Engaging Millennials

https://edtechdigest.wordpress.com/2014/11/24/engaging-millennials/

In Mike Broderick's column, "Engaging Millennials", he focuses on a group of learners, now called the Millennials, and the challenges we face in educating this generation.   According to Broderick, the Millennials is a generation 80 million strong in the U.S., and educators, along with employers, are discovering diverse and unique ways to educate this generation.

According to Broderick, this generation has grown up online, and they have been in constant communication with their peers through social media. Millennials require interactivity to process and learn.  To engage this generation, educators and trainers need to to keep in mind the digital focus and technology orientation of students that are part of this generation when developing lessons and a learning environment.

Broderick suggested 5 tips to keep in mind when educating Millennials.  First of all, teachers need to use response technology to give this generation a voice in the classroom.  Instead of a lecture driven PowerPoint lesson, teachers need to embed the ability to respond during the lecture, whether it is through interactive polls or surveys aggregated on the spot, to keep the audience focused and involved.

Another suggestion is to define learning objectives and key takeaways upfront.  Millenials want to know what to expect and what value they will receive from the lesson. Millennials prefer open, transparent communication in class, so it is good for a teacher to state their goals upfront and periodically measure student progress. Broderick also suggests that when using digital resources, such as slide presentations or websites, teachers need to keep the look clean and simple.  Teachers should keep information clear and concise to view and use classroom discussion to add more detailed information. According to Broderick, the visual messages should be short and focused, and educators should employ visual elements such as images or video for Millennials.

Millenials, according to Broderick, will not stay engaged in the normal presentation that allows a question-and-answer session at the end, so he suggests that presenters allow interactivity throughout the lesson. Finally, Millenials prefer two-way conversations rather than top-down lectures, so in order for students to feel part of the personalized learning process and hold their attention, teachers must provide certain technology solutions and presentation techniques.

I agree with Broderick's assessement of the Millenials generation.  I can definitely see a change in how my students respond to lessons today compared to even just 10 years ago, and students today are somewhat victims of the "instant gratification" culture that current technology devices have given us.  I have heard and experienced how visual this generation is and can see how infographics and videos are effective with this population. Regardless of the reasons, we as educators need to understand ways to present information and content to our Millenials so that our lessons are effective and produce the results we need to assess.