I Am BoredWhat Else Do You Have

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I Am BoredWhat Else Do You Have?

• Stephanie J. Jones, Ed.D.
• Assistant Professor of Higher Education
• June 10, 2009

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Presentation Overview

• The Generations
• Generation Y The Millennials / Net Generation
• Generation Z The New Silent Generation
• Technology Across the Generations
• Expectations in the Classroom

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The Generations

• Generation Y (1977 1990)
• Millennials, Nexters, Echo-Boomers
• Ages 18 32
• 69.7 million people
• Generation Z (1990s 2021)
• The New Silent Generation 9-11 Generation
• Ages 14 and under
• 18 of population

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• Generation Y The Millennials

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• the Millennials (Gen Ys), are a whopping 83
  million and are the biggest generation of all.
• They are techno-kids, glued to their cell phones,
  laptops and iPods.
• Theyve grown up in a world with few boundaries
  and think nothing of forming virtual friendships
  through the Internet or disclosing intimate
  details of themselves on social networking sites.
  
• Many critics charge, theyve been so coddled and
  over praised by hovering parents that they enter
  the school and the job market convinced of their
  own importance

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Characteristics of Generation Y

• Depend heavily on their parents (both Boomer and
  Gen X parents).
• Make decisions jointly with demanding parents
  (co-purchasing a college) and believe in big
  brands.
• Very intent on going to college and look forward
  to planned career path.
• Feel a trophy kid pressure to excel.

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Characteristics of Generation Y

• Focused on grades and performance.
• Packing their resumes with extracurricular and
  summer activities.
• Talented in digital mobile-technologies, capable
  of multi-tasking and interested in interactive
  learning.
• Respectful of norms and institutions.

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Characteristics of Generation Y

• Have no knowledge of what life was like before
  the digital age.
• Are the first post-stone age for whom
  communication has never centered on a pen or
  pencil and some type of paper.
• Communicate through e-mail, text messages, and
  instant messaging.
• Todays students engage in intensive digital
  interaction through blogs, computer and video
  games, cell phones, and on-line networking tools
  (social networking).
• Parents often complain that technology has
  isolated too many young people from one another.
• Millennials view technology more as a communal
  networking tool than as an enabler of solitary
  research and entertainment.

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Gen Ys Life - 80s and 90s

• The economy was mixed.
• Technology exploded.
• Sometimes called Echo-Boomers because they share
  the optimism of the Boomers.
• Busy, over planned lives.
• Stress to succeed and excel.
• Clinton/Lewinsky.
• Columbine.

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• Generation Z The New Silent Generation

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Characteristics of Generation Z

• Make up for nearly 18 percent of the worlds
  population. 
• Computer technologies and the Internet is the
  common place.
• All their communication takes place on the
  internet and they show very little verbal
  communication skills.
• Most of their formative years are being spent on
  the World Wide Web. They are used to instant
  action and satisfaction due to internet
  technology.
• They are very impatient as they desire instant
  results.

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Characteristics of Generation Z

• First generation to be born into a digital world.
• Most electronically connected generation in
  history.
• Are born multitaskers.
• Possibly will be the most unhealthy, overweight
  group of children and employees the world has
  ever seen, due to lack of interactivity.
• Eco-conscious.
• Content to travel the world virtually.

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Characteristics of Generation Z

• Grow up with cell phones, iPod's, Hannah Montana,
  High School Musical, MySpace, YouTube, and
  homeland security.
• 61 of children 8-17 have televisions in their
  rooms, 35 percent have video games and 14 percent
  have a DVD player.
• 75 of those who have a television in their room
  report multitasking with other media.

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Characteristics of Generation Z

• Gen Zs birth coincides with the graphical web
  interface.
• Amateur internet searchers.
• Lack skills in evaluating web content and using
  resources other than popular internet search
  tools such as Google
• Are receptive to any sort of instruction that
  makes them appear web savvier.

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• Technology Across the Generations

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Technology Use

• Generations Y and Z
• Are the most likely groups to use the Internet
  for entertainment and for communicating with
  friends and family.
• Are significantly more likely than their older
  counterparts to seek entertainment through online
  videos, games, and virtual worlds, and they are
  also more likely to download music to listen to
  later.
• Are more likely than older users to read other
  peoples blogs and to write their own are also
  considerably more likely than older generations
  to use social networking sites and to create
  profiles on those sites.

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Generation Y Technology Use

• Views on technology
• Its the air they breathe. To be human to be a
  digital native (for many of us, this is a
  paradigm shift).
• They do not consider the Internet to be the
  greatest tool for mankind as it has always been
  there for them.
• Their means of communication is mainly through
  online communities like Twitter, Google, and Face
  Book.
• They do not believe in personally meeting their
  friends and developing relationships.
• They are capable of making huge communities and
  have massive collaborations using the Internet
  without knowing anyone personally.

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Generation Y Technology Use

• They may not do very well in areas of public
  speaking and regard privacy to the core.
• They may consider living with others as intrusion
  of space.

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Technology Use - Generation Z

• Have been given cell phones and search engines to
  guide their way along the information highway and
  beyond.
• Raised on Blues Clues and Reality TV.
• Will need wake up call to get involved.
• Though have been dismissed as the New Silent
  Generation due to the time they will spend
  online, may prove to be more imaginative than the
  rest of us (Keith Dugdale, director of global
  recruitment KPMG).
• Virtual world will prove immensely powerful
  influence on every aspect of life and work.
• Will be more lateral-thinkers.
• Will be more diversity aware.

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Technology Use Generation Z

• Often use personal blogs to update friends on
  their lives and they use social networking sites
  to keep track of and communicate with friends.
• Are significantly more likely than older
  generations to send instant messages to friends.
• By a large margin, Gen Zs favorite online
  activity is game playing 78 of 12-17 year old
  internet users play games online.

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Experts or Novices?

• Do not have a deep understanding of the inner
  workings of the Internet or how commercial search
  engines rank results.
• Often just familiar with the tip of the Internet
  iceberg.
• Not familiar with information that is part of the
  invisible Web or deep web, dynamically generated
  web page.
• Unfamiliar with electronic resources that are not
  free on the Internet, such as commercials
  subscription databases.

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Experts or Novices?

• Students have never engaged in formal exercises
  comparing advantages, disadvantages, strengths
  and weakness of the Web with other information
  tools such as books and journals.
• Will devote large amounts of time out-of-school
  browsing the Web.
• Tend not to place time constraints on themselves.
• Inability to use the Web most effectively causes
  them to spend exorbitant amounts of time
  browsing.
• Will devote large amounts of time engaging in
  activities personally relevant to them.

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Experts or Novices?

• Started using the Internet before having been
  given any sort of formal instruction on locating
  and evaluating web pages.
• Figured out through trial and errors that
  retrieved results located at the top of a web
  page are usually more relevant.
• Generally do not do any scrolling but will
  concentrate on results at the top of the screen.
• Implies that these young searchers are not
  closely evaluating any results and are just
  viewing all top results as being equal and worthy.

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Experts or Novices?

• Believe that information they need to find a
  research answer or to complete a homework
  assignment is freely available on the Internet.
• Pew Internet and American Life Project that
  studies digital behavior.
• Statistics concerning the use of the Internet to
  complete homework assignments among this age
  group keeps spiraling upward.

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Experts or Novices?

• Allegiance to Google
• Preferred method of Internet searching is to
  start with a Google search.
• May not be the most efficient or fastest means
  but still start here.
• This indicates that they may not be aware of
  other information search strategies and
  resources, especially print materials that are
  better suited to answer certain types of
  questions.
• Use Google confidently because they find 10s of
  1,000s of results in a few seconds.

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Experts or Novices?

• Often do not have the metacognitive skills to
  know when to stop using Google and other search
  tools and to try a difference information search
  strategy.
• Use Google carelessly to determine or measure the
  significance of a topic or individual.
• Leads to faulty conclusions.

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Gen Ys Likely to Engage In

• Rank Order
• Watching videos online
• Using social networking sites
• Getting info about jobs
• Setting up a social networking profile
• Sending instant messages
• Downloading music

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Gen Zs Likely to Engage In

• Rank Order
• Playing games online
• Sending instant messages
• Using social networking sites
• Downloading Music
• Watching videos online
• Setting up social networking profiles

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All Generations Likely to Engage In

• Rank Order
• Using email
• Using search engines (Gen Y Older)
• Getting news online

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• Expectations in the Classroom

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Student Expectations

• Students today expect all the information in the
  world to be one mouse click away on a 24/7
  basis.
• John Wilson, executive director the
  National Education Association

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Teaching Generation Y

• Need learning environments that provide
  interaction with other students experiential
  learning small group discussions, projects,
  in-class presentations, simulations and case
  study approaches.
• Grew up in structure world need lots of
  structure and direction.
• Need lots of feedback they need to know they
  are headed in the right direction.
• Use technology this generation uses technology
  for everything.
• Make learning fun learn best when they are
  entertained.
• Incorporate games.

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Teaching Generation Y

• Be relevant.
• Utilize their talents.
• Allow for creativity and be creative.
• Allow multiple options for performance.
• Be visual.
• Recognize the need for social interaction.

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Teaching Generation Z

• This generation grew up with
• Graphical web browsers.
• Laptops.
• Cell phones.
• Instant messenger.
• Broadband.
• Wireless.
• Video games.

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Teaching Generation Z

• Accustomed to
• Collaborating in real-time regardless of physical
  location.
• Having access to wealth of diverse information.
• Use to authoring or contributing content
  instantaneously to web sites and to blogs.

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Teaching Generation Z

• Will seek information be electronic
  multitaskers
• Search and use several Internet browser windows
  at the same time.
• Use several different software applications at
  same time.
• Will use two computers at the same time (laptop
  and desktop).
• Will instant message peers who are not physically
  located within conversation range, and those that
  are.
• Use cell phones to contact other peers who are
  not physically present or are not responding to
  instant messaging.
• Use cell phones for activities other than
  talking.

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Teaching Generation Z

• Will use an arsenal of tools to manage, store and
  protect information
• Email, peripheral devices such as flash drive and
  iPods, file transfer protocol applications.
• Have mastered email to take full advantage of its
  gathering, organizing, and forwarding
  capabilities.
• Know no other reality than their Internet-based
  world, they are likely to have heightened
  technical expectations, attitudes and beliefs.
• Expect libraries and research resources to be
  accessible remotely from home where they can
  multitask comfortably and snack and watch TV.

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Students Today Digital Natives

• Students take technology for granted but are not
  information literate or fluent.
• Staying connected is a central part of their
  lives.
• Doing is more important than knowing and learning
  is accomplished through trial and error.
• Opposed to logical and rule-based approach.
• Students do posses the skills necessary to use
  new communication forms and they have an ever
  increasing expectation on their part that these
  new paths be used.

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Students Today Digital Natives

• The virtual world is utterly real to these
  students and will prove an immensely powerful
  influence on every aspect of life and work.
• Will be more flexible in their thinking due to
  their love of computer games.
• Will be a scare resource among an aging
  population. Will be a transient workforce move
  to where the work is rather than expect to find
  employment in their home towns.
• Will be better educated than any generation in
  history, but will need encouragement to notch up
  meaningful school experiences.

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Students Today Digital Natives

• Our students possess unprecedented levels of
  skills with information technology.
• They think about and use technology very
  different from earlier generations.
• Characterized as preferring teamwork,
  experiential activities and the use of technology.

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Our Role?

• As educators, we need to evaluate the technology
  we use in our classes to ensure that it does not
  take over the role of instruction.
• Need to remember that technology is a toolnot
  the teacher.
• We are in control of determining the best
  instructional methods and tools to use to teach
  concepts.
• We need to have a good understanding of the
  frameworks that our students operate from.

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Our Role?

• We may need to be willing to accept the fact that
  our students may know more about technology than
  we do and that it is OK to have a student
  demonstrate a concept.
• We need to accept the fact that we will never
  know everything there is to know about
  technology.
• We need to continue to learn and explore new
  concepts of teaching but, hold fast to those
  concepts that we truly believe are effective
  instructional methods.

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References

• Anderson, Joyce (Fall 2004). Education
  Generation Zzz.. Phi Kappa Phi Forum, 84, 4,
  pgs. 59-60.
• Bryant, Steven Valines, Francisco.
  Presentation to the National Association of
  Financial Aid Advisors (July, 2007). Technology
  Across Generations Is E-mail Obsolete?
  Engaging the Digital Native Student and their
  Parent.
• Coates, Julie (2007). Generation Y The
  Millennial Generation. LERN Books.
• Geck, Caroline (2006, Feb.). The generation Z
  connection teaching information literacy to the
  newest net generation. Teacher Librarian, 33, 3,
  5p.
• Hammill, Greg (Winter/Spring 2005). Mixing and
  managing four generations of employees.
  FDUMagazine Online. Retrieved from
  http//www.fdu.edu/newspubs/magazine/05ws/generati
  ons.htm on May 31, 2009.
• Jones, Sydney Fox, Susannah (2009).
  Generations Online 2009, PEW/Internet American
  Life Project, January 28, 2009. Retrieved from
  http//www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2009/Generation
  s-Online-in-2009.aspx.
• Kvavik, Robert B. (2004). Convenience,
  communications, and control How students use
  technology. EDUCAUSE Center for Applied
  Research, research study article.

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• Levin, D., Arafeh, S. (2002, August 14). The
  digital disconnect the widening gap between
  Internet-savvy students and their schools.
• Matthews, Virginia (2008). Generation Z.
  Personnel Today, 4p.

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• Contact Information stephanie.j.jones_at_ttu.edu

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