Cracking the Neomillenial Learning Code: Teaching in the 21st Century
1. 2013 ANNUAL
CONFERENCE ON THE
STATE OF HIGHER
EDUCATION
Gina Luttrell, PhD rluttrel@emich.edu
@ginaluttrell
Cracking the Neomillennial Learning
Code: Teaching in the Twenty-first
Century
June 14, 2013
2. Agenda
Introduction
Session Overview
An Introduction to YOUR students
Myths about Neomillennials
What’s the Truth?
Education at a Crossroads
Pedagogical Shifts
Intersection of Learning Theories
LIGO Method
Drawbacks & Criticisms
A Peek inside my Classroom
Final Thought
Thank You & Questions!
3. Who is Gina?
Gina Luttrell, Ph.D., rluttrel@emich.edu, @ginaluttrell
Professor of Public Relations and Social Media at
Eastern Michigan University
15 years as a PR practitioner
Began teaching in 2007
Research, publish and present in the areas of:
Public Relations
Social Media and
Neomillennial/Millennial learning habits
Forthcoming text book on Social Media (2014)
4. Session Overview
Students are different.
Our teaching needs to reflect newer learning styles.
Neomillennial students (born 1981+) require a
transformative learning approach that goes beyond
content knowledge acquisition. This presentation
explores what can be done in collegiate settings to
better assess and educate the neomillennial students by
examining pedagogical shifts in higher education.
5. Let me introduce to you to your
students:
Maddie Robinson, Entrepreneur
High-school student today
Inventor at age 8 by the age of 15 she was
a Business owner & millionaire.
Jack Andraka, Scientist, Mathematician
16 years old, Faculty at Singularity University, '12 Intel ISEF
winner, TED 2013 speaker
Intel International Science & Engineering Fair for developing a
nearly 100 percent accurate paper sensor that detects pancreatic
cancer better than anything else out there--it’s over 400 times more
sensitive, 168 times faster, and 26,000 times less expensive than
today’s methods.
Leading a team of 3 “kids” to develop the first handheld mobile
platform that can diagnose 15 diseases across 30 patients.
http://bit.ly/163KHZB
6. Let me introduce to you to your
students:
Nick D’Aloisio, App Developer
17 years old
He was 12 years old when he
began developing apps
Developed “Summly”
Mobile news app powered by a text-summarizing algorithm
Sold an App to Yahoo for $30 Million
Emma, One Smart Cookie
3rd Grader
“Bring Back the Garden”
7. What are you going to do with
these students?
Millennials, Neomillennials
8. Myths about Neomillennials
Lazy, selfish
Unmotivated
Disrespectful
No work ethic, want to change everything
Over-inflated sense of their abilities
Lack emotional intelligence
Don’t take criticism well
Research on Neomillennials:
http://pwc.to/13tvZbL dispels rumors
http://bit.ly/11qPlvu interactive graphic sociology
9. What’s the Truth?
There is evidence that Neomillennials are the
smartest generation ever. (Howe & Strauss, 2000; Tapscott, 2009)
Between 1997 and 2005 the number of students
taking AP exams more than doubled and raw IQ
scores climbed by three points since World War II
(Tapscott, 2009).
Neomillennial learners believe:
being smart is a good trait to possess, and
these learners see themselves as part of the success
of the future (Tapscott, 1999, 2009).
10. Education at a Crossroad
Existing educational theories emphasize that
learning & development occur through specific
activities.
Learning is:
an individual process
which occurs alone,
With a definitive beginning and end;
learning is best separated from other activities,
and
that learning is the product of education.Wenger, E. (1998), Communities of practice: Learning. meaning, and identity,
New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
11. Education at a Crossroad
Teachers are the link between pedagogical
procedures and the students’ learning.
In this new learning environment students are
encouraged to be creative & critical thinkers (Shulman,
2004; Mezirow, 1997).
Learning methodologies utilized by
Neomillennials points to a more self-directed
learning style, whereby the teacher encourages
and nurtures independent learning (Baird & Fischer, 2005).
12. Pedagogical Shifts
Instruction is most efficient when students engage in activities
within an environment and when they receive appropriate
guidance (Baird & Fischer, 2005; Dede, 2005; Weisgerber &
Butler, 2005; Vygotsky, 1978).
Four pedagogical shifts that educators should implement and
learn when attempting to effectively teach neomillennial
learners:
1. Co-Design: Developing learning experiences students can personalize
2. Co-Instruction: Utilizing knowledge sharing among students as a major
source of content and pedagogy
3. Guided Social Constructivist and Situated Learning Pedagogies: Infusing
case-based participatory simulations into presentational/assimilative
instruction
4. Assessment Beyond Tests and Papers: Evaluating collaborative, non-
linear, associational webs of representations; utilizing peer-developed
and peer-rated forms of assessment; student assessments provide
formative feedback on faculty effectiveness. (Dede, 2005) [italics in
original]
13. Intersection of Learning
Theories
With numerous theories on learning (Asch 1968; Brown, Collins, &
Duguid, 1989; Dewey, 1916, Gagne, 1985; Mezirow, 1997; Piaget,
1977), none of which are used exclusively, educators can use a
combination of theories.
Constructivist, behaviorist, and cognitive learning theories build
upon the next and intersect, continually keeping the learner at the
center. In online learning, knowledge is acquired through various
approaches including peer assessment, group projects, social
interaction, mentor/mentee support, email correspondence, online
forums and discussion, self-assessment activities, and detailed
directions of learning materials. Constructivis
t
BehavioristCognitive
Learner
14. Intersection of Learning
Theories
Instruction is most efficient when students can
engage in activities within a supportive
learning environment and when students
receive appropriate guidance that is
supplemented with the right course materials
(Anderson, 2004; Claxton & Murrell, 1987;
Torres, 1993).
For example:
synchronous or asynchronous chat
discussion forums
email, podcasting, blogging, and microblogging
15. LIGO Method
Nicol, Minty & Sinclair developed the LIGO
method to assess how learners interact and
communicate with other learners
LIGO: The Learning: The Individual, The Group &
the Organization
The LIGO method was structured around five learning
milestones tasks that were related to the main content
areas:
curriculum design,
models of learning and of supporting learning,
student assessment,
the learning organization,
evaluation.
Nicol, D. J., Minty, I., & Sinclair, C. (2003). The social dimensions of online
learning. Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 40(3), pp. 270–
280.
16. LIGO Method
The LIGO method assumes that learners
construct knowledge through active
engagement with course materials, including
the text, and through interaction and dialogue
with others, supported by the aforementioned
learning theories.
Behaviorist, cognitive, and constructivism
theories combined with the LIGO method
could assess the methods of learning via
online tools.
17. Drawbacks & Criticisms
Too much multi-tasking, diverts attention & retention of
course material
Assumption that students know how to use newer
technologies – social media
The shift from traditional education principles is
causing controversy for many faculty members at
colleges and universities across the globe
Some argue that a degree of unlearning needs to occur
regarding unconscious beliefs, assumptions, and values
about the nature of teaching and learning (Dede, 2005).
Faculty & administrators will likely dismiss and resist
implementing technologies which incorporate synchronous
or asynchronous chat, discussion forums, email,
podcasting, blogging, and microblogging (Dede, 2005; Smith, 2010).
18. A Peek Inside my Classroom
I flip my classroom as much as I can.
At any given moment my students are:
Texting
On Twitter
Using FB
Shooting video,
recording podcasts, taking photos
Blogging
Developing websites & Prezi presentations
Skype
19. Final Thought
Neomillennial students have been raised in a
techno-driven, continuously connected
environment of interactive media, the Internet,
and innumerable digital technologies.
To believe that today’s students has different
expectations and learning styles is not
unrealistic
(Baird & Fischer, 2005; Dahlstrom et al., 2011; de Corte, 1996; Dede, 2004; Dede, 2005; Dieterle et al., 2007; Smith, 2010).
Will you rise to the challenge?
The theories represented here exemplify the learner being at the center of the educational realm. The educator encourages participation among students through engaging discourse, autonomous thinking, and discovery through various classroom methods which allow for natural creative inquiry to occur (King, 2005; Mezirow, 1997). Ultimately, cognition occurs when students can seek out, sieve through, and synthesize data from a variety of sources while multitasking among contrasting informational sources, yet still maintain focus (Dede, 2005; King, 2005). Through continual reflection and sharing of experiences, students learn the course material (de Corte, 1996; Dede, 2004, 2005). Optimum cognitive development is dependent upon interaction of the learner with other learners and the educator (Dede, 2005; Garrison & Anderson, 2003; Vygotsky, 1978).
Social networking sites are conducive for research surrounding student outcomes in relation to using social networking sites in learning because social networking sites embody active engagement, conversation, and interaction (Baker, 2009; Boyd & Ellison, 2009).