Millennials and Digital Brains
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This show was originally aired as a webinar on edWeb.net, a social network for educators on August 10, 2010. It is part of a
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Millennials and Digital Brains
- 1. Using Emerging Technology to Improve Your School Library Program Session 2: Millennials & Digital Brains
- 2. What is a Millennial? iGeneration Generation Y Digital Native Echo Boomers Net Generation Generation Next Facebook Generation People born in the 80s & 90s?
- 3. What’s your Millennial score? Watch TV? Read newspapers? Play videogames? Mobile or landline? Text much? Value big $$$ jobs? Thoughts on race? R U an activist? Network online? R U religious? Parents married? Tattoos? Piercings? Political views? Age? http://pewresearch.org/millennials/quiz/
- 4. Common assumption #1 June 27, 2010 4 http://www.pc-help-ipswich.co.uk/internet.html
- 5. Common assumption #2 June 27, 2010 5 http://i1.squidoocdn.com/resize/squidoo_images/-1/draft_lens2124036module13304958photo_1231083896babe_with_cell_phone.jpg
- 6. Common assumption #3 June 27, 2010 6 http://ashfield4.wordpress.com/2009/03/
- 7. Questions to consider Who are these kids? Why MUST we use emerging tech to teach them? What should you say to the naysayers?
- 9. Who’s online? The Internet by age groups Who’s online? The Internet by age groups
- 13. How are Millennials different? http://www.momsofhue.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/differences.jpg
- 18. Ah yes… The fear factor! Reprinted with permission “Fear is the single biggest obstacle to getting started on [the] path…where we realize the potential of digital technology and the way that Digital Natives are using it… Parents aren’t the only ones who fear the impact of the Internet on young people. Teachers worry that they are out of step with the Digital Natives they are teaching, that the skills they have imparted over time are becoming either lost or obsolete, and that the pedagogy of our educational system cannot keep up with the changes in the digital landscape. Librarians, too, are reimagining their role… But as a culture of fear emerges around the online environment, we must put these real threats into perspective; our children and future generations have tremendous opportunities in store for them, not in spite of the digital age, but because of it. A lot of the things we’re worried about—bullying, [cheating], stalking, copyright violations, and so forth—are things we’ve handled for decades, if not centuries. We can, as a society, handle them in the digital age, too, we too often overestimate the ways in which the online environment is different from real space, to our detriment. Too often, parents and teachers aren’t even involved in the decisions that young people are making. They cut themselves off from their Digital Native children because the language and cultural barriers are too great. Rather than banning the technologies or leaving kids to use them on their own in their bedrooms—two of the most common approaches—parents and teachers need to let Digital Natives be their guides into this new, connected way of living. Parents and teachers need not go it alone… We see promise in the way that Digital Natives are interacting with digital information, expressing themselves in social environments, creating new art forms, dreaming up new business models, and starting new activist ventures… Palfrey, John, and Urs Gasser. Born Digital. New York: Basic, 2008. Print.
- 20. One more thing to teach??? http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/dc9/eslogo.jpg
- 21. The MFA is the new MBA http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ZItgL_ILBMc/SQ2G8G1qXGI/AAAAAAAAEDY/QDGoKep6PwU/s320/right_brain_left_brain.jpg
- 22. MFA wha???? Reprinted with permission Pink, Daniel. A Whole New Mind. New York: Riverhead, 2005. Print.
- 23. Conceptual Age Can someone overseas do it cheaper? Can a computer do it faster? Is what I am offering in demand in a age of abundance?
- 24. High Concept, High Touch Reprinted with permission MBA MFA Pink, Daniel. A Whole New Mind. New York: Riverhead, 2005. Print.
- 25. The Six Senses Design Story Symphony Empathy Play Meaning
- 26. The New Untouchables http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/21/opinion/21friedman.html
- 27. Imagination to… to invent smarter ways to do old jobs find energy-saving ways to provide new services devise new ways to attract old customers develop new ways to combine existing technologie
- 30. Social and cross-cultural skills
- 34. Media literacy
- 36. Let’s talk about it!
Editor's Notes
- In the history of generations I don't think there's been one that has more names than this one. But when we talk about millennial’s, we are usually talking about kids who were born in the 80s and 90s. What makes these kids different from earlier generations? That is the subject of a great deal of inquiry. And not all of it is aligned.
- Don’t despair! You don’t have to be young to be a Millennial! You can discover your Millennial quotient.Believe it or not, there is a millennial quiz out there. Fourteen questions to put you in a box.In the past 24 hours, did you watch more than an hour of television programming, or not?Yes NoIn the past 24 hours, did you read a daily newspaper, or not?Yes NoIn the past 24 hours, did you play video games, or not?Yes NoThinking about your telephone use, do you have...Only a landline phone in your home Only a cell phoneBoth a landline and cell phoneIn the past 24 hours, about how many text messages, if any, did you send or receive on your cell phone?A.No text messages on your cell phone in the past 24 hoursB. 1 to 9 text messagesC. 10 to 49 text messages 50 or more text messagesHow important is being successful in a high-paying career or profession to you personally?A. One of the most important thingB. Very important but not the most Somewhat important C. Not importantDo you think more people of different races marrying each other is a...Good thing for society B. Bad thing for society Doesn't make much difference for societyIn the past 12 months, have you contacted a government official, or not? This contact could have been in person, by phone, by letter, by sending an email, or posting a message on their website or social networking page.Yes, contacted a government official in past 12 months No, did not contact a government official in past 12 monthsHave you ever created your own profile on any social networking site such as MySpace, Facebook or LinkedIn, or haven't you done this?Yes, have created profile No, have not created profileHow important is living a very religious life to you personally?One of the most important things Very important but not the most Somewhat important Not importantWere your parents married during most of the time you were growing up, or not?Married Not married (includes divorced, separated, widowed or never married)Do you have a tattoo, or not?Yes NoDo you have a piercing in a place other than your earlobe, or not?Yes NoIn general, would you describe your political views as...Conservative Moderate LiberalFinally, please tell us your age so that we can see how people in different age groups score on the quiz (we don't use your age in computing your score). Under 18 18-29 30-45 46-64 65+
- They all use the internetThey all have cell phones…… and all teens text constantly, sending an insane number of messages a dayTeens no longer call anyone on the phoneTeens and young adults have been supplanted by older adults on social networksThe youngest are always the first tech adoptersYoung adults don’t care about privacy, particularly online
- They all use the internetThey all have cell phones…… and all teens text constantly, sending an insane number of messages a dayTeens no longer call anyone on the phoneTeens and young adults have been supplanted by older adults on social networksThe youngest are always the first tech adoptersYoung adults don’t care about privacy, particularly online
- They all use the internetThey all have cell phones…and all teens text constantly, sending an insane number of messages a dayYoung adults don’t care about privacy, particularly online
- This reminded me of Molly’s query back in June. Is this webinar for me? I work in San Francisco where “strict filters that block all social networking sites. Also, not all of our diverse students have access to technology outside of school."
- Because I can be random….Let’s start with problem number 2I recently spent a weekend with my friend Ramona. She just retired from a 30+ year career as an English teacher in Utica NY, my husband's home town. Utica has seen better days – no doubt about it. It’s not quite Flint, Michigan…but… So in thinking about this webinar, I asked Ramona how many of her students she thought were online at home. She said 30%.I have spoken to many people in underserved districts, and they frequently tell me the same thing. I know that it is annoying for someone in a well funded, high performing district to underplay this kind of information (and just for the record, I started out in Crown Heights Brooklyn during the race riots of the early 90s), but at the risk of being annoying, I will point to the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project. I love my friend Ramona, but there is a lot of data out there that contradicts her.
- Here is another interesting fact from the same Pew study. What’s weird about this? Did you see that? 4% more people have Internet than have computers! How is this possible?This is how teens are bridging the digital divide.
- What are kids who don’t have Internet access at home using to connect online? Phones!And guess what? They aren’t even allowed to use them in most schools. Disenfranchised, underserved kids are having to learn how to use the only Internet ready computer device they own all by themselves, with limited or no adult support, instruction or supervision. So much for schools bridging the divide!I had a conversation with a teacher on Monday who said, “I don’t want them using their phones in school! They use them to cheat!” Wait…is cheating something new? Cause it seems to me that it’s been around for a long, long time.
- Do you remember this 2003 article from the NYT? This is my daughter’s high school, by the way. I reminded the teacher I was talking to on Monday about it and I asked him if we should ban water bottles too. He said yes. I think this is an excellent illustration for a phenomena that is paralyzing the education system right now. According to Palfrey and Gasser, the Authors of Born Digital, “The data do not suggest that the world is a more dangerous place for young people” because of the Internet, the authors contend. Most of the problems we see online today—cyber-bullying, for example—are really just old problems playing out on new platforms. “Involved parenting” and “open and honest conversations” are the most sensible responses, but intervention strategies by others—including kids’ peers—may be another part of the solution. Parental empowerment tools and industry self-regulation can help, too.
- We talked about this during the last session. We know some very basic things about digital brains.There is a lot of talk about loss of creativity and shortened attention span. Alicia from our Emerging Tech community referenced a study discussed in a Newsweek article just last week about this. And there is always my favorite Nick Carr article from Atlantic Monthly back in 2008, “Is Google Making us Stupid?” (links to both are posted on the Emerging Tech links page). The joke is always that no matter who I send it to, they sheepishly admit to not being able to finish reading it.Creativity and focus are two skills we can address in schools rather easily, but there are other Millennial differences that are holding us back from innovating our instruction.
- I promised I would address lexicon, so here it goes. Digital natives. I had a conversation with Jeri from our Emerging Tech community a few weeks back. She said, and I have heard this echoed throughout the community, that this term drives her nuts, because it implies that kids need no instruction where technology is concerned. I will speculate that this was the farthest thing from Prensky’s mind when he first coined the term back in the 90s. I am guessing that what he was trying to say was that people who grow up with computers have brains that are becoming physically different. they parallel processtheymulti-taskIs this impacting their creativity and attention span? Quite possibly, but brains, according to Carr, and a slew of scientists are quite malleable. Se it is our job to teach in ways that stimulate creativity and focus.http://www.criticalimprov.com/index.php/perj/article/viewArticle/1004/1575
- Unless you’ve been living in a cave, you don’t need a researcher to tell you that Millennials are really adept at online networking. They are participatory community builders on the web. They create content, remix it, share it. Basically, they are active contributors. This occurs completely organically, not on a timed schedule, or from a fixed location, but as the need, interest and time makes it feasible. But for six hours per day, five days per week, ten months per year, this approached to learning – the organic one – the one that helps foster creativity and focus – is stymied by…. school.And we wonder why they are loosing creativity and focus!
- Why is this happening? Because kids are really free with information disclosure and that is FREAKING US OUT!
- Remember how Elvis was going to lead to our moral ruination? Remember how it made the uncomprehending traditionalists cry out in protest, embrace censorship, stop “this“ from happening and corrupting our youth? Remember the counter movement “Rock ‘n Roll is here to stay?”Well guess what… Web 2.0 is here to stay. According to ReadWriteWeb, It is projected to peak in 2012, followed by its less social cousin 3.0 and I actually saw Web 4.0 mentioned in a blog post this week. I can’t remember which. I will have to dig for it in my inbox. So since if isn’t going away, shouldn’t we teach with it? Engage students? Try to capitalize on its organic aspects? Use it to boost students’ creativity and focus (rather than boring them into oblivion with content and teacher-directed, lecture style instruction). Like Nick Carr’s, Millennial brains are no longer equipped to learn passively. They have to be engaged in the process. To maximize student potential, we need to revolutionize how we teach, and one practical way to start is by using their tools. http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/social_media_era_set_to_peak_in_2012.php
- From the introduction of Born Digital by Palfrey & Gasser. “Fear is the single biggest obstacle to getting started on [the]path…where we realize the potential of digital technology and the way that Digital Natives are using it…Parents aren’t the only ones who fear the impact of the Internet on young people. Teachers worry that they are out of step with the Digital Natives they are teaching, that the skills they have imparted over time are becoming either lost or obsolete, and that the pedagogy of our educational system cannot keep up with the changes in the digital landscape. Librarians, too, are reimagining their role…But as a culture of fear emerges around the online environment, we must put these real threats into perspective; our children and future generations have tremendous opportunities in store for them, not in spite of the digital age, but because of it. We see promise in the way that Digital Natives are interacting with digital information, expressing themselves in social environments, creating new art forms, dreaming up new business models, and starting new activist ventures…A lot of the things we’re worried about—bullying, [cheating], stalking, copyright violations, and so forth—are things we’ve handled for decades, if not centuries. We can, as a society, handle them in the digital age, too, we too often overestimate the ways in which the online environment is different from real space, to our detriment. Too often, parents and teachers aren’t even involved in the decisions that young people are making. They cut themselves off from their Digital Native children because the language and cultural barriers are too great. Rather than banning the technologies or leaving kids to use them on their own in their bedrooms—two of the most common approaches—parents and teachers need to let Digital Natives be their guides into this new, connected way of living. Parents and teachers need not go it alone…[see above].”
- One thing we’ve learned is that they are not as careless as we think!
- I know, I know….and here is where the naysayers and inflexible digital immigrants come in. One more thing to teach? Are you kidding me? I already have… blah blah blah blah….But yes (never liked the band all that much – but love that logo!), we do. And here is why.
- If you haven’t had a chance to read Daniel Pink’s A Whole New Mind, please consider adding it to your “to read” list.
- In a nutshell, Pink says we are in a conceptual age, which is the level beyond the information age.
- The conceptual age can be broken down to the 3As: Asia, Automation & Abundance
- It is no longer enough to know content. You must think creatively in order to succeed in the conceptual economy.
- According to Pink, these are the senses that will distinguish us from the three As, Asia, Automation and Abundance and this is what employers, our Millennials’ employers, will be looking for in their work force.
- I mentioned this last session, but it is pertinent, so I will reiterate. Last October 20, 2009, in his NYT OP-ED column, Thomas Friedman described the key to success in the new economy.
- Just as Pink says, the right-brainers – the big picture folks – the conceptual thinkers - will thrive.
- Do you remember these from last session? Every single one of these skills requires right-brain thinking. Accountability Adaptability Collaboration CommunicationCreativityCritical thinkingCross-cultural skills FlexibilityInformation literacyInitiativeInnovation LeadershipMedia literacy Problem solving ProductivityResponsibility Self-direction Social interactionTechnology literacy.
- I hope that we have addressed some of these concerns.The kids are all right. They are just different.We need to adapt how we teach in order to prepare them for the workforce they will joinWe need to be very innovative with our teaching tools to engage them and stimulate right brain activity