I have found that the student I have that fall into the Gen Y category use their mobile devise frequently and are easier to reach if you integrate technology based learning into the curriculum.
Most of my students are generation Y. I am a boomer. I did not start teaching until I was middle-aged. In my first teaching assignment to this very day students bring their cell phones, laptops, ipods, notebooks into the classroom. So I should say their are no new surprises for me since I started teaching; but there are days I have to have the students close their laptops because class discussions and participation are very important. I do set aside a few days for students to use all of their technical tools to prepare for mid-term and final presentations. I actually incorporate values of all the four generations in my class to bring out the best learning experience for my students..
I agree to your comment. Students today have this "third" hand that holds their phone. If there is an attempt to limit their us of or access to the phone during class time is simply a frustrating effort.
Agree with them up front and provide them with practical access bring both parties to a workable agreement.
Get Y Learners on the right path and technology will help them reach their goals.
I agree with my colleges that Gen Ys have little to no desire to learn the system to get to the answer. But in the kitchen you need both hands, one hand is not free to pull out the smart phone. Examples of this during production I find helpful.
I feel, overall it has a positive impact on Gen Y. There is more information available to everyone now then there ever has which makes us a more informed society. Gen Y learners just need to learn how to sift through the incorrect information and opinions of others to get to the true facts.
Some good, ie they can find answers quickly using technology. They can stay abreast of topics of interest to them by mining web sites and social media pages.
On the other hand the lack of F2F contact can lead to a lack of social skills, Gen Y can relate through technology very well but often have a hard time relating to the real world
Not only are study skills lacking... organizational skills tend to be in short supply, too. In my remedial math class, I require the development of a portfolio which will hopefully serve as a reference document during the follow-on college math course. I provide detailed assembly and content instructions, even to the point of providing a "demonstration model" of a functional portfolio. Yet, 25% of each class fails to satisfactorily complete this assignment. Sad.
The students in our classes have a willingness to want to KNOW the information, gen y has issues with the traditional methods of LEARNING the information. I take the time to explain the other learning styles to best accommodate their needs.
MYSELF, BEING A BABY BOOMER, i FEEL THE ADVANCES IN TECHNOLOGY HAVE BOTH HELP[ED AND HURT CERTAIN LEARNING EXPERIENCES. sOMETIMES i FEEL THE TECHNOLOGY IS USED AS A CRUTCH RATHER THAN DEDICATING MORE TIME AND EFFORT TO OLD FASHIONED STUDYING.
I see that many of the responses are expressing frustration with the Gen Y over-reliance on technology. I adhere with the approach promoted years ago in "Teaching as a Conservative Activity". The premise is that when technology is the predominant mode of learning in the everyday culture, it is up to the educational system to provide the skills that are lacking - namely, good old reading, writing and arithmetic.
I teach at an online school and have students from the age of 18 to 65 in my program. I find that Gen Y students are overly dependent on technology. If the Internet is down, all is lost. Going to a library or reading a book is not the first thing they think about or maybe something they think about at all.
When we offer a library as a solution, it's not viewed as a solution. They get irritable and anxious and shut down. I am not speaking about all Gen Y students, just most of the ones I have encountered at my online school.
The use of technology in my classroom is a constant distraction. If any one remembers passing notes in the classroom, well now all of the students are reading the note at the same time via text message. I have some incredibly intelligent students that have been supplied with instant answers their whole lives, and now their minds are operating at half capacity. They are being placed at a disadvantage by this, and will be left behind by the rest of the world.
My experience with Gen Y is that there are interested in the learning but have trouble focusing on the details of an assignment. I deliver both visual and verbal instruction on details of the task to be accomplished.
Rebecca I agree that students have unlimited access to information at their finger tips therefore there is no need to retain the information. I believe this has greatly reduced the ability to retain the information.
I believe that technology has greatly impacted the learning process of Gen Y learners. Students are constantly switching from resource to resource on the internet, getting the latest greatest information. I am amazed at how students come in and are telling me about some new piece of technology, a new drug, or new research in our field that has just come out. Aren't we supposed to be giving that to them? They are so adept at navigating the web that, and I consider myself somewhere between a digital native and a digital immigrant, the regularly find things faster than I can when performing group research in class.
Technology is a necessity for me, as I teach software applications courses. I just have to determine which options are going to be the most effective for the classroom.
I have always seen that the students video shoot all my demos. Sometimes I am not even aware of them shooting me. I used to get upset and asked them to write it down or pay attention and use your brain.
But I have come to realize that they are the generation of media and media is a n inseperable part of them.
Technology is an necessary evil. Its here to stay, many use it despite all the safe catches put into place, to cheat.
If used properly technology is a great tool. Many use it to escape real learning.
The instant access to information on the internet helps students and hurts them. Their answers may be found readily, but this tends to make them hesitant to commit the information to memory - why bother? The information is just a click away. The same is true of calculators and math skills. Many of our college students need their calculators for "easy" problems. I even had a student pick up her calculator to determine what 0.4 times 10 is!
Even using an analog clock is foreign to some of them. We want our students to determine heart rates of their patients by counting for 15 seconds, than multiplying by 4. Not only is the multiplication difficult for some of them, but using a sweep second hand on clock is even difficult. I do feel very old, in comparison.
Back to the internet: Students often have trouble differentiating between reliable and unreliable sites. Help is available in our library and learning lab, to steer students to reliable, professional information, but Google and Wikipedia are faster.
No, many DON'T know how to SPEAK or WRITE.
