Balancing the Equation: Teaching and Learning with the New Generation

1. Equation:
Teaching and Learning
with the Next
Generation
October 4, 2007
Patricia Miller, M. Ed, NBCT
and Marcy Oxford, Ph.D.

2. Essential Questions
 What are the needs of today’s students?
 What is our vision for students?
 How
do we address student needs through
CHANGED curriculum and pedagogy?

3. HIERARCHY OF NEEDS
The hierarchy of needs
for school change STUDENT
informs us that without SUCCESS
addressing issues of
INSTRUCTIONAL
culture, purpose and PRACTICES
structure, our attempts Pedagogy, methodology and
assessment are consistent with the
to improve instructional school’s purpose & supported by the
practice are very difficult structure.
to sustain. SCHOOL STRUCTURE
Facilities, daily schedules, school calendars,
course offerings, instructional methodologies and
assessment practices are inline with purpose.
SCHOOL PURPOSE
School has a clear sense of purpose around student outcomes and can
measure it’s success against those outcomes. Students know how school
and class work will help them be successful in meeting their own goals.
SCHOOL CULTURE
Students and staff feel safe, trusted, respected
and well known by others. Parents feel welcome and listened to. School
has strong ties to business and community.

4. What are the needs of today’s
students?
Who are they?

5. Generations Defined
 Silent – Born 1925 – 42 (62-80 years)
 Boomers – Born 1943 – 60 (44 – 62 years)
 Gen X – Born 1961 – 81 (23 – 44 years)
 Millennials – Born 1982 – 2000 (25 years and
younger)
From Millennials Rising (2000) William Strauss and Neil Howe

6. Who are Millennials?
 Result of a backlash against the “hands-off”
parenting of the 1970s – a
protected(coddled?) generation
 Raised in the 80s & 90s, Mils have only
known economic prosperity and opportunity
 Columbine, Power Rangers, cell phones,
DVDs, OK City Bombing, 9-11, D.A.R.E.,
Anthrax, and Katrina

7. Millennials Defined
 The
biggest and most diverse generation in
American history-36% of total population;
31% minority
Special Achieving
Sheltered Pressured
Confident Conventional
Team- Tech-embracing
oriented

8. Millennials Defined
 Special
 Each parent thinks their child is special
 Parents are more directly involved in their
children’s college education than ever before
(i.e. “Helicopter” Parents)
 Mils want to think that their experiences,
though shared, are special and unique to
themselves

10. Millennials Defined
 Sheltered
 Security, in homes and schools, has been
a constant for Mils
 Along with physical safety, Mils anticipate
personal success in terms of career: high
salaries, strong benefits
 Technology as protector – trust
relationships built with tech
http://www.wherifywireless.com/html/solutions.asp?pageId=50

11. Millennials Defined
 Confident
 8 out of 10 Mil teens plan on attending college
 Ninety percent of teens are “excited and happy
about the future”
 Eighty percent anticipate making over $50K by
the time they turn 30
 3 out of 5 Mil children believe they could be
President of the United States
 Confidence in the classroom: Mils will often
strongly contest weak or less-than-perfect
grades

12. Millennials Defined
 Team Oriented
 Unlike previous generations of learners,
Mils often do work in small groups and
have done so since kindergarten
 Mils form political structures quickly and
divide work accordingly
 Sometimes Mils will cover for each other’s
weaknesses by doing each other’s work (this
does not, however, indicate that Mils prefer
group learn)

13. From Superheroes to Super
Teams
Good Great

14. Millennials Defined
 Conventional
 They “believe in Brand” – i.e. “Old Navy”
However, they will “change brands” easily
to find the fit they want, including
transferring between schools (“Swirling”)
 They want to be “regular” students
 Assignments that stress “originality” may
be disturbing to them

15. Millennials Defined
 Pressured
 Mils are worried about their grades
 Mils recognize that school performance
may reflect their future success or failure
 Mils highly structured and busy lifestyles
often add to the pressure and they will
often try radical measures to find relief –
including cheating on exams or plagiarism

16. Millennials Defined
 Achieving
 High expectations, demanding schedules, and
competitive parents
 Most Mils (60.2%) expect to earn a B average or
better in college
 More and more Mils are going for advanced
degrees
 Mils do not necessarily connect their goals to
their efforts – Clear guidance must be given to
Mils to help them understand the amount of work
required to achieve in higher education

17. Millennials Defined
Tech-embracing

18. Digital Immigrants:
“When I was growing up…”
.

19. Digital Natives:
Born into Technology

20. Millennials and Tech
 Grew up on videogames, PCs, cell phones
 Have been online a “long time,” averaging
between five and seven years
 Assumption among Boomer and X-er faculty
that this generation of students is information-
savvy

28. Digital Natives &
Neomillenials
 Think, learn and communicate differently
than digital immigrants (Prensky, 2001,
2004)
 Have sophisticated learning styles and
strengths – they expect individualized
instruction (Dede, 2005)

29. Digital Natives &
Neomillenials
 Theyneed to “look under the hood of
something to know how it works” and
consider themselves the authority on
technology, rather than their teachers
(Tapscott, 1998)

30. Tech Change & Fragmentation
 Mils are accustomed to rapid technological
change in communications, and have come
to expect this type of change in all aspects of
their lives
 Mils are products of the Postmodern
conditions in which they have been raised:
characterized by consumerism, superficiality,
and knowledge fragmentation

31. 21st Century Skills
How many jobs will a
young person have today
between age 18-38?
…10.2 jobs
SOURCE: Number of Jobs Held, Labor Market Activity, and Earnings Growth Among
Younger Baby Boomers: Recent Results From a Longitudinal Survey Summary, US
Dept. of Labor, 2004

32. 21st Century Skills
20th Century 21st Century
Number of 1 – 2 Jobs 10 – 15 Jobs
Jobs:
Flexibility
Job Mastery of
And
Requirement: One Field
Adaptability
Subject Integration of 21st
Teaching Century Skills into
Matter Subject Matter
Model:
Mastery Mastery
Subject Integration of 21st
Assessment Century Skills into
Matter
Model: Subject Matter
Mastery Mastery

33. Concerns for Our Students
Are we doing our best to prepare 21 st
Century Learners?
Are they …
 Being left behind their peers in cognitive
development?
 Lacking in proficient health, economic and
civic literacy?
 Failing to acquire the ability to use
technology as an empowerment tool?

35. Educators’ Challenge:
Meet the needs of the STUDENTS’
futures,
NOT the Teachers’ past

36. What is our vision for
students?
• Educated
• Prepared
• Competitive

37. Education Modifications
• Academic subject matter taught with relevance to the real
world, often called contextual learning
• Employability skills, from job-related skills to workplace
ethics
• Education pathways that help students explore interests
and careers in the process of progressing through school

38. Partnership for 21st Century
Skills

39. How do we address Millennial
needs through curriculum and
pedagogy?

40. Shift from the Teacher of the 1950s…

41. To the Teacher of the 21st Century
?

42. 21 st Century Teaching
 Active Engagement
 Frequent interaction
 Collaboration
 Real world connections
Authentic learning experiences
 Engage higher level cognitive processes

43. 8 Shifts for Interactive
Learning
 from linear to hypermedia
 from instruction to construction and discovery
 from teacher-centered to learner-centered
education
 from absorbing material to learning how to
navigate and how to learn
 from school to lifelong learning
 from one-size-fits-all to customized learning
 from learning as torture to learning as fun
 from the teacher as transmitter to the teacher as
facilitator (Tapscott, 1998)

44. Millennial Learning Style
Preferences
 Technology
– Comfort levels in using technology as a tool of
learning are high
– Potentials for abuse are likewise high
(Plagiarism, for example)

45. Visual Learning
 Millennials grew up with sophisticated
multimedia
 Average student retains 20 – 30 percent
of what they see versus 10 percent of
what they read
 Nonlinear, non-sequential, holistic modes
of learning
 Give instructions with flowcharts or
graphics (especially when the instructions
are detailed)

46. Customization
 Think the “Microsoft” way: pull-down
menu vs. button bars vs. keyboard shortcuts
 Give them choices
 Consider developing two or three different
kinds of assignments for a course module, so
students can select the kind of assignment
that works best for them

47. Group Activities
 Unlike previous generations of learners…
 Peer-to-Peer Learning significantly enhances
Active Learning principles in the classroom
 Can we take “Think-Pair-Share” to a new
level?
 Engage the students every ten minutes

48. The “Nintendo” Factor
How do Mils really learn?
Trial and Error!

49. “In the future, how we educate our
children may prove to be more
important that how much we
educate them.”
~T. Friedman, 2005
The World is Flat

50. Pedagogy for the
21 st Century Learner
“Technical skills with an intellectual toolbox
enriched with experiences, roles, team
building, and knowledge.” (Culp, Honey, &
Spielvogel, 1999, 2005)

51. Technology Trends in the
Classroom
 Blog
 Wiki
 Podcast
 Gaming
 Learning Management Systems

52. Blog
A blog (a portmanteau of web log) is a
website where entries are written in
chronological order and displayed in reverse
chronological order.
 "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning
to maintain or add content to a blog.

53. Podcast
A podcast is a digital media file, or a series
of such files, that is distributed over the
Internet for playback on portable media
players and personal computers.
 Unlike radio or streaming content on the web,
podcasts are not real-time. The material is
pre-recorded and users can check out the
material at their leisure, offline.

54. WIKI
a web site that can be individually or
collaboratively edited using just a web
browser
 No special tools and no special skills are
required
 an ideal tool for the increasing amount of
collaborative work done by both students and
teachers

55. Gaming
 The phrases video game and computer game
are often used interchangeably. Typically
there is a screen (television, monitor, LCD
display) through which the game is viewed.
 Most video games can be viewed as
simulations of some form.

56. Learning Management System
A Learning Management System (or LMS)
is a software package that enables the
management and delivery of online content
to learners.
 Most LMSs are web-based to facilitate
"anytime, any place, any pace" access to
learning content and administration.

57. YOUR COMMENTS AND
QUESTIONS…
pmiller@ftsumnerk12.com
moxford@lcps.k12.nm.us