A Generation of Students "Born with a Chip"

Despite the fact that we know more about our students’ brains and intelligences, how to teach effectively, how students learn, and the technological applications to learning than at anytime previously, about 50% of college students are unmotivated, disinterested, and disengaged from classroom instruction now more than they ever have been. While in class, they may IM or text their buddies while taking notes on their PCs, Web-surfing, scanning an iTunes playlist, and reading The Color Purple (Carlson, 2005).
Where’s the disconnect? Why are they disengaged? Is this generation of students in school right now really that different from previous generations? Today’s undergraduate and graduate students who are part of this generation comprise the majority of students in higher education.
The burgeoning technology alone has had a profound effect on this generation, unlike any previous one. They were “born with a chip.” Are they significantly different? You bet! These students have grown up with Sesame Street, MTV, reality TV, the Internet, PCs/Macs, video games, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Flickr, Skype, iPods, iPhones, PDAs, and TV/DVD remotes as appendages to their bodies. How über cool is that? They carry an arsenal of electronic devices with them. They are key ingredients in their world. Their use of the technology focuses on social networking, music, videos, TV programs, and games. They live in a world of media overstimulation and absolutely love it. As the lyrics to the Peabo Bryson and Regina Belle hit song from Aladdin tell us, we are entering "A Whole New World."
The technologies provide a window into this world. The students’ world is not better than or inferior to ours; it’s just different. When the students cross the threshold of the classroom door, they enter culture shock. They’re numb with understimulation. How can any professor possibly compete with their world? They can’t. Therein lies the disconnect and it will worsen as there stimulation accelerates with the cultural manifestations of the technology in the future. That’s the problem. How do we address it? Future blogs will address this issue and whether all Net Geners are tech savvy.

COPYRIGHT © 2009 Ronald A. Berk, LLC