Dr. Taylor on Meet Generation NeXt – Understanding Today’s Student

Meet Generation NeXt – Understanding Today’s Student


September 20, 2010

Overall Dr. Taylor was a very engaging presenter. He used humor and other methods to keep everyone mentally occupied. His major themes had two parts: why is this generation different and how do we teach them. He presented two different times one in the morning as a lecture and the other as an afternoon workshop. The workshop had the audience ‘hooked up’, as he called it, with one other person and complete some tasks he assigned.

Back up by data that showed many students are unable to cope in college. He asked ‘why are today’s college age students overwhelmed?’ The response dealt with the differences in Generation NeXt, or Millennial Generation, and the generations that came before it. Dr. Taylor gave a short review of the different generations from Traditionals to the current generation Gen 2.0, except he skipped over the Xers from 1965 to 1982. Of course some X’er asked ‘what about Generation X’. He replied that was because they were the forgotten group of latch key kids. Each group had different events that shaped their lives.

The NeXt Generation, 1982 to 1994, was different than the ones before, not because they were young, but how they were raised. The differences were the parenting styles and available technologies. They grew up inside with TV, videogames, and social networks. Parents wanting a different up bringing for their kids than what they got were snowplows, plowing a path and managing their kid’s lives. Kids learned that someone else will take care of things and they were not good enough to do it themselves. The choices they gave their kids hardwire them to expect choices and over value their own opinions. The every one wins a trophy concepts removed the rewards for effort. No longer do you have to make up with lack of talent with more work.

The next question was ‘does this generation have short attention spans?’ The answer was no in stimulating environments, using gaming as an example. Generation NeXt is good at:

Using visuals, reacting in high stimulation / complex environments, experimentation, surface navigation, using content in and out in the short term, social networking

They have issues with:

Critical thinking, problem solving, anticipation, reflection, applying theory in new settings, sustained attention in low stimulation environments (school), critical reading for understanding

To teach this generation we need to switch from delivering content to passive students in class to engaging them with activity and interaction in the classroom. Class time is too valuable for transmission of content. Most class info can be accessed from other sources. They have a wealth of knowledge at their finger tips. Not like the previous generations who had to mine knowledge. We need class time to work on areas that these students have issues. Pay them, 15% of their grade, to get content outside of class. They are good at that anyways. They also need to know why they need to learn this. They must know what they can do with this info and how will it help them.

As teachers it is our responsibility to use the best learning methods. This includes making expectations clearer and improving students in areas that they are weak. By moving content out of class and using the time for supervising practice, the student will learn by application. Showing students future benefits will allow them to understand its worth. Once they apply it, and value it, they may want more content on their own and become life long learners.



Reference

Taylor, Mark . (2010, September). Meet Generation NeXt – Understanding Today’s Students: A conversation for faculty, staff, and students. Lecture delivered at Western Michigan University Fetzer Auditorium, Kalamazoo, MI.

Taylor, Mark . (2010, September). Meet Generation NeXt –Teaching Today’s Students: An interactive hands-on workshop for instructors. Lecture delivered at Western Michigan University Fetzer Auditorium, Kalamazoo, MI.