The net generation and digital natives: implications for higher education

Executive Summary "Our students have changed radically. Today�s students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach." (Prensky 2001 p1) 1. There is no evidence that there is a single new generation of young students entering Higher Education and the terms Net Generation and Digital Native do not capture the processes of change that are taking place. 2. The complex changes that are taking place in the student body have an age related component that is most obvious with the newest waves of technology. Prominent amongst these are the uses made of social networking sites (e.g. Facebook), uploading and manipulation of multimedia (e.g. YouTube) and the use of handheld devices to access the mobile Internet. 3. Demographic factors interact with age to pattern students� responses to new technologies. The most important of these are gender, mode of study (distance or place-based) and the international or home status of the student. 4. The gap between students and their teachers is not fixed, nor is the gulf so large that it cannot be bridged. In many ways the relationship is determined by the requirements teachers place upon their students to make use of new technologies and the way teachers integrate new technologies in their courses. There is little evidence that students enter university with demands for new technologies that teachers and universities cannot meet. 5. Students persistently report that they prefer moderate use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in their courses. Care should be taken with this finding because the interpretation of what is �moderate� use of ICT may be changing as a range of new technologies take off and become embedded in social life and universities. 6. Universities should be confident in the provision of what might seem to be basic services. Students appreciate and make use of the foundational infrastructure for learning, even where this is often criticised as being an out of date and unimaginative use of new technology. Virtual Learning Environments (Learning or Course Management Systems) are used widely and seem to be well regarded. The provision by university libraries of online services, including the provision of online e-journals and e-books, are also positively received. 7. Students do not naturally make extensive use of many of the most discussed new technologies such as Blogs, Wikis and 3D Virtual Worlds. The use of 3D Virtual Worlds is notably low amongst students. The use of Wikis and Blogs is relatively low overall, but use does vary between different contexts, including national and regional contexts. Students who are required to use these technologies in their courses are unlikely to reject them and low use does not imply that they are inappropriate for educational use. The key point being made is that there is not a natural demand amongst students that teaching staff and universities should feel obliged to satisfy. 8. There is no obvious or consistent demand from students for changes to pedagogy at university (e.g. demands for team and group working). There may be good reasons why teachers and universities wish to revise their approaches to teaching and learning, or may wish to introduce new ways of working. Students will respond positively to changes in teaching and learning strategies that are well conceived, well explained and properly embedded in courses and degree programmes. However there is no evidence of a pent-up demand amongst students for changes in pedagogy or of a demand for greater collaboration. 9. There is no evidence of a consistent demand from students for the provision of highly individualised or personal university services. The development of university infrastructures, such as new kinds of learning environments (for example Personal Learning Environments) should be choices about the kinds of provision that the university wishes to make and not a response to general statements about what a new generation of students are demanding. 10. Advice derived from generational arguments should not be used by government and government agencies to promote changes in university structure designed to accommodate a Net Generation of Digital Natives. The evidence indicates that young students do not form a generational cohort and they do not express consistent or generationally organised demands. A key finding of this review is that political choices should be made explicit and not disguised by arguments about generational change

Educating the Invincibles: Strategies for Teaching the Millennial Generation in Law School

Each new generation of law students presents its own set of challenges for law teachers seeking to develop competent and committed members of the legal profession. This article aims to train legal educators to recognize their students\u27 generational learning style and to deliver a tailored education that supports the development of skilled attorneys. To help legal educators better understand the newest generation of law students, this article explores the traits associated with the Millennial Generation of law students, including their perspective on themselves and others, on education and on work. It then provides detailed and specific strategies for teaching millennial students. Though we developed these strategies in a clinical setting, they apply in both the clinical and classroom setting. As this article demonstrates, if well supported and motivated, the Millennial Generation will include extraordinary attorneys who advance the legal profession to new heights

The new shape of the student

This chapter critically examines student characteristics in light of the popular dis-course which describes students as part of a net generation of digital native young people. Digital and networked technologies have clearly changed the possibilities for students to learn and the ways in which teaching and learning can be conducted. It is also claimed that new technologies change what students are able to learn. However the claim that there is a new generation of learners characterized by a new mentality has to be careful assessed in the light of recent empirical evidence. The idea of a generation gap between digitally native students and their digitally immigrant teachers is challenged, as are claims that pressure from this new generation forces radical institutional change on educational institutions. The chapter argues against the generational nature of the argument and separates the technological changes that are taking place from the determinist rhetoric they have been couched in. This rhetoric suggests that changes amongst students are already well understood and that their educational implications are already known and lead to generally applicable if not universal consequences. The chapter concludes by arguing that there is no one shape for students and that digital technologies open up a range of opportunities and choices at all levels of education

Challenging Assumptions about IT skills in Higher Education

This paper challenges the idea of 'the digital native' and the subsequent assumption of digital literacy skills amongst higher education students. It offers clear evidence that current student populations come from a wider range of backgrounds than the theory allows for and that the younger student population is also more complex with varying levels of digital literacy experience. It argues that treating students as a homogenous mass is problematic and challenges the idea that generic technology skills are instantly transferable to academic study. The paper concludes with a warning that we are letting down some of our students by the ‘Information Technology (IT) barrier’ within higher education and that we should be focusing on identification of Information Technology (IT) need and IT skills acquisition support rather than assuming it is something students can ‘pick up as they go along’. This will only happen once IT is given the status of a core academic skill along with maths, information literacy and academic communication

Students, the Net Generation and Digital Natives:Accounting for Educational Change

This chapter examines a number of different terms and popularized accounts of young people who are now at the stage in their lives of engaging in university education across the world. Three of the more common terms that have been used to describe this cohort of young people are the Net generation (Tapscott 1998, 2009), Digital Natives (Prensky 2001; 2001a: 2009) and Millennials (Howe and Strauss 2000; Oblinger & Oblinger 2005). This chapter critically examines the argument, common to writers using both terms: that the existence of an environment infused with digital and networked technologies, combined with an active engagement in these new technologies, leads directly to a sharp generational break. The chapter goes on to examine the determinist nature of the argument and the way this has been related to one particular pedagogical approach; collaborative learning. It examines the wider social and technological context and in particular the ideas of networked individualism and networked sociality. Finally the chapter concludes by examining which aspects of the Digital Native and Net Generation arguments are worth taking forward and by identifying those aspects of the arguments that need to be abandoned

The Intersection between Chickering’s Theory and Generation Z Student of Color Activism

Student activism is an ever-developing trend on college campuses. The current generation, Generation Z, started college in 2013. Analyzing literature on student development and how it intersects with the student activist identity reveals what institutions can do to further serve students in a generational context. When characteristics of students from Generation Z are given proper attention, campus administrators can better understand student activism as an identity. As current and new generations matriculate through college, institutions need to continuously challenge their processes and recreate equitable and inclusive spaces for their students

Effective fire safety education for residential students

Fire safety for residential students is a concern to campus housing administrators, campus environmental health and safety professionals, local fire departments, and parents. Training and educating students is often a major component of a campus fire safety program, though little research has considered its effectiveness. Millennial students have unique characteristics that may impact how they respond to various methods of fire safety education. This purpose of this study was to determine whether peer educators or authority figures have a greater impact on safety behaviors following initial fire safety training. Further, the study was to determine if adding experiential learning techniques to the traditional fire safety lecture would have a greater influence on safety behavior. Specifically, the behaviors of exiting the residence hall when the alarm sounds and knowing two exits were measured. Effectiveness was measured by predicting the safety behaviors using principles of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). The Residential Student Fire Safety Behavior Survey (RSFSBS) was created to measure the four dimensions of the TPB, generalized intention to perform the behavior, the students' attitudes about the behavior, their feelings about how normal the behavior is (subjective norm), and their perceived control over performing the behavior. The findings from this research suggest that neither intervention proved more effective than the other. They did suggest that residential students' subjective norms related to fire safety vary more than the other dimensions and that this might be an area to address to improve student fire safety behavior

Elaborating Motive and Psychological Impact of Sharenting in Millennial Parents

The phenomenon of parental care shared through social media (sharenting) is increasingly widespread. This research aimed to elaborate on the motives, strategies, and psychological effects of sharenting by millennial parents. This research is qualitative research with a phenomenological approach. The subjects are millennial parents who have a habit of sharing parenting on social media and are members of the professional community. Determination of the sample uses purposive sampling so that as many as ten people consisted of five females and five males. Interviews, observations, and documentation are the methods used in data collection. Data were analyzed using reduction techniques, data presentation, and verification. The results showed that the motive of sharenting parents is to receive affirmation and social support, demonstrate the ability to care for children, social participation, and documentation. Millennial parents with a peer-oriented communication model do Sharenting. Sharenting for millennial parents has both positive and negative impacts, namely by providing new information and knowledge, making new friends, and support. The negative effects include feeling insecure, comparing her child with someone else's child, causing animosity and dissent. Thus, it can be concluded that sharenting by millennial parents is carried out with a variety of motives, carried out with a peer approach strategy, and has both positive and negative impacts at the same time. The implication is that millennial parents are more knowledgeable about parenting, understand good sharenting, and are psychologically trained in responding to netizens for their sharenting

Strategies for Implementing Advertisements in the Green Industry

After a growth in sales of 30% from 2007 to 2010, green product market sales declined 2% from 2010 to 2014 in the United States. Business leaders need to incorporate sustainable business practices and use green messaging within advertisements and marketing campaigns to assure that present needs do not compromise the ability of future generations to meet their needs. This qualitative case study explored marketing strategies that business leaders in the green advertising industry use to increase the sale of green products. The social cognitive theory was the conceptual framework used in this study. In-depth interviews with 5 purposively selected business leaders with experience in advertising green products were supplemented with a review of documentation. Yin\u27s 5-step analysis guided the coding process of participants\u27 responses, and member checking was used to validate the transcribed data. The major themes of the study revealed strategies used in green advertising. The themes that emerged from the research include usage of social media, understanding behaviors of green consumers, and expectations of the emerging millennial generation. The implication for positive social change is the potential for increased environmental awareness that could positively affect the environment and improve effectiveness for companies that sell green products