TEACHING the PlayStation Generation

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TEACHING the PlayStation Generation

• Anne Dwyer
• rincondelospadresymadres.pbwiki.com

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TEACHING the PlayStation Generation

• Take a couple of minutes write down when you
  were born, three adjectives to describe your peer
  group, your education, your world, when you were
  young.
• Why?
• Who?
• How?
• What else?

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Why focus on Learners?

• We can only be effective teachers if we know
  how our
• clients learn
• Supporting successful learning requires
  understanding of
• Who learners are
• What they need
• What they expect
• What technologies students are using
• Which technologies have real teaching and
  learning potential
• How we can use the technologies to support
  successful learning

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Generations

• What makes a generation?
• Grandparents parents children the gap
• Social, ethical, political, economic,
  technological change and influence
• Every 20 years (sub-generations are shorter war,
  disaster, recession etc)
• From generation to generation expectations,
  attitudes, rights and rules change.
  Understanding this helps us to understand parents
  and grandparents too!

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Schools change from generation to generation
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1910-30 the builders, the lucky generation
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Lucky job for life, pensions, one income
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The school days of the lucky generation were days
of

• Respect
• Rote learning
• The three Rs
• Rule by the rod
• Punishment

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Values learnt from a depression childhood

• Loyalty
• Saving
• The work ethic
• Sense of mutual obligation
• Patriotism
• - parents of the early Baby Boomers
• - grandparents of Generation X

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1930s the silent generation
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These were days of

• Uncertainty, insecurity
• Political unrest and war
• Extremisms
• Interrupted education
• Emmigration to survive
• A desire to make the world a better place for
  their children

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Values learnt from a wartime adolescence

• Strong community spirit
• National identity
• Pride in the countrys capacity to take its place
  in the war
• Patriotism
• Sacrifice, saving and hard work
• - parents of the later Baby Boomers
• - grandparents of millennials

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The early baby boomers the greedy generation B
1940 50
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Parents lucky generationChildren Generations
X/Y

• A job for life
• Opportunities for promotion
• And
• This was the first generation to have a washing
  machine, a hoover and to be influenced by TV
• Paris 68ers, money makers, pop music
  Beatles, Rolling Stones

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The Greedy Generation in 1965
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Born 1950 1965? the baby boomers in 1975
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Post-war Boom Values children of the lucky
and/or silent generation

• (thanks in part to the Marshall Plan)
• Optimism - hope for a new egalitarian
  middle-class
• Social Welfare and guarantees
• Openness to new immigrants based on expected
  assimilation
• Early marriage, the lucky generation became
  Doris Day Mum, the real Mum
• Dr Spock
• New houses, in the suburbs
• Freedom Sex revolution, hippies, comfort
• Live to work - profession and progress

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In schools

• More openness
• New theories, new ideas new maths, audiolingual
  language teaching
• Less authoritarianism
• More democracy parent-teacher meetings
• Promotion of girls
• The first years to experience the
  democratization of the university

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Late Baby Boomers were not here for a long
time were here for a good time.

• Wild youth - over protective parents
• Desire for equality unclear gender roles
• Independent women
• Super Mums career, few kids, less time for
  kids, material compensation
• High divorce rates
• YUPPIES
• from Love Generation, idealists and
  revolutionaries to Stress Generation

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Born 1965 1980 Gen x
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Generation X

• Consumers (spoiled as children)
• Cynical
• Short-term thinkers,
• Job and money-oriented
• Work to live
• Few or no children
• DINKIES
• - parents of the next generation!!!

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Interactivity
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Personalised teaching
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1980 1990 Gen Y/ millennials, the kleenex
generation

• Action people
• Personalised everything
• Super consumers
• Give up easily
• High job turnover
• High partner turnover
• Concentration span of advertisements

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Individualism
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Teams and groupwork
1995
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Born 1990 2005? The PlayStation Generation
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The PlayStation Generation

• High divorce rate among parents
• Busy working mothers, inactive fathers
• Message girls/women are better
• Will persevere, they dont give up
• Use of thumb
• Use tricks and cheat sheets
• Will and want to express opinions
• Obtain, file and store info differently

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2008
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Summary of generations

• Matures (before 1946)
• Dedicated to the job
• Respectful of authority
• Place duty before pleasure
• Baby boomers (1946-64)
• Live to work
• Generally optimistic
• Influence on policy products

• Gen X (1965-1980)
• Work to live
• Clear consistent expectations
• Value contributing to the whole
• Millennials (1981-94)
• Live in the moment
• Expect immediacy of technology
• Earn money for immediate consumption

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Students who were very satisfied by generation
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Percent
Boomer 1946-1964 n328
Generation X 1965-1980 n815
Millennial 1981-1994 n346
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Multitasking
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Multitasking means

• Never normally fully concentrate on one sole
  matter
• Focus is diversified

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The PlayStation Generation The Zappers

• The generation inventing games
• Without winners or losers, without start or end,
  and
• changing the rules continuously.
• multitaskers
• know urls better than irregular verbs
• operate in a multi-linear way

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Sites for playing with others
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Messenger 24/7, 10 conversations, 150 contacts
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Video clips for communication
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The PlayStation Generation is into
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They take a non linear approach

• Non-linear learning strategies demand
• a redesign of content learning assets,
• Objects to be accessed just-in-time

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Media use Holland
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The PlayStation Generation

• Will persevere
• Use tricks and cheat sheets
• Will and want to express opinions
• Projects people
• Obtain, file and store info differently
• Over-informed, saturated

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Lifestyle

• Special, Sheltered, Social
• Team oriented
• Achievers, Anything is possible
• Pressured
• Yeah, right cynicism amongst early players
• Concerned about future but live for today (still
  adolescents!)

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Learning Style difficult to teach easy to get
to learn

• Twitch speed
• Active learning Learn by play/fantasy
• Tech friendly and savvy
• Instant return
• Research surf
• Parallel processing
• Graphics first
• Connected
• CHALLENGE critical thinking skills

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So what we need to do?
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Their dominant interaction modes

• multi-tasking,
• social networking
• and experiential, trial and error learning with
  peers

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The PlayStation Generation and other Milennials
believe

• Learning is searching for meaning
• Knowledge is communication about meaning
• Digital data and information become a tool
  for knowledge construction
• Learning with ICT goes beyond understanding of
  others thoughts by generating new ideas of your
  own

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For schools this means

• increasing emphasis on social aspects of
  classroom learning
• classroom learning ideas and concepts are
  actively explored, constructed, applied and
  critiqued
• students actively engage with learning materials
  and problem solving, both individually or
  collaboratively
• the teachers role shifting to mentor/facilitator
  model processes, challenge students to think
  more broadly and support students in this new
  environment.

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What do they have that we didnt have?

• Keyboard skills
• Multitasking
• Instant info
• Connectability
• Over-stressed Mums

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What did we have that they dont have?

• Freedom to play in the street
• Freedom to get dirty
• Throwing games
• Dads who helped us to deconstruct machines and
  gadgets
• Someone at home after school (usually Mum)
• Brothers and sisters

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A motherless generation

• What did Mums use to do (and no longer do)?
• read aloud to them
• help with homework
• check that everythings been done
• call other Mums to check that everythings ok
• compare duties and pocket money and discipline
  with other Mums
• sing to them 5 senses

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What do teachers complain about?

• multitasking eg talking, not listening laptops
  and mobile phones
• poor reading skills
• poor writing skills
• plagiarism
• cheating
• poor study strategies
• low parent interest and control

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So what kinds of activities do they need?

• the Net-Generation and learning
• read off the screen
• store from the screen
• look for tricks
• research and projects
• 20 minute interludes

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Metacognitive skills of the PlayStation generation

1. Enquiry based approaches
2. Networked learning thinking as part of networks
3. Experiential learning no punishments
4. Collaborative learning teams and roles
5. Active learning making choices, act
6. Self organisation setting goals
7. Problem solving strategies
8. Explaining knowledge to others

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In brief -The PlayStation Generation

• a creative problem solver
• an experienced communicator
• a self-directed learner

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Activities that work

• Cheat sheets
• Projects
• Team work
• Copy if it is true, change if it is not
• Find the mistakes
• Copy the best model
• Cut n paste
• Write your own exam (team v team)

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1. Cheat Sheets not cheating
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2. Projects and Team work
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3. Classical Exercises

• Copy if it is true, change if it is not
• Find the mistakes
• Copy the best model
• Improve on the original
• Choose the texts to be corrected

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4. Cut n pasteand reference

• http//5purposedriven.files.wordpress.com/2006/12/
  disney-parade.jpg

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5. Write your own exam

• Team v team
• Selected materials
• Specific time frame
• Self evaluation

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6. Create a website

• A wiki or a blog
• Or an open space and publish homework, exam dates
  etc
• You look cool
• They learn more (and have no excuses)
• You save time

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7. Mnemonics

• OPTR Object Place Time Rest

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Making up for the lost Mum we/they need

1. Reading aloud
2. VAK
3. 5 senses
4. School websites with homework, exams calendar etc
5. Getting dirty
6. Provide guidance
7. Provide structure outcome based
8. Encourage can do attitude
9. Forums like being built elrincondelospadres.co
   m

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What does the future hold?

• Just-in-time content
• Interdisciplinary approach
• Learning in groups of interest
• Different timeslots (from 20 to 4 hrs !)
• Personal itinaries, Portfolios
• NO MORE curriculums, whole classroom
  teaching, school years, standard exams?

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Oh yes there is more

• Physical activity
• Fearless learning take risks
• Off their butts
• multicultural classrooms individualist
• Collectivist? Low/high risk? High/low context?
  Ascribed/achieved status? Masculine/feminine?
  Etc
• Plus only children

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WHAT a CHANGE!

• Comments and Questions