Ruby’s Blog

I just read an article on a speech given by Lee Rainie entitled “Life online: Teens and technology and the world to come”. Rainie talks about 8 realities that shape the world of young people and that will affect them when they finish school. These are:

1.      Millennials (People born from 1982-2000) are a distinct age cohort, according to many measures of generational behaviour and attitude

2.      Millennials are immersed in a world of media and gadgets

3.      Their technology is mobile

4.      The internet plays a special role in their world

5.      They are multi-taskers

6.      Millennials are often unaware of and indifferent to the consequences of their use of technology

7.      Their (our) technology will change rapidly in the next decade

8.      The way they approach learning and research tasks will be shaped by their new techno-world

What does this mean for us as teachers?

Well it seems that Millennials will be much more self –directed and less dependent on top-down instruction. We need to be able to alter our teaching strategies to allow these students to be able to explore their own insights and intelligences. We can most certainly guide them and shape their path or multiple paths, but I think they need to have a number of choices when it comes to their learning methods.

Image: ‘I am Here for the Learning Revolution‘
www.flickr.com/photos/31442459@N00/2516648940