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IT Training: Do We Have to Talk the Talk?
8/22/2005
Should we teach kids in the l33t Net language they use? ROFL!*
MY 12-YEAR-OLD SON sent me an e-mail the other day, full of acronyms, numbers, and punctuation symbols that looked more like a foreign language than like English. Such language is common for the younger generation; it’s used in e-mail, chat, forums, etc. The same youngster will sit at a computer with multiple instant messenger windows open, an iPod blasting music to his ears, the TV running in the background, and a textbook open in front of him. This is his idea of doing homework. Diana Oblinger, a keynote speaker at the recent Syllabus2005 conference in Hollywood, CA, refers to him as a “Net Generation learner.” Others use terms like “Generation-Y,” “digital native,” or “millennial student.” Regardless of terminology, they are referring to someone born in the last 30 years or so, who has always or mostly known a life with computers. More importantly, growing up in a technology- enabled world impacts how these Net Generation students learn, and thus how we teach.
All of us live in a tech-enabled world, and so all of us are impacted by it as learners, as teachers, as workers, and at leisure. At Southeast Missouri State, we have begun using the term “21st century learner” to include those digital natives but also we digital immigrants who are influenced and impacted by technology in and out of the classroom. Students today communicate via cell phones, text messaging, e-mail, chat, and instant messenger. They “google” information, and thus have turned the name of a search engine’s Web site into a verb.
These students are growing up “wired.” They expect instant access to infinite amounts of information. They want it all; they want it now. More importantly, they learn differently, or at the very least, the way in which information is communicated and processed is different for a digital native. The advent of Google and the like have led to an expectation that the right answer will always be found, and in many cases, that it will be the first answer found. This d'es lead to a concern that while these students know how to get answers quickly, they are not as good at evaluating the accuracy, integrity, or validity of what they find. As such, information literacy has become a hot topic for educators who wish to instruct students on how to locate, gather, verify, analyze, synthesize, and recraft information correctly.
Twenty-first century learners have different expectations of teachers, of the content, of the delivery, and of access to that content. This leaves to the teachers to decide if we should adjust the way we we teach to meet their needs and expectations, and if so, how to adjust or adapt. Finally, if we do concede to the needs of 21st century learners, how far do we go to meet them?
Speak the Language
Communication is probably one of the greatest differences between this generation and previous ones. Multiple means of communication are available and utilized. Each method has its own rules, protocols and languages.
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