overcoming geny perspective

Emanuele Rapetti

Lorenzo Cantoni

Agenda

1. Minding the gap

2. 3 views

1. Enthusiasts

2. Concerned ones

3. Critics

3. Empirical data

4. Conclusion

5. Overcoming the gap

Emanuele Rapetti – NewMinELab – USI Lugano (CH)

@ EDEN2012

“the question”:

are they different?

Let’s start…

MINDING THE GAP


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The problem in theory

• Three views populate a controversial debate:

– Enthusiasts

– Concerned ones

– Critics


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About the idea that it

exists a generation of

digital(ised ) learners

Three samples There is one thing you know for sure: these kids

are different. They study, work, write, and interact

with each other in ways that are very different

from the way you did growing up. They read blogs

rather than newspapers. They often meet each

other online before they meet in person. […]

They`re more likely to send an instant message

(IM) than to pick up the telephone to arrange a

date later in the afternoon. […]. And they`re

connected to one another by a common culture.

Major aspects of their lives – social interactions,

friendships, civic activities – are mediated by

digital technologies. And they`ve never known

another way of life.

(Veen, 2006)

The enthusiast


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Three samples[…] hyper-networked kids who can

track each other’ every move with

ease, but are largely ignorant of history,

economics, culture, and other subjects

[… And the fault comes exactly from

ICTs usages:] for digital immigrants,

people who are 40 years old who spent

their college time in the library

acquiring information, the Internet is

really a miraculous source of

knowledge. Digital natives, however, go

to the Internet not to store knowledge

in their minds, but to retrieve material

and pass it along. The internet is just a

delivery system (Bauerlein, 2008).

The concerned one


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A pletora of labels

Boomer babies; Boomlets; Born digital; Digital kids; Digital

Natives; Digital residents; Echo Boom; Gamers; Gen.com;

Generation Next; Generation Tech; Generation Why; Generation

XX; Generation Y; Generation 2000; Grasshopper Minds;

Homo Zappiens; Instant-Message Generation; Millennials; Net

generation; Net-agers; Next Great Generation; Nintendo

Generation; Prozac Generation; Screen Generation; Coddled,

adrift, and slackers; Dumbest generation; Narcissist; Net

addicted (to pointless activities); Shameless; The ones who click

(instead of thinking); The ones who take Google as Gospel;

Violent; online ullies…


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Three samplesthey make grand claims about the

difference between the millennial

generation and all previous generations

and they argue that this difference has

huge implications for education. But

most significantly, these claims are

made with reference to almost no

empirical data. For the most part, they

rely on anecdotal observations or

speculation. In the rare cases, where

there is hard data, it is usually not

representative

(Bullen, et al., 2009).

The critic


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Implications in…

• Pedagogy (theory of Education)

• Didactics and instructional design

• Sociological approaches

• Anthropology

…depending to the focus implied by the chosen label


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LoDE

Learners of Digital Era


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Listening to LoDE• Our research was meant to explore which

assumptions concerning LoDE are observable

– 562 questionnaires random selected

– Answered by university students

– of Ticino university institutions

(italian speaking canton of Switzerland)

– (+ qualitative part)

• Statistical treatment

– (crosstabulation + Pearson’s chi-square procedure) Emanuele Rapetti – NewMinELab – USI Lugano (CH)

@ EDEN2012

AGE variable details

MEAN: 24.5 years;

MEDIAN: 23 years;

MIN: 17, MAX:75.

The whole was divided into three “age groups”:

• 17 to 23 years (58.5% of the sample),

• from 24 to 29 (28.1%)

• 30 and over (13.3%). This is primarily aiming to highlight any

possible differences between LoDE belonging to Gen Y – namely, born

after 1980 – and the others, who had in 2009, more than 30 years


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Crosstabs + Pearson’s

Chi-square values procedure

• Crosstabs procedure: questions relevant for digital learning * “age classes”.

• 81 tabs were analysed

• applying Pearson’s Chi-Square to check the assumed relationship;

• while to determine its nature Cramer’s V value (converted in %) was used.

• Such a procedure makes it possible to answer the question: does Age make

any statistically relevant difference?

• Out of 81 crossings, Pearson’s values resulted significant in 8 cases, meaning

“age classes” variable was proofed to have a statistical influence.

• Nonetheless, this influence is interesting only in two cases (highlighted in

bold in the following three tables).


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Question 4.4:

“how much ICTs improved…”

The fact of

being older...

...increases

of...

...the likelihood to consider that ICTs

improved significantly...

0.8%“the way you practice your hobby or

interests”

0.5% “the way you do your students’ tasks”

0.1% “the way you learn”

3.9%“the way you collaborate with your

peer”


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question 5.2:

“Which is your favourite strategy

to learn?”

The fact of

being older...

...increases

of...

...the likelihood to be more

in favour of...

0.2% “lectures in classroom”

0.6%“printed

dictionary/encyclopaedia”

0.3%“online platforms

(eLearning)”


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Question 8.1:

“how much do you agree…?”

The fact of

being older...

...increases

of......the likelihood to answer that...

4.0%“It would be good if there were

more eLearning in my courses”


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Question 4.4:

“how much ICTs improved…”

• The way you practice your hobby or interests,

• The way you do your student's tasks,

• The way you learn,

• The way you have relationships with your friends or

your family,

• The way you share your ideas or creations,

• The way you collaborate with your peers.

ANSWERS: a lot, fairly, a little, not at all


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question 5.2:

“Which is your favourite strategy

to learn?” • Lectures in classroom,

• Individual study,

• Individual lesson,

• Printed dictionary/encyclopaedia,

• Multimedia supports,

• Online platform (eLearning),

• Search engines,

• Websites/specialized blogs,

• Social networking sites,

• Wikipedia.



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Question 8.1:

“how much do you agree…?”• eLearning is an important element of my courses,

• Without eLearning I would be unable to study,

• eLearning is one of a number of important components of my courses,

• eLearning makes courses more enjoyable,

• My university is not very smart in the way it uses eLearning,

• With eLearning I interact more with other students,

• I find difficult to use a computer,

• I find difficult to use technological devices (e.g. Pda/mobile phone/mp3

player),

• Having access to a computer connected to the internet is a problem for me,

• eLearning makes learning easier for me,

• It would be good if there were more eLearning in my course



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conclusion

• According to our sample...

– ... the fact of being younger is not a good variable

to identify people appreciating ICTs in learning

– ... rather, in some cases, reality is opposite than

expected

– ... generally speaking, LoDE even seem to like

more “classical” strategies (instead than ICTs) in

learning


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Overcoming the gap…


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References

• BAUERLEIN, M. (2008). The dumbest generation: How the digital

age stupefies young americans and jeopardizes our future (or,

don't trust anyone under 30). London: Penguin Books.

• BULLEN, M., MORGAN, T., BELFER, K., & QAYYUM, A. (2009). The

net generation in higher education: Rhetoric and reality.

International Journal of Excellence in E-Learning, 2(1)

• VEEN, W. (2006).In Vrakking B. (Ed.), Homo zappiens. Growing

up in a digital age. London: Network Continuum Education.

• Webpage: http://www.usi.ch/personal-info?id=1600


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[email protected]


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overcoming geny perspective

Education

find difficult

favourite

homo zappiens

icts improved

dumbest generation

education

samples

difference