This concept appealed most to me because it was the impetus to my beginning a technology master's degree. I am a generation X member and was familiar with the term growing up. My father, a 1946 baby boomer would often discuss these concepts with me. He would say that "your generation needs to be more educated than my generation and your children will need to be even more educated than you." Interestingly enough, in Gollnick and Chinn says that Generation Y are the most education minded generation in history. (p. 366).
The impact on education lies in the way we educate our students. We are starting to notice trends with our students. Lower reading levels in literary text because students are side-tracked from reading for pleasure by more pleasurable things such as X-Box, Computer games, MySpace, IPods (my kids watch tv shows and movies on theirs) and texting. You would think that these are all some form of reading and would enrich the reading levels, but this simply is not evident.
My students are the oldest of the generation Z. They require more than posing a question as a set induction. A video or sound clip does more to inspire participation than a well-thought out question. Using the types of technology that this generation relates to will be effective in educating this generation. Online, interactive textbooks to illustrate content, blogging for discussion, using RS feeds for notifications of assignments or changes...This may seem cynical, however this generation needs more than paper, doesn't always have the social skills for face to face discussion and does well to have information fed to them via a text reminder or RS feed.
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I find many teachers complaining that we have to spoon feed our students. In many ways I agree with this. The challenge for teachers is to reach kids in the medium they are comfortable with but still maintain the challenge that is necessary for learning.
-Andrea
Interesting, that makes me rethink about why we have to spoon feed our students. One of the reason might be the side-effect of “programming in technology”. If we do not give the direction, the computer does not know where to go. I have such experience that most of my students at college level will complain it if the task is more challenge. But if the instruction is definitely step by step, they will complain as well. I agree with what Andrea said the challenge should reach the children in the medium.
In reference to the quote shared by Lisa--I am interested to know more about Generation Y's exceptional interest in education. To what would you attribute that level of interest? Is that what you see as well? Who are these folks?
I remember hearing a report on NPR a while back discussing work behavior of Generation Y young adults. The report discussed a lack of initiative for these workers. They also discussed that members of generation Y require constant rewards for job performance. They related this back to the fact that this generation was raised with many rewards for simple daily activities that should be expected. The sticker charts and the constant "good jobs" for a job that is expected to be completed. They suggested that this generation did not internalize a sense of accomplishment. They needed external rewards or praise from their employers. Levine (2004) suggest that they are 'work naive' (p. 367) As also mentioned in the text, this generation wants instant gratification. A report in the text from 60 minutes discusses that this generation view themselves as 'special' and 'highly valued' (p. 366) I think about this as an educator. I feel I need to help the students develop a sense of accomplishment without external praise. This is a hard lesson to teach. We are so used to telling students good job, sometimes more than we should be for teaching the sense of accomplishment to be internalized.
I am the parent of a 24 year old sixth year college student who has changed his major 3 times and is now in a major that will require him to obtain a master's degree to use his undergraduate degree in the work force. He seems to feel a sense of entitlement to education that his parents should be responsible for his support while he works on his education. After the fifth year, we refused to pay for tuition, books, etc. but continue to provide housing car, insurance and the most important, health insurance. Our government's new healthcare bill will allow children to stay on parent's health insurance until age 27. This would also support the idea that the generation "Y" feels that they are higher education oriented. I also know that the reality is that these highly educated 20 somethings are getting out of college with degrees and have no job prospects so enrolling in higher education fends off the student loan collection for a while. So, are the generation "Y" 20 somethings education oriented, or are they just continuing education because job prospects are so bleak?
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