I've been reading where cursive writing is being phased out of public school curricula. The thinking is that it is no longer needed. As tools such as tablets become more available and widely used, future generations will no longer have to write in long hand. That strikes me and others of my generation as ridiculous if not scary. I hope those in the public schools will at least continue to learn to print!
Like a lot of you teachers, I have found that a lot of my students cannot write in the physical sense, but neither can they write in the mental sense. I've also found that students right out of HS have the same attitude towards college they had before - that the quickest way through is the best, even if it does require cheating or any other means. Who cares about learning?
In reading over this last paragraph, I realize it sounds rather jaded, and to at least an extent, that may be true. But I do have hope for these students as many of them drop out from lack of motivation. When they come back to career or community colleges after being kicked around by life for a bit, they are much more likely to be interested and wanting to learn. Hurrah for the returning students!
Yes! I have to agree with you totally. I also have to say that it is up to us as teachers to create situations where the students can see perhaps, the moral dilemmas that people in our past have faced, and how they were solved. Relating that to current events makes it more relevant.
I have even done this in classes with career college students. I can ask them to tell me the most important points in the technical manuals they are reading and have them tell me why they are important, rather than rote learning or the more common cut-and-paste.
Generation Y students have to have technology to do anything. I think the constant stimulation has had somewhat of an adverse effect upon some learners. There is a group of students that is not able to learn in a quiet environment. I think Gen Y learners are also very tactile. They learn better by touching, moving, or hearing things simultaneously as they solve problems. Although I believe in spell-checking software, I question whether it has lessened the importance of being a good speller.
Because students are so reliant on technology and have grown up with it they no longer have the ability to think through problems. They expect all their problems to go awway instantly with the push of a button. Technology is a fantastic thing, but it seems our student today have not been given any direction on how to use it in a way that would be to their advantage.
I am reading from other that the technology today has had a negative impact on the learning of our Gen Y individuals. While this may have some truth to it we have to accept it and find ways to teach with it because it is not going away. I am a baby boomer and have to write things down, re-read notes, and like a quiet study environment. The Gen Y students are used to studying while listening to music, texting and surfing the web and talking to others all at the same time. Somehow they seem to handle this because they are graduating from colleges and moving into professional careers. I think as instructors we need to realize that this is how they structure their lives and we need to find ways to educate and develop their critical thinking skills as much as possible, and find ways to do this using the same technology they are using as well.
Lori
Wendy,
this is a great point as it really helps our students to be able to think critically through various situations & come to appropriate conclusions.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
Being a Gen Y medical instructor but learning from Gen X instructors, I can see how different the aproaches are.
The Gen Y needs more visualization, hands on and interactive tactics in the classroom, to be able to grasp the material and persue further knowledge
Sandra,
yes, this is true. This is the method in which this generation is accustomed to learning & we need to work to accomodate this while still using best practices.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
I am from the boomer group but enjoy the new technology. I have had a couple of classes that were almost all Gen Y and it was great. I was able to present the topic material using the technology available from the school, but we also had many open discussions about technology and its uses where I learned almost as much as them. They learned the background of how it worked on a nuts and bolts level and I learned some about how to use it in some creative ways. We all agreed that the class was worth the time.
The technology available now permits varied and creative ways to present information from text to graphics to animations, all help them envision what is going on. The material is also generally easy to create modify and reuse.
I think that the instant nature of technology has caused a loss of necessary skills. I do not have any students in the Gen Y group who can write a research paper, put two sentences together that have a cohesive thought, use correct grammar, use capital letters, or punctuation.
They want instant answers and they don't want to do the research.
We do indeed teach them many things that they should have learned in high school.
Their lack of many skills is very frustrating.
Ned Littlehales
I think there is a time and place to use the technology in the learning process.
As a tool to do research or look up specifications? Yes. Do calculations or documentation? Yes.
To help with a test or lab final ? No.
Edward,
unfortunately this is often the case & we need to work with them to help them develop these lacking skills.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
Charles,
I agree with you & through this we can teach them appropriateness & appropriate use of technology.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
I can appreciate the fact that many don't know how to spell, cannot write complete sentences or put thoughts together on paper well. I agree with your reply that they must be taught this.
Technology has been a blessing and a curse for this generation.
Many truly lack the interpersonal skills that are needed for person-to-person conversation, yet they can stare for hours on end at a Ipad.
In the classroom, I find that teaching concepts or skills that require the use of hands-on is initially difficulty, but eventually they discover that they can go for long periods without a device in their hand and they begin to make those personal connections with other peers. I do believe very strongly that they can learn these necessary life skills, but it must be taught and modeled by a persistent and understanding instructor.
I think techology ahs greatly impacted the learning process of the Generation Y students. Generation Y students do not recognize what a type-writer or what it means to bang erasers to clean them. Technology has opened the door to so many learning options for students. Their schooling is based on technology and powerpoints as well as other computer based methods. It has given them more ways of learning and more ways of doing things.
I agree with most of the comments showing frustration about current student motivation and their lack of communication skills. Is there deficiency in demonstrating how these skills will be applied later in their career? Although to a point, I think I do it already, I shall try to show even more links to what I'm teaching with future practical career applications.
I my experience, the Y Generation are having difficulty with understanding that becoming good at something actually takes time and practice. I teach culinary arts and the students of that generation seem to expect the skill and craft of cooking and knife skills to just happen. In the age of instant communication and internet at the fingertips there is a sense of impatience. I might be a bit old school but I hear a lot of students saying that they can "just look it up on the internet" if they want to know it. This thought process is not making a professional with a vast skill base it's making a slow professional that has to look something up before doing it.
June ,
this really is key for this generation of learners & not just the straight content, but the soft skills, such as communication, that they can learn are important for them as well.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
Wow reading through a slice of the responses to this question makes it clear that I am going to go out and by a few books on how to write, how to find information without a computer and store them in a safe for when the power goese out. Think of how rich I will get selling that knowledge! :)
Seriously, I understand the fears yet I welcome the technology and this generations use of it. Technology is such a profoundly useful tool to save time , to open up information sources. I wish I had had this access. All those Saturdays spent in the regional library just to find a couple of sources: I coudl have done without that. I also love it because I can instruct new ways of using technology for learning such as recording lectures that sync with note taking or recording a skill completion and using it for feedback and debriefing.
In thinking about critical thinking, is it really any better or worse to have the technology? I am not sure- don't think anyone is yet. Who is to say it will all collapse? And if it does, so what if we have to start all over from scratch. Teh here and now is what is important and technology is a wonder that assists us in many diverse and important ways and allows us to be better at meeting the various learning styles we see in our students.
Thomas,
I would agree with you that I'm not sure the "power will go out" & I applaud your enthusiasm for technology. I would argue that there is a prime value on helping our students learn to research & think critically without the aid of technology. I have seen a decline in these skills among many in Gen Y. There does seem to be an overreliance on the quick, easy answers provided by technology. Now always bad, but we also need to learn to think for ourselves.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
