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IT Training: Do We Have to Talk the Talk?
8/22/2005
Modes like chat or text messaging require tedious and/or quick input. The use of acronyms (e.g., LOL to mean “laughing out loud”), phonetic characters and words (e.g., k for “OK,” ic for “I see,” afk for “away from the keyboard,” etc.), numbers (2 for “to,” 4 for “for,” L8r for “later,” etc.), and even emoticons (e.g., :-) for a smile) yield dialogue almost unintelligible to the rest of us. These mutations of English show up in e-mail as well, though perhaps to a lesser degree. E-mail etiquette has changed the rules regarding punctuation, capitalization, etc.; even verbal (as well as text-messaging) conversation via the telephone requires a different form of abbreviated English. Students, intentionally or not, expect us to be able to communicate in the same pseudo-language they have adopted. Failure to do so on our part may lead to poorer communication.This d'esn’t mean we have to communicate in acronyms, but it may mean that a little effort on our part to understand some common chat language could pay off, as could simply being open-minded and flexible when having to read this eEnglish. On the other hand, it shouldn’t require that we start trying to e-mail our students with excessive emoticons, acronyms, etc. By the way (btw), there are dozens of online chat and/or emoticon dictionaries online (www.netlingo.com is one) that can be entertaining reading.
Aggregation and Wireless Expectation
Collecting material on a course Web site is another way to gear our teaching toward 21st century learners. Smaller units of information play to the information-processing approach these students take. Understanding that from the students’ perspective, the answer to everything can be found on Google (and is almost always the first “hit”), can help us understand the origin of some assignment answers. It also provides us an opportunity to stress aspects of information literacy. Of course, certain technologies lend themselves to student expectations of instant information access, anytime, anywhere. Wireless connectivity, of course, is a key element here.
Tablet PCs are a useful 21st century learner technology, as are instant polling devices, PDAs, and the like. These can all provide personalized, convenient, and instant access to information during class time. Important characteristics of these devices are their interactivity and relative ease of use; both play into the hands of digital natives as well as digital immigrants.
What Are the Risks?
Are there risks in trying to adapt to the 21st century learner? That is, should we adjust our teaching to this new learning and communication style? Should we let the wants, needs, and expectations of this new type of learner totally redefine how we teach? Or, should we do “what’s best for them,” and not change how we teach at all? After all, the world they will enter is still (at least for the time being) dominated by us— the digital immigrants. Wouldn’t it be better for students to learn how to deal with us and do things our way? The likely answer is that we need to meet these students somewhere in between, adjusting to their eLearning style, but maintaining some of the traditional approaches that we know are in their best interest.
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