is it a valid issue or should we ignore it and make our students learn how to adapt to our teaching styles?

    Can you add additional resources in your comment?  Click Comments link below.
    photo:amazon.com