Reaching and Teaching the iPod Generation

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Reaching and Teaching the iPod Generation

• Jim Gaston, Associate Director, District IT

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Overview

• The iPod Generation
• Students Today
• What Are Students Looking For?
• Conclusions

• Recommended Resources
• Educating the Net Generation Diana G Oblinger
  and James L. Oblinger, Editors
• www.educause.edu/educatingthenetgen/
• Growing up Digital by Don Tapscott
• marcprensky.com
• Pew Internet and American Life Project
• www.pewinternet.org

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Why the iPod Generation?

• Remarkable Success Story
• 6.4 million iPod players were purchased in the
  4th quarter of FY 2005 - an increase of 220
• 87 market share of MP3 players
• 30 of 2006 cars will have an iPod option
• iTunes sells 1.8 millions songs a day

July 26, 2004

• Key to Apples success is not the technology
  itself, but the intelligent application of the
  technology
• Students have come to expect everything to work
  as well as their iPods

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Generational Differences
Matures Baby Boomers Gen X iPod Gen
Birth Dates 1900-1946 1946-1964 1965-1982 1982-1991
Description Greatest Generation Me Generation Latchkey Generation Millenials
Attributes Command and Control Self-Sacrifice Optimistic Workaholic Independent Skeptical Hopeful Determined
Likes Respect for Authority Family Community Involvement Responsibility Work Ethic Can-Do Attitude Freedom Multitasking Work-Life Balance Public Activism Latest Technology Parents
Dislikes Waste Technology Laziness Turning 50 Red Tape Hype Anything Slow Negativity
To truly understand students today, we must
understand how deeply and pervasively technology
has permeated their lives
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Technology Usage Statistics

• Among children ages 8 to 18
• 96 have gone online.
• 74 have access at home
• 61 use it every day
• 13 to 17 year olds average
• 3.1 hours a day with television
• 3.5 with digital media
• 70 of teenagers use IM to stay in touch
• 56 prefer to use the Internet instead of the
  phone
• students in grades 7-12 know more screen names
  than home phone numbers
• 12 to 15 year old California students
• Spend 90 minutes a day online
• 40 minutes with IM
• 31.4 minutes downloading music
• 22 minutes with email

By the time a student is 21, he will have spent
twice as many hours playing video games as
reading!
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Students Today

• Digital Natives
• Always Connected
• Immediate Access
• Multitasking
• Engagement and Experience
• Social Enjoy teamwork
• Visual

Using technology to increase customization,
convenience and collaboration is well received
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Students Today

• Thought process has evolved around the web
• We were raised reading books they were raised
  on the web
• Books reinforce a linear style of thinking and
  reasoning
• They have developed a hypertext style of
  thinking

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Technology Review

• Social Networking Software
• Instant Messaging (IM)
• AIM, Yahoo, MSN Messenger
• Blogs
• Blogger
• Typepad
• Wikis
• Jotspot
• Wikispaces
• Wikipedia
• Social Bookmarking
• Spurl
• del.icio.us
• Profiles
• My Space
• Yahoo 360
• Facebook

• RSS
• Feedster
• Yahoo
• Bloglines
• Podcasting
• Podcast.net
• Edupodder
• iTunes

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What Are Students Looking For?

• Students were asked to rate the following items
  in importance (scale of 1-10)
• Professors experience and expertise
• Professors ability to customize the class using
  technology (i.e. Blackboard)
• Professors ability to convey lecture points
  using technology (i.e. PowerPoint)

8 7.64 7.68
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Conclusions

• Students want high level of interaction, online
  and in-person
• They want to be engaged in the learning process,
  not just passive receptors
• A key component of their definition of technology
  is customization
• The ability to adapt technology to meet
  individual needs, rather than vice versa
• Students have come to expect a high level of
  customer service from their online experiences

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What Were Doing
MySite August 2000
SmartSchedule July 2002
KnowledgeBase MySite Agent October 2003
Class Shopping Cart August 2004
My Academic Plan Coming Spring 2006