Millennials

By Dr. Michael Mills, Delaware Technical & Community College, Georgetown, DE

Walking into the classroom today is different than it was even five years ago. Many of our students are more technologically connected than ever before; cell phones, Ipods, and laptops all play a role in their lives.

Most of these students are the new generation on campus. Commonly known as the Millennials, they bring new challenges and new opportunities to the classroom. Born between 1980 and 2000, the Millennials have been raised in a digital world. They are the first generation to have always had the internet, home computers, instant messaging, and email. If you know a Millennial, you know he or she can participate in multiple IM sessions, check email, browse the internet, text on a cell phone, and watch television all at the same time. They give multitasking a new meaning.

But how do we reach them in the classroom? First we need to know who they are. The staff development office at Henrico County Public Schools in Richmond, Va., says Millennials are hyper-communicators, multi-taskers, goal-oriented, curious, public, collaborators, and questioners. They live their lives online through social websites like Facebook or MySpace and share their emotions through blogs. Email is too slow for them so they prefer instant messaging. They are comfortable working in groups and like to explore and discover. They would rather jump right into a project and learn as they go instead of reading written instructions.

Dr. Joseph Bowman, founder and director of the Center for Urban Youth and Technology, says the right approach in teaching Millennials is to make instruction relevant. “It has to be explained in ways that are real to them,” he says. Jason Frand says Millennials find doing is more important than knowing. With the half-life of information so short, Millennials see results and actions more important than the accumulation of facts.

Simulations help them visually comprehend complex issues and game systems such as Nintendo involve problem-solving and decision-making. J.C. Herz, writer of Gaming the System: What Higher Education Can Learn from Multiplayer Online Worlds, says games provide rapid feedback and allow players to adjust the level of difficulty based on their expertise. Players use sports games to understand angles; the game Gettysburg lets users explore history by changing scenarios and re-creating military engagements.

The classroom of today and the learners of today are certainly different than a few years ago. Both will continue to change. The question then becomes what are we willing to do to change with them so the education system is effective?