“DOES ‘THE SOCIAL NETWORK’ HAVE IMPLICATIONS FOR TEACHING?” Part 2

ROMANTICIZING THE WEBMASTER: "This Is Your Time!"

Who would have thought that the tapping on laptop keyboards and scribbling algorithms on a windowpane (not since John Nash in A Beautiful Mind) could possibly be as exciting as a James Bond or Jason Bourne spy flick? Welcome to “GeekWorld”! There’s an almost romantic aura to punching those keys at lightning speed to code a Website. The movie glorifies computer genius. Webmasters and IT professionals, listen up: “This may be your time.” It certainly is in TSN.

SIGNIFICANCE OF TSN TO THE NET GENERATION

As Sean “Napster-founder” Parker says to Zuckerberg in the film, “This is our time.” He may well have been addressing the entire Facebooking-Twittering community of Net Geners.

The goal was not to make money off the site, at least, not early on, because it will lose “all cool and credibility.” However, Zuckerberg’s genius combined with his social insecurities to create a computer chip on his shoulder the size of Quasimodo’s hump played out in his relationships throughout the film.

This film is the 1st detailed screen portrait of the Net Geners by mostly Net Gen actors. It conveyed their views on money, personal and professional relationships, careers, and responsibility to society. The movie also revealed their character, integrity, business ethics, and values, although loyalty, betrayal, and jealousy were the primary driving forces.

HOW DOES TSN DEPICT NET GENER CHARACTERISTICS?

You bet! All of my research and writing on the Net Generation over the past 2 years hit me in the gizzard as I was watching TSN. Aaron Sorkin’s screenplay and David Fincher’s direction represented the confluence of so many Net Gener learner and social characteristics: tech savvy, creation of Internet content, operating at twitch speed, learning by inductive discovery, teamwork and collaboration, pressure to succeed, need for instant gratification, embodiment of change and activity, confident and assertive, trial and error problem solving, and craving social interaction—face-to-face and, especially, virtual connectivity.

TSN is like mouse candy to a Net Gener baby. What does Facebook represent in the transition to Web 2.0 technology? What message does it send teachers? Stick around for the final blog, coming to a PC/Mac near you.

COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC

“SURVIVOR: THE AMERICAN COLLEGE PROFESSOR ON TODAY’S CAMPUS!” How are you responding?

As noted previously, you can respond to your wilderness experience negatively or positively. Your choice will determine how you survive or thrive and how you will leave the island.

POSSIBLE NEGATIVE, DESTRUCTIVE RESPONSES:
Are you exhibiting any of the following behaviors or have you noticed them in your colleagues?

1. Negative attitude expressed in constant grumbling, murmuring, belly-aching, and complaining
2. Blaming your colleagues, administration, staff, or students (i.e., the “blame game”)
3. Shouting, harsh words, rudeness, insults, put-downs, or mean and nasty comments directed at colleagues, staff, or students
4. Shirking responsibilities by not attending meetings or appointments, disappearing for hours at a time, not being available to students and colleagues, and/or being late for class
5. Becoming hardened and bitter about what’s happening

These behaviors are self-destructive, plus they can make everybody around you miserable. You will drive people away. Further, it is total waste of an opportunity to improve yourself as a professional, as you tackle each challenge.

POSSIBLE POSITIVE, CONSTRUCTIVE RESPONSES:
Alternatively, do any of these behaviors ring a bell?

1. Positive attitude to see this experience as an opportunity to grow and mature, and, just maybe, become wiser and stronger
2. Perceive this experience as: “This is only a test. If this had been an actual emergency, it wouldn’t be taking so long!” It’s just another trial on your professional journey.
3. Persevere and move forward in spite of limitations, barriers, and set-backs
4. Release your creative juices to seek solutions with fewer resources, kinda like that classic scene from Apollo 13
5. Reassess your time management or take a time-management seminar so you can become more efficient at handling the increased number of tasks in less time
6. Be grateful you have a job where you still can do something you love, such as teach or write, or do research or clinical practice, or drive people nuts, or any combination of the preceding

This experience will test what you are really made of (“Yo, preposition boy! Stop ending sentences with you know what!” Sorry.). Your true character will reveal itself, perhaps to the surprise of you and the people with whom you work. Which self is that going to be? How will you exit this wilderness?

Let me know your reactions and any suggestions that can help others survive. We’re all in this academic metaphor together!

COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC

“SURVIVOR: THE AMERICAN COLLEGE PROFESSOR ON TODAY’S CAMPUS!” Symptoms

SYMPTOMS OF CUTS
How have the departmental cuts and changes affected you? How are you feeling the pinch? What’s changed in your daily modus operandi?

Do you feel like

• your comfort zone has been disrupted?
• you experience more disappointments and rejections than usual?
• there are delays in your timetable that throw off your “to-do” list?
• you are under more stress and pressure than before?
• there are challenges to your character with new temptations?

How are you responding to these hits and difficulties? You have a choice in your response: either “negative and destructive” OR “positive and constructive.”

How do you want to leave this island when the rescue team arrives? Better or worse for the experience than when you entered? Or like the end of Lost, totally confused!

Whether you have experienced this professional drought or these limitations previously or any of these metaphors is irrelevant; it’s how you respond to this one that matters. You can be a role model for your colleagues and set a positive example OR drag them down with you. It’s YOUR CHOICE! Consider your options in my next blog. You can weigh the negative responses against the positive ones and then decide your course.

COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC

Surveys of the Net Geners: How Do We Know So Much about Them?

Over the past decade as the Net Geners were maturing, graduating high school and college, and entering graduate school or the workforce, they were surveyed and studied by several researchers. In fact, this generation has been scrutinized, interviewed, surveyed, poked, and prodded more than any previous generation. Their characteristics have been reported in more than 30 books and scores of articles. The research evidence upon which many of those publications were based was drawn from the following 10 surveys:
· EDUCAUSE (Fraud, 2000; Oblinger, 2008b; Oblinger & Oblinger, 2005b)
· College Students’ Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources Survey (OnlineComputer Library Center [OCLC], 2006)
· Greenberg Millennials Study (Greenberg & Weber, 2008)
· Higher Education Research Institute (UCLA) American Freshman Survey (Pryor et al., 2009)
· National Center for Education Statistics (NCES, 2002)
· Net Generation Survey (Junco & Mastrodicasa, 2007)
· The Net Generation: A Strategic Investigation (Tapscott, 2009)
· Nielsen NetView Audience Measurement Survey (Cashmore, 2009; Ostrow, 2007)
· Pew Internet and American Life Project (Horrigan, 2006; Horrigan & Rainie, 2005)
· Technological preparedness among entering freshman (Sax, Ceja, & Terenishi, 2001)

There's plenty of reading to do on this generation of students. If you want it boiled down, keep reading my blogs. I am trying to synthesize the pertinent findings from the above sources.

COPYRIGHT © 2009 Ronald A. Berk, LLC

Can the Net Generation Be Clearly Defined?

Defining (by birth dates) and labeling any group of people and ascribing specific characteristics to them are fraught with problems of misrepresentation and generalization. Several researchers have proffered reasons and particular advantages to identifying this generation as well as others and their distinguishing characteristics. However, the concept of a clear-cut generation, cohort, population, or tribe has also been challenged. Despite the role of technology in their lives, they are infinitely more complex than any single profile can reveal. They comprise a fluid, messy, and diverse group, where a one-size-fits-all mold ignores their variability in skills, abilities, learning styles, experience, socio-economic levels, ethnicity, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, and class. Acknowledging those limitations, I still think there is legitimacy to suggesting a set of characteristics and cultural trends derived from sound scientific research that can guide future teaching practices for faculty.

COPYRIGHT © 2009 Ronald A. Berk, LLC