Rama Menon
April 2004
Meeting the Needs of the Y Generation
From March 22 to 24, 2004, I attended
the 9th TechEd conference in Ontario, California. It was a very
educational experience, and I believe it is well worth sharing,
especially as many of the sessions gave perspectives on the needs of
the Y generation (those born after 1979, according to one of the
speakers). Among the featured speakers were Dr. Ariella Lehrer,
(President & CEO of Legacy Interactive), William Raduchel, (former
Chief Technology Officer, AOL/Times Warner), and Dr. Jennifer James
(Urban Cultural Anthropologist).
Dr. Lehrer’s talk was entitled, "The
‘Just Do It’ Generation." She provided some thought provoking
statistics: 90% of kids aged 5 to 17 play video games; and video games
generated more money than movies at the box office this year. She went
on to ask whether teachers are aware of these children’s experiences,
whether these experiences change the way they process information, and,
if so, are they less able to reflect, use their imagination, or pay
attention in class? Finally, what can educators do about this group of
students, so different from the students of their (the educators’) own
time—what sort of education, and delivery mechanism seem to be called
for?
Mr. Raduchel talked about "Technology and Education
in the Next Decade." He emphasized the need for more software
engineers, and that the United States is having great difficulty in
getting such professionals. He stated that both India and China have
seen a tremendous growth in such professionals, both in terms of
quality, and quantity. He felt that the burgeoning technology in these
countries could adversely affect the economy of the United States, if
education does not pay heed to the changing needs of our society and
economy, and that educators need to encourage students to study
mathematics, science, and technology.
Dr. James gave an overview of cultural intelligence,
and how a lack of cultural intelligence can become a tremendous hurdle
to progress. She gave examples of how humans have changed their belief
systems over the years (e.g. woman could vote, Blacks should be given
the same rights as Whites, equal pay for both genders, Americans with
Disabilities Act, etc). She believed that holding on to certain beliefs
(such as the way children should be taught, the way research should be
conducted, etc) would prove unproductive at best, and harmful, at
worst. She believed that with easy global accessibility, information,
and knowledge would be shared, and lead to a more democratic world,
with little possibility of leaders trying to keep people subservient or
ignorant.
She also believed that the Y
generation has an entirely different set of perspectives, and values,
and that educators would do well not to ignore these. As an example,
many of today’s students are capable of multitasking (e. g. watching
TV, listening to music over their headphones, and doing their homework,
simultaneously); want frequent, and usually almost immediate, feedback
(similar to their experience in playing video games); like tasks that
are broken up into small chunks; and seldom need to refer to manuals
for operating on new technological devices, preferring to
"problem-solve" to master the workings of the device.
Many advances in technology were also shared at this
conference. For example, there is a wide range of technology available
to enhance teaching and learning. Among these are: interactive
PowerPoint; technology that can be used in lecture halls of 200 to 300
students, to promote active learning, immediate feedback to the
instructor on what has been understood or not; technology that captures
the instructor’s notes on the board (as the instructor writes them) so
that each student has a set of these notes, without their having to
copy the notes, enabling students to listen closely to lectures,
without fear of having lost some of the lecture notes, and being able
to play back the sequence of notes (e. g. if a cube were drawn, the
technology will help see the sequence of lines that were drawn, which
line was first, which second, and so on); software that can read aloud
a set of word-processed notes ala Karaoke, and so on. In addition to
the tremendous variety of superb speakers, there were presentations by
vendors (many in the form of hands-on labs and workshops), showing how
their products could help educators.
What was being emphasized throughout the conference
was that the Y generation students have different needs and skills, and
that technology is an integral part of their lives. Therefore, we, as
educators, need to be not only cognizant of these students’
experiences, perspectives, needs, and skills, but be able to harness
these, using whatever means we have at our disposal, especially the new
technologies that seem to facilitate the teaching and learning of the Y
generation.
Finally, I would urge you to try and
attend the 10th EdTech International Conference & Exposition, most
probably to be held 2-4 May 2005, also in Ontario, California.
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