What the Millennials (aren’t) learning
Cliff February 23rd, 2007
This semester I’m teaching a class of 17 freshmen, who are taking Information Society as a “required elective,” designed to broaden their horizons. They had no idea what they were getting into. They are my “2.0″ guinea pigs
Since the class started, I have completely rewritten the course content (without changing the syllabus or objectives! contract is honored, administration!), changed my approach and attitude, and asked a lot of questions. Yesterday, I bluntly asked them about the college experience, the course I’m teaching, what they care about, etc. I tried to be upfront and honest, and make sure that I wasn’t talking down to them. Here is what they told me in the course of the hour (and amidst talking about Mass Media). In their own words:
- We are lazy. It takes a lot to motivate us, and only then if something is interesting and can be shown to immediately affect us. Our laziness bothers us a little bit, but not enough for us to do anything about it.
- We are not learning anything in college. We are being forced to learn the same things in our classes that we learned in high school. It’s not interesting. College is a social experience. We make good grades to keep HOPE and to appease our parents.
- It’s already paid for. The government and our parents pay for almost everything. Some of us have to work menial jobs to help contribute. We don’t feel like adults.
- We are uninformed. We spend a lot of time on entertainment and almost none on self-education.
- Make it personal. We pay more attention when content is personalized. We see that it relates to us, which makes it more interesting and easier to understand.
In studying Mass Media, I had students read a selection from McLuhan’s The Medium is the Massage (1967). The central point of the book is that we can’t approach the society of today (and it’s problems and young people) with the solutions and institutions of yesterday. TV has changed us. The Web has changed us. Web 2.0 is changing us.
Education has to keep up, or these students will not have learned anything.
The thing that struck me more than anything else was that noone seems to be listening to these students. They’re consumers, they’re offspring, they’re tomorrow’s future, yes. But it seemed that none of them had been asked what they wanted, what they were passionate about, or what they thought of themselves or their education.
I’m angry for them. I’m sad for them. I feel like we as a society have let them down. But I’m determined that I will help them see themselves as part of the Information Society, and give them the tools to make informed decisions about their lives. (which means that I’ll spend more time re-writing lesson plans and less blogging this semester!)
Wish us (all) luck!