In order to design quality training and teaching courses, instruct designers and teachers should clearly know the learners’ interests, learning habits and preferences. Dividing students into generations and analyzing these features of each generation seems to be an efficient way, since learners in a certain program are usually of a same age group.
The comparison and contrast of Boomers and generation Xers, which was introduced in the class, is pretty interesting. Boomers are conservative. They see computers as a “nice to have” tool and conceive that learning is based on specific events; they think simulation and gaming are less serious and prefer less interaction in distance learning; they expect the traditional instructor-centered learning pattern and learn in a slow pace. Opposite to boomers, Xers are adaptable and creative. They consider computers as a “need to have” tool and seek continuing opportunities for education and training; they enjoy learning in simulation and games and interact with the outside world in a rapid-fire style; they are good at multitasking and require autonomy and flexibility for their own-paced learning.
The above description accurately captured the general differences between these two distinct generations. But if looking further, we will get a more comprehensive view about new millennium generations:
Frist, there is no clear boundary between different generations. If you look around, you will easily find that some people stand out of their original generation group and show features of groups. For example, some of my Boomer professors are fascinated with cutting edge technologies. They use cellphones to check emails frequently and grade assignments on IPads. On contrast, some young people are keeping old fashions. Due to economic pressure, some of my peers keep using simple cellphones and only purchase basic cellphone service. So whether a person is typical to his generation depends on his characteristic, career and social-economic status.
Second, the division of generations varies from culture to culture and from country to country. According to my class, Boomers were born between 1943 to 1960, while Xers were born between 1961 to 1981. However this should be only applicable to US and other developed western countries. For China, where I come from, it seems that people having Boomers’ features were born between 1961 to 1981, and the people born after 1981 are living in the Xers’ life style. Therefore, on a same time point, Chinese are one generation lagging behind Americans. That means there are generation gaps between cultures and countries! This is totally understandable, because different countries (cultural varieties) are developing at various paces due to their social-historical differences.
Third, technology influences the width of the age gap between two contiguous generations. Generally, we think at least a 10-year age gap is necessary for distinguishing two generations, but as the quick development of technology, this gap is narrowing. I taught in a high school when I was in my pre-service teacher program. Those students were only 6 years younger than me. But you may never imagine how astonished I was when I saw them taking photos of the teachers’ notes from the blackboard through using their cellphones. They got the notes within only a couple of seconds, but it once took me hours to write them down when I was in high school. On the other hand, some real well-designed technological devices enlarge the age gaps, like televisions. It attracts people from babies to the olds, merging different generations as a whole.
My last point actually is about a challenge emerging from technology generation issues. Even though the realization of generation differences can help instructional designers and teachers to design and deliver effective trainings and education, because of the inherent generation gap between teachers and students, it is never easy for teachers to step out of their own generation circle, go across the age gap and think from their students’ needs, habits and preferences. It requires great amount of awareness and patience.
Thinking about technological preferences and norms in terms of generational characteristics is very interesting to me. I realize that the authors who write these articles are aware that there are exceptions to every rule, but when I read the descriptions of what Boomers, X-ers, and Digital Natives are "supposed" to be like, the exceptions are all I can think of. Technically, I'm an X-er, but I feel like I think like a Digital Native most of the time. I am constantly connected. Similarly, my Boomer mother who was born in 1953, acts more like an X-er or Digital Native than anything else. In many ways, she is more technologically savvy than I am; she blogs for personal recreation, for professional development (she's a teacher), and also for money. She works for a company that pays bloggers to blog for various businesses.
回复删除Like many Boomers, she is hard to convince keep her cell phone on, but she is often invited to conferences on blogging and social media as a speaker, so the dichotomy is very interesting.
Your comment about students taking pictures of teachers' notes from the boards made me wish I'd thought of it when I was an undergrad, but I didn't even own a laptop yet back then. The speed with which I became dependent on laptops, cell phones, etc. is pretty amazing, and this rapid dependence is hinted at in Learning in the 21st Century's Trends Report by Project Tomorrow and Blackboard Inc. The part where students talk about having to "power down" to go to school and then "power back up" in order to resume their normal lives indicates that there is a gap, perhaps a generational one, between school life and home/social life - the Boomers and X-ers teaching the Digital Native students could be part of the issue.