I have worked at the University of Utah law school for the past two years, and the topic of millenials and the latest generation of law students is a constant point of conversation. Many of my coworkers have worked here for 15-20 years (and longer), and they have seen an enormous shift in the attitudes and behaviors of students entering law school in the past decade. This is what would be defined as the "millenial generation." This title encompasses students born in the mid to late 1980's and later. In the article "The New WWW," I found two points to be of great interest. First, these students are so accustomed to instant gratification through the pervasiveness of media that they become bored easily and require more differentiation than ever before in their instruction. This has been a very difficult adaptation for many of the professors who have worked in my law school for many years and are still attempting to deliver information using their original lecture-only tactics. Secondly, these students have to be taught that they cannot be entirely consumers of information, they need to be innovators and developers, as well, in order to go forward successfully and productively in the new global marketplace. I felt that the video, "Did You Know: Shift Happens," addressed this concept perfectly. These students will not obtain a job and then work at the same company or organization for 30 years and then retire. That model is gone. The video clip pointed out that today's students are estimated to have 10-14 jobs by the time they are age 38. One point I found particularly interesting is that one out of two of today's employees has worked for their current employer less than five years. This has been a very difficult concept for my present management at the law school, because they believe it is a question of employee loyalty. They have had difficulty embracing the idea that today's students and employees are in constant transition and flux and will likely move on in their careers quicker than ever before.
I found the article entitled, "Why integrate technology into the Curriculum?" to be very in line with my beliefs about the structure of my future classroom. I fully intend to use technology as a collaborative tool. The article suggested four main components to be addressed with technology in the classroom: 1-active engagement, 2-participation in groups, 3-frequent interaction and feedback, and 4-connection to real-world experts. I feel like this article offers me a gauge to use in assessing the effectiveness and success of the technology I plan to introduce and use as a mainstay in my curriculum. I plan to teach Language Arts, and I spent a great deal of time discussing the pros and cons of text messaging and social writing in the online environment in my recent Teaching Writing class. Of course, one of the biggest arguments is that students are writing more, but the writing is "junk." The article, "Teens see disconnect between personal and school writing" is right on point addressing this article. It will be critical for me, when I am teaching writing, to emphasize that all writing is still writing. We developed several lesson plans in my Teaching Writing class to address the type of writing that students are used to in texting and social networking, and disguised it into launch topics for broader writing pieces. After reading these articles, I believe it is necessary to take the already-budding skill of writing that is occurring every day for these teens and make it into activities that also develop the important skill of writing. With everything occurring online, it will be more important than ever to have good writing skills in the future.
I found the Millenial video and the Shift Happens video to be incredibly enlightening. When the Millenial video started, I had to check the date it was posted, because many of the technologies the students were "wishing" for, have been introduced. The video was posted in 2008 when many of their ideas were in fledgling mode. Our media is so portable now, it's a part of every day life to constantly be "plugged in." I laughed when one of the students talked about the kids in his household having to be the technology experts for his parents. I remember three or so years ago when my husband brought his first iPhone home from work, I was blown away that my 3-year-old intuitively knew how to scroll and select apps without anyone showing her. I think it shows the adaptability of today's generation. Perhaps this is why the video Shift Happens points out that we are preparing students for "jobs that don't exist; technologies that haven't been invented; to solve problems that haven't been thought of." The millenial generation and future generations are innately prepared to absorb technology changes quicker and easier than generations before. It was baffling to me to read the statistic that half of what is learned in the first year of a four-year degree program now is outdated by the third year. It is up to us as educators to bridge this gap and continue moving forward with newer and better information and delivery methods. I learned it will be critical for me to always be learning and growing in my technological knowledge, and I will have to continually adapt this technology into my classroom.
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