finding this article about Millennials scary...what do you think?

[cathmom]

It's in the magazine The Language Educator, published by ACTFL (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages). My comments in red.

 

First there is a section where they asked individual readers to submit their responses to the question "How do you adapt your language classroom to appeal to the particular characteristics of the Millennial Generation?" (defined roughly as 1981 to 2000). Here are some quotes from that section:

 

"Integrating computer skills and virtual technology is an essentila tool to engage this generation of students."

 

"Whether you call it the Millennial Generation or not, students today clearly have no patience for Luddites in the classroom. A generation raised with a cell phone in hand is simply unable to understand why older generations can't embrace technology that makes communication faster and easier. With the ability to be constantly in contact with friends and access information instantaneously on the Internet, students expect the same in the classroom."

 

"Even struggling students enjoy the interaction with technology."

 

"I use technology to engage my Millennials in lessons that ddress youth culturn in countries where the target language is spoken. Topics include popular music, social networking sites, cell hpone use, and text messaging. Through these lessons my students can see that teens in other countries are not so different from them."

 

Then there is an article called "Teaching Languages to the Millennial Generation." Quotes from that article:

 

"Howe and Strauss have identified seven key characterisitics of Millennials. They are special, sheltered, confident, team oriented, achieving, pressured, and conventional. They are also very tenologically savvy...While of course everyone cannot be grouped under a single set of characterisitics, understanding the major influences on a generation can help educators understand the best ways to reach them."

 

"McBroom [lead teacher in the World Languages Dept. in Dearborn, MI] has found that Millennials' minds are wired differently, and they prefer simultaneous access to multiple sources of information in diverse formats. 'They're quite comfortable with sorting and selecting pertinent information from an onslaught of data, and quickly become bored when constrained to just one resource or one activity,' she says. 'They intuitively seek the big picture first, and then concentrate on specifics - which is directly opposed to traditional, linear teaching, which tends to follow a model of building knowledge in consecutive steps. For Millennials, the more stimuli, the better." Must be why all the students are Facebooking during lectures...

 

The article goes on to talk about the high rates of study abroad in this generation - but is it all financed through massive student loans?

 

There is a sidebar about "21st Century Skills" which you can read about here: http://www.p21.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=254&Itemid=119

 

There is a quote in a box that says, "These days, recruiters say, it's the rare resume from a Millennial that doesn't include at least a summer of study overseas, as well as volunteer work in developing nations, interesting pleasure trips to exotic lands [on a resume?! listing vacations?], and fluency in at least one foreign language." Where are all these bilingual, fluent Americans??? This is the first I've heard of them! And would these be the same Millennials that can't get jobs as I read about in the news this morning?

 

"...this generation is very team-oriented...[they've] worked in teams since they've been in school...[Radin] cautions against the overuse of group work in the classroom and not allowing for choice. 'Millennials love to have choices..." Don't we all?

 

"...this group is sometimes referred to as 'digital natives.' In their article on the website of the National Capital Language Resource Center (NCLRC), 'Attracting and Holding the Attention of Those Millennial Digital Natives,' [the authors] note that the constantly evolving information age and the sheer volume of their interactions with it means that Millennials think and process information differently from previous generations. 'As foreign language educators...we must remember that we cannot afford to continue with 20th century knowledge or training as the guide for what are the best ways for these students to learn world languages...They must be constantly engaged, and their language learning environment should be continuously adaptable to innovative learning strategies, or one runs the risk of losing their attention (and more importantly, motivation)." That's not a tall order for a language teacher at all, huh?

 

"One concern...about this generation is that research has found the many lack social skills and do not write well." WHAT?! You mean they didn't learn social skills from all that social networking, and they didn't learn writing skills from all that texting, and yet that's what we're supposed to replicate in the language class?????

 

Well, you can start with that. I've got more, but I've also got a screaming 2 yo!

Edited August 17, 2010 by cathmom
left out a word

[Old Dominion Heather]

Some of these quotes seem pretty far-fetched... I'm looking forward to reading the articles in their entirety.

[cathmom]

Some of these quotes seem pretty far-fetched... I'm looking forward to reading the articles in their entirety.

 

 

Which ones seem far-fetched? The magazine is not online, so I am having to type them in. I assure you nothing is taken out of context.

[Old Dominion Heather]

Oh, no. I didn't mean that you were taking them out of context, just that some of the quotes seem anecdotal (particularly the one concerning the travel and resumes... I'd like to know what exactly he is recruiting for.)

 

I'm just interested in the sources, since I am interested in the subject, you know?

[Old Dominion Heather]

Can you clarify why it scares you a bit?

 

Some (probably incoherent) thoughts:

 

Okay, I read an editorial in the WSJ (I think) about making church "cool" and how this has has the opposite effect from the intended one. The target age group is less likely to attend and be engaged in the church. The quotes you referenced remind me of this. There is constantly movement to make learning more accessible and that is a noble goal, you have to reach people where they are. But at the point where you have lost content for method, you lose the student, I think.

 

I tend to think that you can't force an adult to learn anything, no matter how much you cater to them. When you are speaking of young adults, using technology to foster and reinforce learning would be a good idea. For example: If you can do flash cards on your iTouch rather than have to have to carry around little paper card, that makes sense... as long as the method proves as effective for memorization. But we don't keep people from going out and making paper card if that method works best. They just have access to something else.

 

I do think that people who are used to all the various forms of social media are able to process information bombardment in a different way that generations in the past. Those who are teaching the Millennials would be poor teachers to ignore that difference, just as if you knew you were teaching a class of students who could not read cursive writing, or those who had no experience with social media.

[NoPlaceLikeHome]

 

I do think that people who are used to all the various forms of social media are able to process information bombardment in a different way that generations in the past. Those who are teaching the Millennials would be poor teachers to ignore that difference, just as if you knew you were teaching a class of students who could not read cursive writing, or those who had no experience with social media.

 

I have actually read or saw a piece on these kids who love to multi-task with technology and such. They found that the kids are not actually able to do these tasks as well at all and these kids were quite surprised since they thought they were fantastic. I will have to try the piece;)

[Old Dominion Heather]

I'd be interested to see it! The whole thing reminds me of a conversation I had with my FIL about why none of the college age kids he works with at his church will call him back or answer when he calls. He doesn't comprehend the whole texting phenomenon ad why some people might prefer to text rather than call. Communication that he and my MIL regard as rude (texting or facebooking) is the only way that some people communicate with those who are not face to face.

[NoPlaceLikeHome]

here is an interesting piece that addresses some of this but I do not think it is the piece that I was thinking:

 

http://video.pbs.org/video/1082076027/

[....]

Hmmm...this can lead into some interesting discussions about the changing generations. I was born in '76, so I'm probably at the tail end of Generation X, but my sisters were born in the '80's, so they definitely fit this category.

 

As far as difficulty finding jobs - oh, definitely. One of my sisters is very intelligent, had her Doctorate in Law at like 22, but she barely makes enough to pay her bills. It's not all about your Curriculum Vitae...

 

My husband has several people in this age group at work and has come home with stories about work behaviors that are pretty odd. I don't know if it's because they're young (and maybe need to hone their social skills) or because they were just raised differently as a generation...

 

BTW - I can't get my kids to do school because they've made a dinosaur army in the living room, complete with wooden fortifications and "fighter jets". :confused:

[Sebastian (a lady)]

I'd be interested to see it! The whole thing reminds me of a conversation I had with my FIL about why none of the college age kids he works with at his church will call him back or answer when he calls. He doesn't comprehend the whole texting phenomenon ad why some people might prefer to text rather than call. Communication that he and my MIL regard as rude (texting or facebooking) is the only way that some people communicate with those who are not face to face.

 

I think that the understanding and modifying of behavior needs to be a two way street. Email was non-existant when I was in college and uncommon for several years of my working life. I'm quite fluent in it now. But I also know that if I want something and I'm not getting through on email, then I'd better pick up the phone and call or walk over and talk or send a formal letter. (In other words, it would be good for someone to bluntly tell the youth that they do need to return phone calls or they aren't going to know about an event or an opportunity. Or will mark themselves as rude to someone who matters.)

 

An issue that I have with articles about Gen Xers or Millenials or other groups is it addresses habits as if they are all good. Students are addicted to multi-tasking? Maybe that contributes to why they aren't doing so well in classes. Perhaps they should actually pay attention to the class sessions that their tuition is paying for.

 

Yes to some extent, we need to understand the past experiences and various technological fluencies of our students. But our students need to also understand that becoming and educated person or a talented worker is often harder than downloading an app onto their phone. That they may have to put in hours of reading, days of writing and years of thinking to master a discipline. That doing something once doesn't make you the master of it.

 

Back to the issue of communication. Our scout group was part of our base National Night Out a couple of weeks ago. There have been meetings since back in May planning for this. The organizer was a young sailor who probably is close to Millenial age. His communication skills were horrible, but ironically, he thought he was doing a great job. He did not reply to emails. He did not add people to the email distribution list when they came to meetings and signed his list, OR when they sent him emails asking to be added, OR when I sent emails asking him to add leaders of other groups who wanted to participate. I finally had to do it publically at a meeting where I told him that no, I wasn't getting his emails and no I wasn't getting replies to the emails I'd sent him. He never did add on the other leaders I'd asked him to add.

 

Months of planning went into the event, with several base organizations coming out to do special presentations and staff booths. How was this event advertised? With an email that he "sent to all the commands". I suggested that this was going to require several levels of forwarding for people living on base to actually hear about the event. There was nothing put out on any of the base related Facebook feeds. There were no flyers posted (despite one organization making up flyers). There was nothing sent out through the command ombudsman network that is set up especially to facilitate communication with base families. And in the end, the turnout was very low. Pretty much just the people who wandered by that evening and stopped to see what was going on. But again, he was convinced that he was doing a great job of communicating. (We won't even go into what a waste of time the planning meetings were.)

 

I think that we shortchange people when we just take a measure of where they are and neither show them the shortcomings of the methods they are using nor teach them other methods that are either more effective or more appropriate to certain situations.

[hornblower]

here is an interesting piece that addresses some of this but I do not think it is the piece that I was thinking:

 

http://video.pbs.org/video/1082076027/

 

I think maybe you're thinking of "Digital Nation".

 

It was discussed in this thread:

 

http://welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=153006&highlight=online

 

Worth watching.

[Crimson Wife]

Close to half of my college classmates did spend a term abroad. For many of them, it actually cost less than studying at our private university would've because they did it through a program at a less expensive school. I considered doing it but I needed to graduate early because I was running short on funds and didn't want to take out student loans. I couldn't get the required classes I needed abroad (I studied bio & psychology) and didn't have room in my schedule for electives outside of my major.

 

I would not be at all surprised if recruiters in certain fields see the majority of their applicants listing time spent abroad.

[NoPlaceLikeHome]

I think maybe you're thinking of "Digital Nation".

 

It was discussed in this thread:

 

http://welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=153006&highlight=online

 

Worth watching.

 

Ah, yes:) This is the piece I was thinking of and it was quite interesting and I agree. The other piece has teachers saying they have to be wired in or the kids will be bored. Honestly I think they are doing them a great disservice. I also think parents who let their kids surf, text, and play video games all the time are doing their kids a disservice IMHO:(. Of course, I want my child to be computer savy, but that is not reason for him to be linked in every day at all. I let him play educational video games once a month or so:)

Edited August 18, 2010 by priscilla

[cathmom]

It scares me because I recently read Losing Our Language (about how reading content and instruction in schools has plummeted over the last century) and Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics by Liping Ma that is frequently discussed on this board, and now having read thes articles in my language magazine, I see that wholesale, across-the-board, many schools are abdicating the teaching of any content in any subject area. I am scared about the effects of this constant connectedness on our children. I also recently read High Tech Heretic by Clifford Stoll.

I personally would like to see schools be mainly technology-free zones. As Stoll points out in his book, schools don't need to teach the students these technologies. And they point that out in the article in a section I didn't get to yet - that frequently the students could be teaching the teacher technology. Fine, that's all well and good, but if class time is being used for that, then there is less time for actual language learning.

 

As Sebastian said, there are issues with getting things done and with communication (which is really so ironic, since they're supposed to be all about communication). I was telling dh about this and he told me about someone at work who doesn't call when he's going to be out sick. He used to just not let anyone know. After being threatened with being fired, he now will text a coworker NOT his supervisor.

[dangermom]

I'm nearly as tech-loving as the kids they describe (Gen X, early email adopter, married to tech geek), but in a classroom I want to practice a different skill--concentrating deeply on one thing for a while. All that texting and such is great, and the Internet is my third arm, but I notice myself wanting to constantly hop around. I have to tell myself to sit and concentrate on one thing--and the ability to think about one thing for more than 5 seconds at a time is pretty necessary to serious thought, don't you think?

 

It troubles me that all the technology is being touted as necessary to keep the kids involved and learning. IMO if you can't do it without all the fancy extras, you can't do it at all.

[LibraryLover]

I recently went on vacation with 3 21 yr old college students and they were a delight. The had their phones, their laptops, but they code-shifted beautifully. They knew how to play Scrabble, how to tell a good joke, discuss current events with knowledge, how to make breakfast, set the table, how to eat in a restuarant without texting ;), how to wash their own laundry lol, tidy a kitchen, and how to drive safely. It was one of the nicest vacations, ever.

 

I have a public schooled 16 yr old son, and his friends are also very nice . And funny. I love a young person with a wry sense of humor who can also retool my stupid computer when I screw it up!

 

Maybe meeting some young people, spending time with them, could help you see that they are as varied as any group. It might make you less fearful.

[cathmom]

I recently went on vacation with 3 21 yr old college students and they were a delight. The had their phones, their laptops, but they code-shifted beautifully. They knew how to play Scrabble, how to tell a good joke, discuss current events with knowledge, how to make breakfast, set the table, how to eat in a restuarant without texting ;), how to wash their own laundry lol, tidy a kitchen, and how to drive safely. It was one of the nicest vacations, ever.

 

I have a public schooled 16 yr old son, and his friends are also very nice . And funny. I love a young person with a wry sense of humor who can also retool my stupid computer when I screw it up!

 

Maybe meeting some young people, spending time with them, could help you see that they are as varied as any group. It might make you less fearful.

 

I think you missed what scares me. It's not the kids - I taught high school recently, I have children in this age range, etc. It's that educators are buying into this and not educating. It's like dangermom said - they are wired everywhere else, so let's make the classroom a place to concentrate.

 

I'm glad you had a good vacation.

[LibraryLover]

I think you missed what scares me. It's not the kids - I taught high school recently, I have children in this age range, etc. It's that educators are buying into this and not educating. It's like dangermom said - they are wired everywhere else, so let's make the classroom a place to concentrate.

 

I'm glad you had a good vacation.

 

It was lovely.

 

New technologies are scary...I am sure some choices made in this area for students will be good ones, and some won't be. Even some we think of as 'bad' might be good for some particular personalities. People aquire information in all manner of ways, and often in unique ways. It's rather the nature of life. Chaos Theory and all. :D Life is not linear, life is complicated and mistakes are made and there is nothing we can do to change that. I am always amazed that anything goes as planned or works out. I say that as an optimist, too.

 

We each have our particular fears; it part of the nature of being human.

[Rivka]

I don't tend to give much weight to "trend" articles, to be honest. They tend to make sweeping generalizations, and to cherry-pick anecdotes that support their argument. It's kind of amazing to me how many people make their living as "experts" about how this generation is ABC and that generation is XYZ, without anyone ever asking them for hard data. So much of it is stereotypes and selective observations.

[dragons in the flower bed]

educators are buying into this and not educating. It's like dangermom said - they are wired everywhere else, so let's make the classroom a place to concentrate.

 

Can you forget the source or format of information for a second and consider simply the flow of it? Imagine a single idea and a child asked to focus on it for ten minutes, vs eight ideas and a child asked to listen to all of them and produce a response immediately. Is the first scenario always better than the second?

 

 

Admittedly inside the millenial age bracket, and having no memory of life before personal computers,

[justamouse]

I think you missed what scares me. It's not the kids - I taught high school recently, I have children in this age range, etc. It's that educators are buying into this and not educating. It's like dangermom said - they are wired everywhere else, so let's make the classroom a place to concentrate.

 

I'm glad you had a good vacation.

 

 

Yup.

 

Did you watch and read the article on CNN the other night @ the three brain Drs who unplugged for weeks? How it altered their brains and how they think all of this wiring up is altering our brains? (Looking for it and frustrated I'm not finding it faster)

 

Technology is good, all of this is good, but we're not far enough out to judge how much is best. If these were clinical trials...

[LibraryLover]

I don't tend to give much weight to "trend" articles, to be honest. They tend to make sweeping generalizations, and to cherry-pick anecdotes that support their argument. It's kind of amazing to me how many people make their living as "experts" about how this generation is ABC and that generation is XYZ, without anyone ever asking them for hard data. So much of it is stereotypes and selective observations.

 

:iagree: This particular article and it's validity (or not) aside...

 

All kinds of folks procalim themselves experts in all manner of areas,...and come to find out...oops, 100% wrong. lol

Edited August 18, 2010 by LibraryLover

[cathmom]

I don't tend to give much weight to "trend" articles, to be honest. They tend to make sweeping generalizations, and to cherry-pick anecdotes that support their argument. It's kind of amazing to me how many people make their living as "experts" about how this generation is ABC and that generation is XYZ, without anyone ever asking them for hard data. So much of it is stereotypes and selective observations.

 

These were not trend articles. They were articles in a magazine meant solely for foreign language educators. They were laying out a guideline for how they think language education should look in the 21st century, to respond to what Millennials "expect" and "need."

[cathmom]

It was lovely.

 

New technologies are scary...I am sure some choices made in this area for students will be good ones, and some won't be. Even some we think of as 'bad' might be good for some particular personalities. People aquire information in all manner of ways, and often in unique ways. We each have our particular fears; it part of the nature of being human.

 

I am not afraid of technology - I'm here on the Internet, aren't I? What scares me - again - is the wholesale abandonment of education in favor of playing with technology. And I am not some "rigor and textbooks" type of homeschooler - I'm very familiar with many types of alternative education and lean pretty strongly to the unschooling side of things. What I am trying to get across is my belief that time for education should be something set apart.

 

Can you forget the source or format of information for a second and consider simply the flow of it? Imagine a single idea and a child asked to focus on it for ten minutes, vs eight ideas and a child asked to listen to all of them and produce a response immediately. Is the first scenario always better than the second?

 

 

Admittedly inside the millenial age bracket, and having no memory of life before personal computers,

 

I'm not saying that it is (the first scenario always better), but that if these changes happen, THERE WILL NEVER BE A CHANCE FOR THE FIRST TO HAPPEN. It's like Sesame Street. It was on when I was a child - I never liked it. After my oldest was born and I watched it again as an adult, it seemed to me that, rather than appealing to children's supposed limited attention span, they were actively trying to create a limited attention span. It's so disjointed, 30 second bit here and there.

 

Yup.

 

Did you watch and read the article on CNN the other night @ the three brain Drs who unplugged for weeks? How it altered their brains and how they think all of this wiring up is altering our brains? (Looking for it and frustrated I'm not finding it faster)

 

Technology is good, all of this is good, but we're not far enough out to judge how much is best. If these were clinical trials...

 

sounds fascinating! Hope you can find it!

 

:iagree: This particular article and it's validity (or not) aside...

 

All kinds of folks procalim themselves experts in all manner of areas,...and come to find out...oops, 100% wrong. lol

 

So you don't think that people in a field, who are actively creating what future generations will study, have any validity? Whether or not they are wrong in their assessment of Millennials, curriculum is being written based on this. I do appreciate your reassurance, though. :)

[dangermom]

 

I'm not saying that it is (the first scenario always better), but that if these changes happen, THERE WILL NEVER BE A CHANCE FOR THE FIRST TO HAPPEN.

This is my concern. We all spend most of our time hopping around and texting and Net-surfing--I do it too, and I like it. The problem with always doing that is that concentrating on one argument for a while is a harder skill to develop, and if we don't work on it, no one will have it any more (including me). And the skill of thinking seriously about an issue is a pretty important one!

 

Jumping around from one thing to another is something we can all do pretty well these days, and that's fine. But I'm not sure that we need more practice in that skill in the classroom, when concentration is the more difficult skill that we don't practice.

[LibraryLover]

I wasn't directing any fears at *you*. It's a conversation that doesn't need to be taken personally. I do think a lot research is bogus, yes. Not saying *this one*, but so much is biased and done looking for a certain outcome.

 

 

I am not afraid of technology - I'm here on the Internet, aren't I? What scares me - again - is the wholesale abandonment of education in favor of playing with technology. And I am not some "rigor and textbooks" type of homeschooler - I'm very familiar with many types of alternative education and lean pretty strongly to the unschooling side of things. What I am trying to get across is my belief that time for education should be something set apart.

 

 

 

I'm not saying that it is (the first scenario always better), but that if these changes happen, THERE WILL NEVER BE A CHANCE FOR THE FIRST TO HAPPEN. It's like Sesame Street. It was on when I was a child - I never liked it. After my oldest was born and I watched it again as an adult, it seemed to me that, rather than appealing to children's supposed limited attention span, they were actively trying to create a limited attention span. It's so disjointed, 30 second bit here and there.

 

 

 

sounds fascinating! Hope you can find it!

 

 

 

So you don't think that people in a field, who are actively creating what future generations will study, have any validity? Whether or not they are wrong in their assessment of Millennials, curriculum is being written based on this. I do appreciate your reassurance, though. :)

[LibraryLover]

Valid point.

Can you forget the source or format of information for a second and consider simply the flow of it? Imagine a single idea and a child asked to focus on it for ten minutes, vs eight ideas and a child asked to listen to all of them and produce a response immediately. Is the first scenario always better than the second?

 

 

Admittedly inside the millenial age bracket, and having no memory of life before personal computers,

[cathmom]

I wasn't directing any fears at *you*. It's a conversation that doesn't need to be taken personally. I do think a lot research is bogus, yes. Not saying *this one*, but so much is biased and done looking for a certain outcome.

 

Yes, that's certainly true.