Defining the New Generation

     It is probably a terrible redundancy to describe the modern generation as being different than those preceding it. We've been through the greatest generation, the baby boomers, Generation X, and we now need to deal with another generation. Claire Raines, author of Connecting Generations: The Sourcebook (2002), describes the new generation like this:

They’re the hottest commodity on the job market since Rosie the Riveter. They’re sociable, optimistic, talented, well-educated, collaborative, open-minded, influential, and achievement-oriented...They are arriving in the workplace with higher expectations than any generation before them—and they’re so well connected that, if an employer doesn’t match those expectations, they can tell thousands of their cohorts with one click of the mouse. They’re the Millennial Generation. Born between 1980 and 2000, they’re a generation nearly as large as the Baby Boom, and they’re charged with potential. They’re variously called the Internet Generation, Echo Boomers, the Boomlet, Nexters, Generation Y, the Nintendo Generation, the Digital Generation, and, in Canada, the Sunshine Generation. But several thousand of them sent suggestions about what they want to be called to Peter Jennings at abcnews.com, and “Millennials” was the clear winner. (p.1)

     Some also call this the "me" generation, but that's another subject entirely. Suffice it to say that they're all about themselves, just like we were.

     Millenials are also connected like never before. As I pointed out on my home page, technology is an integral part of who they are. That connection redefines working relationships and demands that we, as educators, adequately prepare the Millenials for the working world. You may see IPods and cell phones and text messaging as annoyances, but they are as important to Millenials as knowing computerized office applications are to business.

     Of course, this connection only demonstrates that a structure exists. As the New Media Consortium (2007) contends, "...the information literacy skills of new students are not improving as the post-1993 Internet boomlet enters college" (p.5). So yes, they have the technology, and they certainly know how to push the buttons, but do they know what to do with the information they glean from their electronic wanderings? I doubt it, unless there is a specific, coordinated effort to develop skills is reading, research, and especially critical thinking. Tardi, Catarina, and Goldstein (2006) sum it up nicely: "The human cost of not preparing students to compete successfully in the global marketplace and possibly remaining at poverty levels ensures a large disenfranchised segment of the population unprepared and unable to assume their roles as citizens in this increasingly complex society." (p.79)

     Like it or not, ours is a global economy. The term globalization gets bandied about in an often-derogatory context, but it is a fact of life. Look at what we buy - most manufactured consumer goods are made in China, cars are frequently from Japan, computer programming expertise and tech support are increasingly located in India. Financial markets are powerful in Singapore, Taiwan, Dubai, and various European countries. Nationalistic claims to the contrary, the U.S. is no longer the center of the world. Workers must be able to operate and compete with people, companies, and countries from everywhere. So how will we train the students of today to operate in the world of tomorrow?

     Globalization has redefined working relationships. Collaboration has always been key to success in business, but now that collaboration takes place with colleagues speaking different languages and from different cultures. Information has many new faces, and bogus information is now even more bogus (ask anyone who has received an e-mail from someone asking for help in moving millions of dollars from Nigeria). 

The Amateur as Expert

     You may have seen the term Web 2.0 used in various contexts. The term refers to the user-created nature of what appears on the Internet, which is a change from the earlier days of one-way communication by computer wizards. Social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook allow users to connect with others throughout the world, and media sites like Flickr, YouTube, and Google Video allow for the posting of video and audio content by anyone who can make an electronic image, turning every user into a potential George Lucas. You've undoubtedly seen many popular videos yourself, things like The Evolution of Dance or Bumbo, the baby with the rather powerful child seat. Those are the direct result of the ability of users to add content to the web. What we see may not always be intelligent, but the use of technologies like these certainly tell us where our students spend their time. As educators, we need to learn how to "...harness that power in a learning context" (New Media Consortium, 2007, p.9). 

     As amazing as it may seem, many (if not most) people still believe that if they saw it on the Internet (or in print, or on TV, or in an e-mail), it MUST be true. Critical thinking skills are not exactly at the forefront here, but we need to find a way to develop just those skills NOW. Hearing it from you will not usually suffice - the students must experience it for themselves. Lessons that require the student to weed through the junk to get to the nuggets of truth are one way of doing this. They need to learn how to judge the credibility of a source; how different, disparate pieces of information fit together into a recognizable whole; and the importance of peer review. All of this needs to be judged within the context of their own life and experience. Yes, I am a constructivist.

     So how do we teach students to think? How do we develop their ability to critically analyze what they see and hear, determine the validity of the information, develop new knowledge from the new information, and apply it to real world concerns? One guiding principle should be to connect everything they are learning to everything else they are learning. I know that sounds simplistic, but for far too long we have presented subject matter in a series of vacuums, completely disconnected from every other subject. Did your early teachers help you connect concepts in social studies to historical events? I know mine didn't - I took a bunch of classes for 12 years that each stood alone. What a mishmash of random knowledge.

     I think that all of the knowledge they gain can be enhanced through the proper use of technology. Technological resources give the student far more tools to find comparative information and to gain new insights into what they learn. A hotbed of controversy in recent years has been the evolution vs. creationism debate, with highly emotional arguments being made by both extremes. With the huge amount of information available to any Internet user, students can gather opinions from everywhere and reach their own conclusions. What are economic recessions? Do short-term, politically popular stimulus packages help the situation? Don't tell them - let them find out for themselves. What effect does a weak dollar have on imports and exports? Why? If they have to find the knowledge themselves (with your expert guidance, of course), they have to use their grey matter and do something with the information.

     There are two distinctly different yet related perspectives on student technical skills - first, the use of those skills to learn and develop intellectual capacity. Students communicate in far different ways now, and we need to use those methods for the delivery of effective learning. Second, the overall goal of learning is to develop productive, contributing members of society, so there are specific skills that will prepare students for the world of work - the use of electronic communications tools like e-mail, presentation support, number crunching, databases, all manner of productivity- and creativity-enhancing tools, and the ability to effectively use those tools. Multi-million-dollar business decisions cannot be based on conjecture or the unfounded rumors we are bombarded with daily. Student skills in research and especially in critical thinking will establish them as true experts.

References:

Raines, C. (2002). Connecting Generations: The Sourcebook. Menlo Park, CA: Crisp Publications. Excerpted at http://www.generationsatwork.com/articles/millenials.htm.