Getting in Touch with Digital Natives

1
Getting in Touch with Digital Natives

• Bridging the Other Digital Divide
• Shelly Drumm
• sdrumm_at_bcr.org

2
Questions for the One Word Answer Man

• Are they really that different?
• Yes.
• Generally? Or just in how they use technology?
• Both.
• Can you stay relevant without implementing crazy
  technological wonders?
• Yes!

3
Who Are They?
Who Are We?

• Millennials
• Net Gen
• Gen Y
• Born 1980-2000
• Raised with
• Cell Phones
• Tivo
• Online gaming
• Vaguely remember the world before the WWW

• Boomers
• Gen X
• ? Born before that
• Raised with
• Phones with rotary dials
• TV (b/w!)
• Atari (?!)
• Vaguely remember the world before the electric
  guitar, portable radios, or microwave ovens

4
Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants

• Marc Prensky coined the termshttp//www.marcprens
  ky.com/writing/
• We speak with an accent
• We learn differently
• We think differently
• We have a hard time reaching them
• Who should adapt to whom?

5
Are They Really That Different?

• Wired differently
• Refuse to be bored
• Twitch Speed
• Hyper-scheduled
• Multi-taskers
• Have long been told theyre special
• Have you hugged your child today?
• GapKids, Nickelodeon

6
Learning Styles

• Highly visual
• Text supports images, not vice versa
• Collaborative, contributors
• Connected and they share (too much?)
• Random, nonlinear, active
• No more lectures!
• Did I mention multi-tasking?
• Parallel processing
• Everything Bad Is Good for You

7
Communication Technology

• Always on
• Fish don't know they're in water.
• Hyper-connected (69 on Facebook in 2007)
• Mobility Instant Gratification
• Laptops (50 in 2006)
• mp3 players (41 in 2006)
• IM (40 use it daily, 15 on 24/7! 2006)
• Cell phones (78 in 2004, 94 in 2007)
• Texting (60 of cell users in 2004)
• Email? Well ok. If I have to

8
Weve Only Just Begun

• Steve Abram You aint seen nothing yet!
• Industrial Revolution and Internet Revolution
• Just the precursors to massive change
• Redrawing the map

9
(No Transcript)
10
The New Luddite
http//www.toastedpixel.com/archives/3-08-06.html
11
The Good News
12
The Bad News

• 2 start at the library site
• Only half report ending up there after starting
  elsewhere
• Contextual and contingent
• If you cant be with the one you love Love the
  one youre with.

13
So What Can You Do?
14
Resistance is Futile!

• Rick Andersons Mississippi River metaphor
• Control or adjust
• When control fails
• Disaster

15
Presence Go Where They Are

• Contextual contingent
• Social networks?
• Other ideas
• RSS
• IM
• Toolbars

16
RSS Your Content, Their Spaces

• From where?
• Database vendors
• ILS systems
• Journals, newspapers, magazines
• Librarians themselves

17
Here, There, Everywhere

• iGoogle
• Faculty sites
• CMSes or other pages
• Teach your faculty
• Reach your students!

18
IM Being There

• Theyre always on are you?
• They prefer it
• Theyll know if youre on ?
• Put it where they already go
• Meebo rooms
• New with co-browsing!

19
Presence Toolbars
LibX at Colorado Mountain College
20
Conduit.com toolbar from Morrisville State
College Library
21
Some Final Thoughts

• Access to info ? knowledge
• Shake up your teaching
• Start with the problem
• Info support
• Graphical representations
• Re-imagine your spaces
• Stop shushing!
• Dont fall too far behind the curve!

22
Notes and Handouts

• Check out my del.icio.us bookmarks
• http//del.icio.us/shelly_drumm/calcpres
• CALC website
• http//www.clicweb.org/calc2007/
• The other handout
• http//docs.google.com/Doc?iddc497xkv_42f443xv