Today's learners have been raised in an age when technology is advancing rapidly and they are constantly exposed to digital media, making them very different from earlier generations of learners, according to according to Diana Oblinger, vice president for EDUCAUSE.
Oblinger delivered the keynote address at the 3rd Annual Conference on Technology & Standards, held May 1-3, 2006 in Washington D.C. and co-sponsored by the Postsecondary Electronic Standards Council (PESC), the Consumer Bankers Association (CBA), the National Association of Higher Education Loan Programs (NCHELP), and the Education Finance Council (EFC).
Oblinger's presentation Integrating Tradition with Technology, addressed the characteristics of today's learners to help higher education administrators think about effective ways to engage and communicate with these students.
Today's learners are generally not afraid of technology, are connected constantly to information and other people, prefer experiential, hands-on learning, expect immediate results, and are very social, according to Oblinger.
"In terms of parents and students deciding whether to go to college and how to finance college, simply providing text brochures is not going to be the best way to get families to fill out student aid and college applications," She said.
Oblinger argued that while the overall mission of higher education has not changed, innovations in technology and the generation that has grown up with these innovations has created an environment of change to which higher education must adjust.
"If we don't understand what this context is, we may miss the boat on the changes we need to make to remain competitive," she said.
A Different Perspective
"We are all products of our own environment. We can't help but to view the world through our own eyes," Oblinger said to demonstrate how the environment of this generation's students has made their perspective drastically different than that of earlier generations.
The explosion of technology in recent years plays a key role, with the most obvious difference being the prevalence of media. Today's children grow up bombarded by a vast array of media.
Oblinger argued that a child's exposure to media affects how his or her brain works and that recent studies show that a brain's neurons will restructure based on the stimuli to which it is exposed.
"We used to joke that today's generation is wired differently," Oblinger said. "Well, they may just be wired differently because they have been exposed to different kinds of stimulants."
She predicted that the trends affecting today's learners will continue because the next generation is even more exposed to many different forms of digital media at an even younger age.
"[Future learners'] expectations may continue to be quite a bit different because of the environment that our children are growing up in," she said.
Perceptions of Today's Learners
Oblinger detailed several characteristics that generally describe today's learners:
- No Fear Of Technology - Although today's learners feel comfortable learning and using new technology, Oblinger stressed that, although they have no fear, it does not mean you can assume they understand all technology.
- Hands-On Learners - "Many would prefer to get their hands on things, figure it out on their own, and go through the messy process of learning from experience," Oblinger said.
- Social - Today's learners feel comfortable connecting and socializing in ways that previous generations would never consider. Unlike previous generations, which generally relied on a hierarchical method of learning, today's learners take a more lateral approach to learning, valuing what they learn from peers and nontraditional sources.
- Engagement - Today's learners feel comfortable disengaging from something they don't find interesting or relevant. "They have a different kind of expectation about the interactivity and how an environment will draw them in," Oblinger said.
- Visual - This generation is more visual and kinesthetic than any generation before. "They interpret images with ease and develop images with ease," Oblinger said.
- Movement - Today' generation is also more engaged through movement. Oblinger said there has been an assumption that if you immobilize your body your brain will focus, but that assumption doesn't necessarily hold true for today's generation.
- Relevance - Today's students prefer to work on things that matter so they can make a difference. Although they don't necessarily engage in traditional political or community channels, they like fell they make a difference.
- Time Constraint - Today's learners are very busy and their learning is constrained by a lack of time. "Students don't want to bounce around from place to place. They want the institution to integrate everything for them so they can have a one-stop shopping approach because they simply lack time," Oblinger said.
Seeing the world from this perspective can be a helpful exercise for administrators.
"Use this as a way not to think about the organization or the programs you have to administer, but to think about the people we're actually dealing with, the end users of our products," she said.
Trends in Learning
The factors listed above have changed how students learn and derive meaning using technology. Perhaps the biggest difference between today's learners and previous generations is a lack of dependence on a hierarchical education system.
Students today can pick and choose from a limitless amount of resources and create an organic, personalized learning experience by connecting to individuals and information using technology.
Social book marking allows people to see what other people are looking at on the Web. Students can follow the people they admire and take that information and modify it and personalize it. This has given today's students a different mindset about information.
"Information doesn't live in a library, it lives on the Internet. The fact that it did not come from an authoritative source doesn't bother them as much. They believe that if they connect with the right people the right information is out there," she said. "This is a significant shift of power,"
Oblinger described this trend as part of a new era of self-service.
"If we want to know something we go out, as amateurs, and begin building a set of connections to people, very organic, very spontaneous, usually completely bypassing traditional education structures," she said.
This type of learning also allows students to individualize their learning experience. Oblinger used the popularity of iPods and Tivo to demonstrate how today's generation has more choice and control over how and when they access information.
Technology also allows today's students to participate instead of simply observing and this has affected how students generally prefer to learn. The explosion of blogging and virtual reality games are two examples of kids' belief that they should participate and people should listen to them. Adults, depending on how much technology they use, have also adopted aspects of this new culture.
"It is becoming part of our culture, yet it is not part of how we do business in higher education," Oblinger said.
Communicating with Today's Students
Oblinger highlighted some efforts by higher education to change how they communicate to better meet the expectations of today's students. She argued that institutions may be able to focus less on content and more on ways to find content.
"Today there is a focus on connectivity," Oblinger said. "You'll never be able to know everything, so it is about the ability to connect to people and information." For offices on campus, it is about how easy it is to access the office's information, she said.
Other strategies Oblinger stressed to engage and communicate with today's students include:
- Real World - Immerse and engage students in real world scenarios to let them experiment and individualize their experience.
- Visual - Students today will not usually read instructions. If they are filling out a complicated form they will just try and make mistakes until they get it right.
- Virtual Reality - Trials with virtual labs that allow students to perform an experiment over and over until they get it right and virtual, 3-D virtual models of archeological sites help students learn and retain information.
- Engaging Activities - Communicating to students can be improved by engaging them activities that allow them to interact with others and information.
- Social space - Classrooms modeled so students can interact with others and information technology allows them to learn from other students and find their own solutions to problems, increasing their information retention.
Communication solutions to better address today's students are changing how we should view the interaction between the real world and the online world, according to Oblinger. Oblinger described the traditional view of the real world and the online world as an "Alice and Wonderland" view, where people pop in and out of each world participating in which ever world best fits their needs at the time.
Oblinger said we are seeing signs that that perception is changing to a "ubiquitous environment," where the online world is laid over the real world and people participate in both worlds simultaneously. This type of environment will be on display at the 2008 Summer Olympics where attendees will be able access digital information as they move through the city.
In order to effectively communicate in this new world, Oblinger recommended administrators define what they are after and what they are trying to achieve, including what she called "a higher level of outcomes," like "complex thinking and complex communication."
She also recommended involving students to better learn their perceptions and preferences. She warned against making assumptions about student behavior and preferences because many times those assumptions will be wrong.
Administrators should balance the perspectives of today's students with other generation's perspectives, she said. While it is important to acknowledge how students view the world, they do not know everything, she said. Consider what you are trying to do, who you are dealing with and what cultural context you are working in to determine and negotiate the proper perspective to use.
Only use technology where it is appropriate, she recommended. Despite their exposure to the Web, younger students don't seem to be as satisfied with Web-based education.
To read more about Oblinger's thinking and research, visit the EDUCAUSE Web site which provides a free, electronic copy of Oblinger's book "Educating the Net Generation".
By Haley Chitty
NASFAA Assistant Director for Communications
Posted May 12, 2006 on www.NASFAA.org, the Web Site of the
National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA).
Copyright 2006. Redistribution to non-NASFAA institutions is prohibited
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