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Born between 1996 - 2010
Entered college between 2013-14 and today
Beloit College's Annual List of Incoming Freshmen (Class of 2020)Characteristics
College Students Want More Technology
Undergrads crave more online learning
Students rated their overall campus technology experiences favorably. Ratings of wireless network performance are highly correlated with the positive experiences students have with technology. Wi-Fi in outdoor spaces was the only item that students rated more negatively than positively.
When it comes to meeting technological support needs, students' default modality is DIY. Students are more than twice as likely to figure out solutions to technology problems on their own, to search online sources, or to ask a friend than they are to use their campus help desk. Contacting the vendor or company to fix a technology problem is the last resort.
Students are remarkably savvy about keeping their technology secure. An overwhelming majority tend to secure their devices with passwords and PINs, using complex password protocols. Most students reported not sharing their devices and accounts with others, and only 1 in 10 have had devices stolen or accounts hacked in the past year.
Laptops are king, smartphones are queen, and tablets are on the way out. At least 19 of 20 students own a laptop or a smartphone, and 3 in 10 students own a laptop, a smartphone, and a tablet. Students view their laptop as critical to their academic success, and three-quarters of students said their smartphone is at least moderately important. Tablets appear to be in decline in terms of ownership, utility, and importance, in part because their functionality is duplicated by a combination of laptops and smartphones.
Students' experiences with their instructors' use of and approach to technology in the classroom are a mixed bag. A majority of students said most of their instructors have adequate technology skills, use technology to enhance learning, and encourage the use of collaborative technology tools. However, students said fewer faculty use technology for sophisticated learning tasks (e.g., engagement, creative and critical thinking), and relatively few faculty ask students to use their own devices for in-class work.
Students are overwhelmingly pleased with the student success tools available to them. At least 80% of students think that every student success technology we asked about—from degree audit, planning, and mapping tools to early-alert systems, self-service tools, recommendations for courses, and suggestions about academic resources and about improving performance—is at least moderately useful.
Students are choosing sides in the online versus face-to-face debate. For the fourth year in a row, the number of students preferring a blended learning environment that includes some to mostly online components has increased. The number of students preferring completely face-to-face or completely online courses continues to dwindle. The number of students expressing no preference has been cut by more than half since 2014.
Students are satisfied with features of their LMS…except when they aren't.Students have favorable opinions about the basic features and functionalities of their LMS. But, the more sophisticated the task and the more engagement required of students, the less happy they tend to be. This may be a function of the tools, the instructors who use them, or both.
Students would like their instructors to use more technology in their classes.Technologies that provide students with something (e.g., lecture capture, early-alert systems, LMS, search tools) are more desired than those that require students to give something (e.g., social media, use of their own devices, in-class polling tools). We speculate that sound pedagogy and technology use tied to specific learning outcomes and goals may improve the desirability of the latter.
Students reported that faculty are banning or discouraging the use of laptops, tablets, and (especially) smartphones more often than in previous years. Some students reported using their devices (especially their smartphones) for nonclass activities, which might explain the instructor policies they are experiencing. However, they also reported using their devices for productive classroom activities (e.g., taking notes, researching additional sources of information, and instructor-directed activities).
(https://library.educause.edu/resources/2017/10/ecar-study-of-faculty-and-information-technology-2017)
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Become a Learning Guide
Embrace Technology
Encourage Educational Freedom
Teach Risk-Taking
Understand Speed of Access Matters
What skills do students need to learn as we teach discipline specific content?
Technical skills
Conceptual skills
Interpersonal skills
Entrepreneurial and Innovation skills
Producing a Nation of Problem Solvers
...education needs to become a dynamic activity, providing a combination of four ingredients:
Knowledge, starting with the basic skills of literacy and numeracy, moving onto knowledge of core content and then to higher order concepts and thinking skills, to challenge, question, adapt and apply knowledge in new ways.
Personal strengths and character development, including helping students find a sense of purpose and ambition, and building their resilience and persistence (knowing how to stick with it and overcome setbacks and obstacles).
Social experiences so they deepen their relationships with others, learn and think through dialogue and collaboration, and take action together to make and do things for and with other people.
Activities that give students a strong sense of agency, so that they learn how to turn knowledge and ideas into action to see that they can make a difference to the world so they can serve and contribute. (Ledbetter, 2016)
The ability to prepare for multiple career fields at one time and "slash" careers through development of transferable skills
I am a teacher/freelance writer
I am a business associate/waiter
I am an administrative assistant/photographer
I am a middle manager/adjunct faculty member
Dive Deeper into Learning - Articles and Research Studies
Generation Z (Phigital Generation)
Contact information:
Dr. Vickie Cook
Director of the Center for Online Learning, Research and Service
University of Illinois Springfield
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https://sites.google.com/a/uis.edu/colrs_cook/
217-206-7317
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