The Purposeful Application of Technology and New Media for Net Gen Learners

1. The Purposeful Application of Technology and New Media for Net Gen Learners

2. A. Damien Walmsley, BDS MSc PhD a.d.walmsley@bham.ac.uk Professor and Web Team Melissa Peet, PhD ijb@umich.edu ePortfolio Project Manager Lynn Johnson, PhD lynjohns@umich.edu Professor and Director of Dental Informatics John L. Zimmerman, DDS, zim@columbia.edu Assistant Dean, Information Resources Associate Director, Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning

3. • To list the characteristics of millennial learners • To recognize how these characteristics could be barriers to traditional learning principles used in the dental education • To explain how these characteristics could be leveraged through proven learning principles to enhance teaching and learning • To appraise existing and emerging technologies and align them learning principles and learning spaces • To discuss the characteristics of an vigorous online learning community and examine the technology and cultural conditions that enable this type of collaborative learning • To demonstrate new models of elearning and their integration into traditional learning and teaching practices • To show approaches to using elearning at both undergraduate and graduate level • To discuss methods of involving faculty and students in generating learning materials.

4. How the Net Gen Learns

5. Net Gen Observations Educating the Net Generation www.educause.edu/EducatingtheNetGeneration/5989 • Digitally Literate • Connected • Immediate • Experiential • Social • Teams • Structure • Engagement and Experience • Visual and Kinesthetic • Things that Matter

6. An average college grad life • > 5,000 hours reading • >10,000 hours playing video games • >20,000 hours watching television

7. Net Gen Cognitive Differences • Ability to read visual • Visual-spatial skills • Inductive discovery • Attentional deployment • Fast response time • A linear thought process is much less common than bricolage

8. Finding from CU Study • First and second-year medical and dental students • Total population 450 students • 220 Responses to online questionnaire • Equal distribution • 3 focus groups (2 dental, 1 medical) • Age 20102009 25 Median 26 Median 22 Min 21 Min 44 Max 38 Max

9. What technology do they use? • 90% use laptops • >50% use 11-30 hours per week • 10% use more than 40 hours per week • Do not use portable devices for studying

10. Academic Use of Technology

11. How do they use the technology? • 40% use laptops to take notes in class • They also do other things  • Search for information and organize notes • Read journals, but not books • Do not interact with faculty (31% never) • Do interact with students • 60% preferred electronic download, 25% print, 1% CD/DVD • What they print is a personal decision - spilt between study online versus print

12. Perceived Benefits of Technology • Improved access to course materials • Helped me manage and organize • Time management • Helped me retain facts (60% agree or strongly agree) • Communicate with classmates (not faculty) • Allowed me to interact with the same information in multiple formats and in the format best suited for my learning style

13. Student Use of PowerPoint • Many students use the handout slides outside of class because it is hard for them to keep up with so much information during the lecture hour, however they don't use them before class to enhance their background knowledge how it should be done. • 13% read handout before class • 64% use handout during class

14. Mobile devices and recorded lectures • 70% watch or listen to several sections or the whole recording • Review lectures after class and before exam • 6% never used recordings • 50% use recordings when they miss lecture • 60% use recording for clarification • 75% prefer enhanced podcasts of video • 78% typically use the computer to listen/watch

15. Student quotes

16. Most of the time, I do not take many notes during class. I find it hard to pay attention and take notes. For this reason, I stopped attending lectures because I listen to the audio of the lecture with the slides. I can stop the lecture if I need to take notes or slow it down if the lecturer is talking too fast. By the end of the year, I realized that this method was the best use of my time.

17. Don’t use it (technology) as an excuse not to teach. It should supplement education, not replace it. Professors use PowerPoint as a means of packing more information than they should into a lecture, because if they were to have to actually write it on the board, it would take three hours instead of one.

18. My ability to understand the material is greatly related to the availability of PowerPoint slides. This is a sad fact since PowerPoint absolves the speakers of having to really know whatever they are talking about. Thus, we end up with professors who have forgotten what it means to give a presentation. The lectures are those from professors who used PowerPoint sparingly and learned how to teach instead of write to confuse.

19. Conclusions

20. Implications for Education(use to inform your curriculum design) • It’s not about the Technology • Communities and Social Networks • First-Person Learning • Interaction • Multiple Media Literacy

21. Blended Instruction Interdisciplinary multimedia assignments and projects learning strategies outlined in the Greater Expectations report • practice in team building; • writing that is both expository and creative; • multiple forms of communication; • informed judgment about sources of information; and • reflection that situates the self in relation to others and provides an opportunity for individuals to come to a deeper understanding of differences, commonalities, and systemic inequities.

22. When thinking about integrating technology into the curriculum, Chickering and Gamson’s seven principles of good practice continue to be sound: • Encourage contact between students and faculty. • Develop reciprocity and cooperation among students. • Encourage active learning. • Give prompt feedback. • Emphasize time on task. • Communicate high expectations. • Respect diverse talents and ways of learning.

23. One can't replace a good lecturer by the use of technology. Bad teachers teach badly with or without technology, good teachers do it right with or without it.

24. Are you a Digital Nativeor aDigital Immigrant? Marc Prensky