Millenials etc

Just a bit from me, from Paul's friend Chuck from UCF and from mine and Liz's chat with Carie Windham. Old news for some of you, I know, but just in case you need reminding.... We tend to look at the generational impact of using technology in learning by characterising the different ages as follows:

• Matures (prior to 1946) - dedicated to job take on, dependable, unquestioning
• Baby Boomers (1946-1964) - live to work, optimistic, enthusiasm
• Generation X (1965-1980) - work to live, relationship-focused
• Millennials (1981 -1996) - live for the moment, self-focused

Millenials are the only generation that are digital natives ie the technology has always been there for them, everyone else are digital immigrants, learned the "old way" now having to translate to new environment. Millenials are generally the least satisified with the application of technology to their learning experience - their expectations are higher (not just with fees) but culturally anyway and they are very vocal about what they want.

From Chuck
- how many baby boomers does it take to change a light bulb? 11, ten to stand round in a circle giving positive energy to the one doing it
- how many gen-exers does it take to change a light bulb? 1, they just say "screw it" and do it
- how many millenials does it take to change a light bulb? none, there's no way their parents would let them do something as dangerous and dirty as change a light bulb, does your campus offer a light bulb changing service?

Conversation with Carie Windham
Carie is a research student working with Diana Oblinger on the net gen stuff, and she is, quite clearly, having met her, a net gener herself. Some of you may have seen her speak or heard some of her podcasts or seen the recent white paper Getting Past Google: Perspectives on Information Literacy from the Millenial Mind

She and Diana are working on determining whether the millenial trends they have identified in US and Canada are also being seen in other countries. Carie asked us some pretty tough questions including one that started with "if you had a crystal ball..." but it was really interesting to talk to her and she said afterwards that it looks like they are seeing lots of commonality and that a major determinant of trend internationally is the level of access to mobile phones within a particular country. We shared the recent mobile phones for 10 and 12 year olds that was recently reported on BBC, illustrated some trends we've seen over last few years and Liz talked about (what is rapidly becoming my favourite expectations stat) 96% of students think that using websites will be essential in learning at SHU, whilst 91% think books will be essential - so 9% of students think they can complete their course without having to look at a book at all...interesting.