Towards Generat

ion ZSt.

Michael’s College

-

Summer 2016

http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Bay-Area-tech-companies-are-reportedly-hiring-7865635.php

1. Introduction2. Millennial to

Homeland3. The net.gen concept4. Selected topics5. Patterns of

engagement

nitle.org

Email: bryan.alexander@gmail.com

Twitter: http://twitter.com/bryanalexander

Web: http://bryanalexander.org

Monthly environmental scan report

Trends identified, tested, projected

NMC Horizon Report 2014

2: Millennial to Homeland

One popular index

https://www.beloit.edu/mindset/2019/

Since they have been on the planet:

1. Hybrid automobiles have always been mass produced.

2. Google has always been there, in its founding words, “to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible.”

3. They have never licked a postage stamp.

4. Email has become the new “formal” communication, while texts and tweets remain enclaves for the casual.

7. They have grown up treating Wi-Fi as an entitlement. 9. The announcement of someone being the “first woman” to hold a position has only impressed their parents.14. Cell phones have become so ubiquitous in class that teachers don’t know which students are using them to take notes and which ones are planning a party.15. The Airport in Washington, D.C., has always been Reagan National Airport.16. Their parents have gone from encouraging them to use the Internet to begging them to get off it.

17. If you say “around the turn of the century,” they may well ask you, “which one?”18. They have avidly joined Harry Potter, Ron, and Hermione as they built their reading skills through all seven volumes.25. The therapeutic use of marijuana has always been legal in a growing number of American states.27. Teachers have always had to insist that term papers employ sources in addition to those found online.

Selected demographics

https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/docs/millennials_report.pdf

Long-term racial changes

Who’s after the Millennials? •Born 1995ff•Generation Z•Homeland Generation (

https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/docs/millennials_report.pdf)

•Pluralists (http://magid.com/sites/default/files/pdf/MagidPluralistGenerationWhitepaper.pdf)

•Children of Gen X

2.5: The economic context, or“Generation

Screwed” -Joel Kotkin, 2012

http://www.newsweek.com/are-millennials-screwed-generation-65523

Family economic situation

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/09/17/the-typical-american-family-makes-less-than-it-did-in-1989/.

Employment woes“As a result of the financial crisis and globalization, the younger generation in the mature markets struggle with ever fewer job opportunities and the need to support an ageing population”

http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/international/2014/01/21/317728.htm

It gets better, cough cough[M]embers of the Class of 2015 currently have better job prospects than the classes of 2009–2014. However, the Class of 2015 still faces real economic challenges, as evidenced by elevated levels of unemployment and underemployment, and a large share of graduates who still remain “idled” by the economy...

It gets better, cough cough…In addition, wages of young high school and college graduates have failed to reach their prerecession levels, and have in fact stagnated or declined for almost every group since 2000.

http://www.epi.org/publication/the-class-of-2015/

K-12 experience

•Collaborative, group-learning

•Some personalization•Testing, testing, testing

https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/university-venus/millennial-learners

3: Digital natives?

"PCs are going to be like trucks," Jobs said. "They are still going to be around." However, he said, only "one out of x people will need them."http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-2

0006526-56.html ; image via Wikipedia

Digital natives: 2001“It is now clear that as a result of this ubiquitous environment and the sheer volume of their interaction with it, today’s students think and process information fundamentally differently from their predecessors.”

Marc Prensky,“Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants”

(from http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/default.asp

)

“…For the most part, students’ educational use of the Internet occurs outside of the school day, outside of the school building, outside the direction of their teachers.”

Pew study, August 2002http://www.pewinternet.org/report_display.asp?r=67

Net.gen, 2005“Today’s Net Gen college students have grown up with technology. Born around the time the PC was introduced, 20 percent began using computers between the ages of 5 and 8. Virtually all Net Gen students were using computers by the time they were 16 to 18 years of age…”

“…Computer usage is even higher among today’s children. Among children ages 8 to 18, 96 percent have gone online. Seventy-four percent have access at home, and 61 percent use the Internet on a typical day.”

Diana and James Oblinger, eds.,Educating the Net Generation (2005)

Opening the gap into college, 2005“You are the first class of the ‘Net Generation’ or if you prefer – The Networked Generation.You breathe bits of information as easily as my generation breathes air.As members of the Net Generation, you are entering a world that needs you….”

“… But be aware that much of this world will find your ways of working, learning and socializing quite bizarre. You are digital natives. We – the grey beards, the baby boomers and the gen X-ers – are digital immigrants and our practices will need to evolve rapidly to keep up with yours.”

John Seely-BrownUniversity of Michigan commencement, 2005(http://www.johnseelybrown.com/UM05.pdf)

Corporations adopt the language“[R]esearchers Ian Jukes and Anita Dosaj refer to this disconnect as the result of poor communication between “digital natives,” today’s students and “digital immigrants,” many adults. These parents and educators, the digital immigrants, speak DSL, digital as a second language.”

Apple web page(http://www.apple.com/au/education/digitalkids/disconnect/landscape.html)

“In the case of the "digital generation," the class, ethnic, and geographic biases could not be more obvious...[E]ven at elite universities, many are not rich enough to be all that digital. Like the rest of us, they will use a tool if the tool works for them and they can afford it. If not, then not.”

Siva Vaidhyanathan, University of Virginia, December 2007

(http://www.googlizationofeverything.com/2007/12/the_problem_with_digital_nativ.php)

“I have spent more than a decade in the constant company of people 18 to 23 years old. The faces change. The age range does not. I have to report that the levels of comfort with, understanding of, and dexterity with digital technology varies greatly in every class. Yet it has not changed in more than 10 years. Every class has a handful of people with amazing skills…”

“… and a large number of people who can't stand computers at all. A few every year lack mobile phones. Many can't afford any gizmos and resent assignments that demand digital work. Most use Facebook and Myspace because they are easy, not because they are powerful (which, of course, they are not).”

Siva Vaidhyanathan, University of Virginia, December 2007

(http://www.googlizationofeverything.com/2007/12/the_problem_with_digital_nativ.php

)

“So let’s keep using the term, but as an aspiration as well as a description. Rather than pretend all kids are Digital Natives, let’s make that our goal. Because if we don’t act, the problems could get even worse.”

-Jesse Baer, Harvard Law, December 2007(

http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/digitalnatives/2008/01/04/the-digital-native-divide/

)

In general, age and digital tech use are negatively related

In general, age and digital tech use are negatively related(except for LinkedIn)

Communications

In general, age and digital tech use are negatively related(except for LinkedIn)

Social media for news

http://www.journalism.org/2016/05/26/news-use-across-social-media-platforms-2016/

And yet

• Danah Boyd: “Teens aren't addicted to social media. They're addicted to each other”

And yet

• Information experience

And yet

• Few signs of intergenerational hostility so far

4: Selected topics

Privacy notes

People near the fighting between riot police and protesters received a text message shortly after midnight saying “Dear subscriber, you are registered as a participant in a mass disturbance.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/22/world/europe/ukraine-protests.html

Privacy notes

“[T]he majority of online adults (61%) do not feel compelled to limit the amount of information that can be found about them online. Just 38% say they have taken steps to limit the amount of online information that is available about them...”

Privacy note[in comparison] “55% of online teens have created an online profile and... most restrict access to them in some way. Looking at adults, their use of social networking profiles is much lower (just 20%), but those who use the sites appear to do so in a more transparent way.”

Pew Study, December 2007http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/229/report_display.asp

The majority of teenagers act in some way to protect their information:

While 39% say they restrict access to their photos “most of the time,” another 38% report restricting access “only sometimes.” Just 21% of teens who post photos say they “never” restrict access to the images they upload…

“Teens and Social Media”, Amanda Lenhart, Mary

Madden, Aaron Smith, Alexandra MacgillDecember 2007

http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/230/report_display.asp

Reading decline?

"the fact is that people don’t read anymore” - Steve Jobs, “The Passion of Steve Jobs,” New York Times, 2008

•General concern about bad reading habits, decreasing amounts

Reading and/versus digital• How much reading is

being done?• How is digital

reading different?• Literacies changing?

Copyright

Grown up in great age of…

•P2p trading•Ready tools for

infringement (JD Lasica, Darknet)

•Industries warring against customers

Remarkable knowledge:

• Copyright law• Fair use• Threats of being

sued• Decreasing privacy

Teens as creators, authors

The majority of American teenagers are Web 2.0 content creators.

“64% of online teens ages 12-17... or or 59% of all teens... have participated in one or more among a wide range of content-creating activities on the internet, up from 57% of online teens in a similar survey at the end of 2004.”

Teens as creators, authors“[these activities include] share their own artistic creations online, such as artwork, photos, stories, or videos... create or work on webpages or blogs for others, including those for groups they belong to, friends, or school assignments...created their own online journal or blog... maintain their own personal webpage... remix content they find online into their own creations…”

“Teens and Social Media”Amanda Lenhart, Mary Madden, Aaron Smith, Alexandra

MacgillDecember 2007

http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/230/report_display.asp

One gender note

“Overall, girls dominate the teen blogosphere; 35% of all online teen girls blog, compared with 20% of online teen boys. This gender gap for blogging has grown larger over time. Virtually all of the growth in teen blogging between 2004 and 2006 is due to the increased activity of girls.”

“Older teen girls are still far more likely to blog when compared with older boys (38% vs. 18%), but younger girl bloggers have grown at such a fast clip that they are now outpacing even the older boys (32% of girls ages 12-14 blog vs. 18% of boys ages 15-17).”

Pew study, December 2007http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/230/report_display.asp

* 97% of American teens ages 12-17 play some kind of video game.

* 99% of boys say they are gamers and 94% of girls report that they play games.”

Gaming“Game playing is universal, with almost all teens playing games and at least half playing games on a given day.”

“Game playing experiences are diverse, with the most popular games falling into the racing, puzzle, sports, action and adventure categories.

* A typical teen plays at least five different categories of games and 40% of them play eight or more different game types. * While some teens play violent video games, those who play violent games generally also play non-violent games.

Game playing is social, with most teens playing games with others at least some of the time.

* 76% of gaming teens play games with others at least some of the time. * 82% play games alone at least occasionally, though 71% of this group also plays games with others. * 65% of gaming teens play with others in the same room.”

“Game playing can incorporate many aspects of civic and political life. * 76% of youth report helping others while gaming.

* 44% report playing games where they learn about a problem in society.”

-”Teens, Video Games, and Civics”HASTAC/Pew/Macathur study, 2008

Millennial versus Homeland

(Magid)

Millennial versus Homeland

(Meeker)

5: Forms of engagement

Where can we engage?

• Building curricula• Embracing creativity

(pedagogy, student life)• Shifting model of information

and digital literacy

Where can we engage?

• Use social media• Make generations the

subject of intellectual conversation

Needed investments

• Technological infrastructure• The right people in student

life, academic computing, library

• Capacity to redesign spaces

Making new spaces

https://www.flickr.com/photos/multnomahcountylibrary/18457790768

/

Majors and minors

Creativity

• Expression• New forms of publication• Broader audience• Remix• That copyright issue

Games as pedagogical objects“Video games… situate meaning in a multimodal space through embodied experiences to solve problems and reflect on the intricacies of the design of imagined worlds and the design of both real and imagined social relationships and identities in the modern world.”

-James Paul Gee, 2003

Gaming pedagogy

Dickinson, Gettysburg, Hope Colleges

Gaming pedagogy: game studiesTrinity and Depauw U

Gaming pedagogy: game studies

Gaming and libraries

Libraries•Collections•Game night•Creating games

Defense of Hidgeon, Games Archive: University of Michigan

-Chris Lott, cited 2007http://technagogy.learningfield.org/2007/11/19/are-you-building-a-creepy-treehouse/

Digital literacy 2.0

• Beyond information literacy

• How to view media critically?

• When and how to interact?

Why digital literacy?“A population that knows what to do with the tools at hand stands a better chance of resisting enclosure. The more people who know how to use participatory media to learn, inform, persuade, investigate, reveal, advocate and organize, the more likely the future infosphere will allow, enable and encourage liberty and participation.”

Howard Rheingold, “Participative Pedagogy for a Literacy of Literacies” (2008)

“Such literacy can only make action possible, however − it is not in the technology, or even in the knowledge of how to use it, but in the ways people use knowledge and technology to create wealth, secure freedom, resist tyranny.”

Howard Rheingold, “Participative Pedagogy for a Literacy of Literacies” (2008)

Email: bryan.alexander@gmail.com

Twitter: http://twitter.com/bryanalexander

Web: http://bryanalexander.org