Exploring the Neomillenial student

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Exploring the Neo/millenial student
Bob Sharpe Wilfrid Laurier University

• Coming changes in student demographics,
  technologies and learning behaviours.
• How will we respond?

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Changes in Ontarios Learning Landscape

• Larger class sizes, rising student/faculty ratios
• A more diverse student population with a range of
  nonacademic employment and domestic commitments,
  learning and physical disabilities, second
  language limitations
• A younger first-year cohort

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Changes in Ontarios Learning Landscape /2

• A significant shift in the attitude of students
  towards less responsibility for their own
  learning
• Technological innovation and a shift towards
  efficiency in modes of course delivery
• Distinctive learning behaviours associated with
  the changing generations.

Sharpe, Bob. 2005. Changes in Student Learning
Behaviours, Working Paper Series by Academic
Colleagues, Volume Four, Council of Ontario
Universities, COU No. 781, 8 pages.
http//www.cou.on.ca/
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Generations

• Although somewhat arbitrary, the concept of the
  generation is a useful and integrative way of
  thinking about the cumulative changes in our
  teaching and in styles of student learning.
• It has least 3 dimensions
• Demographics
• Technologies
• Attitudes and behaviours
• (Generational associations are certainly
  culturally, and contextually specific.)

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Generations of Learning Styles

• Great Generation
• Baby-boomers
• Generation X
• Net or Millenial Generation
• Neo-Millenial

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Contrasting Learning Styles

• Traditional
• Producer mentality
• Very limited computer access
• Tolerant of nonengaging pedagogical techniques

• Millenial
• Consumer mentality
• Ubiquitous computer access
• Intolerant of nonengaging pedagogical techniques

McGuire and Williams, 2002. The Millenial
Learner Challenges and Opportunities. To
Improve the Academy. Vol. 20 185-1996.
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Information Mindset

• Frand (2000) suggests that a distinctive
  information-age mindset is common among
  students growing up in the globally connected,
  service- and information-intense, digitally based
  culture.
• He characterises this mindset in terms of broad
  observations of change, ways of doing things,
  and subliminal needs.

Frand, Jason. 2000. The Information-Age
Mindset Changes in Students and Implications
for Higher Education. EDUCAUSE Review, vol. 35,
no. 5 15-24.
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broad observations of change

• Computers Arent Technology
• Computers are part of the infrastructure of the
  public realm, technology is software and devices
  for personal enhancement
• Internet is better than TV
• Internet is interactive and customizable
• Reality No Longer Real
• Digital communications and virtual
  representations can be as consequential and
  meaningful as personal interactions and physical
  realities
• Doing Rather Than Knowing
• The ability to deal with complex and often
  ambiguous information will be more important than
  simply knowing a lot of facts or having an
  accumulation of knowledge

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how people do things

• Nintendo over chess
• Trial and error the predominant mode of reasoning
• Multitasking Way of Life
• No longer a single computer workstation, but a
  mobile, integrated set of personal information
  synthesizers
• Typing Rather Than Handwriting
• More need for digital input and graphic forms of
  expression than personal handwriting and
  sketching

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subliminal needs

• Staying Connected
• Personal devices allow continuous connection
• Zero Tolerance for Delays
• An expectation that it is possible for an
  immediate response
• Consumer/Creator Blurring
• The sampling of information from the Internet and
  its remixing to produce new forms of expression.
  

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Neomillenial Technologies

• access to distant experts and archives,
  enabling collaborations, mentoring relationships,
  and virtual communities-of practice. This
  interface is evolving through the Internet2.0
• Multi-user virtual environments (MUVE)
  interfaces, in which participants avatars
  interact with computer-based agents and digital
  artifacts in virtual contexts.
• mobile wireless devices provide location-based
  services and augmented reality interfaces and
  smart objects as we move through the real
  world.

Dede, Chris. 2004. Planning for Neomillennial
Learning Styles Implications for Investments in
Technology and Faculty.
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Neomillenial Learning Styles

• fluency in multiple media and in simulation-based
  virtual settings
• communal learning involving diverse, tacit,
  situated experience, with knowledge distributed
  across a community and a context as well as
  within an individual
• a balance among experiential learning, guided
  mentoring, and collective reflection
• Dede, Chris. 2004. Planning for Neomillennial
  Learning Styles Implications for Investments in
  Technology and Faculty.

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Neomillenial Learning Styles /2

• expression through non-linear, associational webs
  of representations and
• co-design of learning experiences personalized to
  individual needs and preferences.
• Dede, Chris. 2004. Planning for Neomillennial
  Learning Styles Implications for Investments in
  Technology and Faculty.

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How will we respond?

• Do we see evidence of neo/millenial students at
  Laurier? How are students using technology in
  their everyday practices?
• To what extent will our students learn how to use
  the new technologies? Do we want to attract these
  students?
• What expectations does this create for the
  classroom?
• Are student expectations of technology and
  faculty practices in alignment? Should they be?
  How much?

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How will we respond /2?

• How will universities support the learning
  behaviours of the neo/millenial student?
• How will they ensure that they balance better
  pedagogy with the use of technological
  innovations to
• effectively transfer information
• provide opportunities for deep learning - the
  exercising higher order, integrative, and
  reflective skills
• foster the development and transformation of
  personal identity, a holistic education

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How will we respond /3?

• To what extent will sampling and remixing
  information from the Internet replace independent
  research, critical thinking and coherent writing?
• What impact does a consumer vs. a producer
  mentality have on the classroom experience?
  Student commitment to learning and studying?
  Expectations of faculty?
• Are we dis/engaging students with our practices?

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• THANK YOU