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Educating Millennials in the Information Age

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Millennials are the generation born from 1982-2000. Some people have referred to them as the iGeneration and the Net Generation due to their hardwiring for technology. They have also been called Generation Y because they are born after Gen-X (1961-1981); however, the charactertistics of Millennials are significantly different. Read below to learn more about what makes up this spectacular new generation that you are teaching.

Millennial Characteristics

So who are these Gen M kids, the generation born between 1982-2002? These are the kids who grew up with "Baby on Board" signs and a culture that lovingly catered to their needs.

They are characterized as:
* optimistic
* tech-savvy, digital natives
* collaborative and they enjoy cooperative activities
* used to clear structure from adults; and in fact, they expect it
* having strong parent advocats
* multicultural
* confident
* civic-minded
* goal-oriented
* multitasking

Teaching Millennials: Technology Suggestions

1. E-mail
If you haven't already started using e-mail as a means of communicating with parents , colleagues and students, do so. It's a great tool! Just be mindful that it's always important to write in a positive and professional tone.

2. Teacher Web Page
There are a number of sites that cater to teachers. Ask your school to pick up the cost. The sites are set up so that you don't need to know how to program. Check out "TeacherWeb" at http://teacherweb.com/. There are lots of features: homework, links, contact information, and even a newsflash where parents can sign up to receive important information electronically.

3. Classroom Blog
Start a classroom blog. ("Blog" is short for a "web log.") Students can respond to prompts or to other students' work. If you don't know about blogging, there are lots of websites or get one of the books listed in "Teacher Resources." There are some free blog sites that are for teachers, such as www.classblogmeister.com and http://gaggle.net/. See "More on Class Blogs and YouTube" below for suggestions and things to consider.

4. PowerPoint Presentations
Jazz up some of your lectures by making a PowerPoint presentation. If you haven't made one before, you'll be amazed at how easy it is. Start with a small project and build a few each year.

5. Create a Squidoo Lens
I made my first one on integers. It took a few hours and was fun. Now my kids and other students have access to a number of resources on how to do integers. Check it out by clicking on "My Other Lenses" on the right side of this page. I put "How to Make Your First (Squidoo) Lens" under "My Lensroll" on the right-hand side to help you get started.

6. YouTube videos
Create YouTube videos about your subject. My students love cruising around YouTube.com. It's easy to post videos and it's free. Set up a YouTube account and follow the easy instructions. You can see some examples of how to use YouTube educationally by checking out my Squidoo Integers and Vedic Math lenses. See the right side of this page for links.

7. Kids create digital products
Have your students create original digital products, ex. PowerPoints, Flash Animation, Podcasts or videos. If kids create videos, they can be posted on YouTube. Posting needs to be done by an adult. Get parents to help out.

8. Subscribe to my free "Information Age Education" blog for more tips. http://information-age-education.com/

Warning: Don't just automate old instruction. Question why and how you're teaching.

Technology Resources

This list includes books on how to support Millennials by learning about this 21st Century generation and how to incorporate technology into your classroom in meaningful ways.
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More on Class Blogs and YouTube

Things to Consider

Information Age Education
This is my blog about educating Millennials. There are some posts about important things to consider when starting a class blog. This blog gives practical strategies to create an even more engaging classroom, including how to use of the Law of Attraction.
YouTube
Welcome to YouTube, the home of "Broadcast Yourself." It's filled with junk and jewels.

My hope is that more educators will start to use this site as a means to engage and enthrall students. It's a free service. If you want to get kids to post things, they'll need an adult to do it. Get parents to do this as it can take several minutes to upload a video.

If you type in "newburn" you'll find a variety of math videos that I created for students. If you like my videos or another person's, you can subscribe. I also have a group that you can subscribe to called "math tutor." This link takes you directly to my channel.

See the YouTube video below to get one idea of how you can use this tool to educate.
Ms. Newburn's Math Class Blog
I'm learning how to blog and use it as a tool to engage students. Check out YouTube videos that I and others have created. There are writing prompts and guidelines for posting.

Currently, I am having one warm-up a week that is a writing prompt. The kids have to solve a problem and explain in writing how they did it. I have 3 groups read the prompt to the class. I write the name, their numerical answer, and the number 1,2 or 3 next to the name (based on who read first, second or third). The class then votes on the answer they thought was accurate and best explained the concept. They vote by raising 1,2 or 3 fingers. The group with the most votes gets to blog for the day. This structure really supports how Millennials, the New Generation, think and how they work communally. It also ensures the quality of posts.

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Teaching Millennials

Integrating Technology while Promoting Social Connections

7 Major Actions for Increasing Technology
Suggestions from the Office of Educational Technology on how to teach this tech-savvy generation.
11 Tips for Managing Millennials
This article is about Millennials in the workforce, but the ideas apply to the classroom too.
Cooperative Learning: Why & How
This site explains why cooperative learning is important and includes the basic requirements needed to make a cooperative learning activity successful. It also outlines some of the well-known cooperative learning activities.
Cooperative Learning Activities
A list of cooperative activities and how to use them to promote learning. Also explains the rationale for using cooperative learning.
The Jigsaw Classroom
Explains how to set up a jigsaw cooperative learning activity.
Cool Cat Teacher Blog
An explanation of how to set up a class account on classblogmeister.com and includes blogs on how to make it work for your students.
US Department of Education
This article from the US Department of Education gives some valuable statistics about the Millennials and what is directional changes need to happen in education.

Educational YouTube Videos

A Great Tool for Preteaching and Reteaching

I've started using YouTube.com as a means to preteach and reteach concepts. Most kids enjoy watching YouTube. Why not make it a valuable educational experience?

My students will be making videos and posting them later this year. I have a "Math Tutor" group that people can subscribe to. What a fun way to learn!

NOTE: YouTube is often blocked at school. You can burn copies of videos and share them in class or assign watching a video as a homework assignment.
Prime Birthday Cake Factorization
by rebeccanewburn | video info

53 ratings | 28,248 views
curated content from YouTube

Learning HTML

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Teaching Millennials: Cooperative Learning Strategies

Millennials are used to adults creating structured, cooperative learning opportunities, whether it's with a soccer team or in the classroom. There are dozens of types of cooperative learning activities, such as jigsaws, circle of speakers and pairs checks. Check on some of the links above for specific activities or get a book on cooperative learning (See "Teacher Resources").

Here are a few helpful suggestions:

1. Positive Classroom Environment: It's important to build a safe classroom environment. This can be done by:
* setting classroom norms
* doing class building activities (See "Tribes" for ideas)
* explicitly teaching cooperative skills, such as how to disagree politely, and focusing on that skill for a few class periods
* requiring the students to check in with each other before asking the teacher for help; all students in the group should know the question that is being asked. When you go to a group, if Maria is raising her hand, ask Josh, "What's Maria's question?"

2. Group students heterogeneously: Students learn cooperative skills better when they have to work with a wide range of people. There are times when homogeneous grouping is appropriate, but this tends to be the exception.

3. Positive Interdependence: Activities need to be structured so that what helps one group member helps everyone. The activities have to be structured to promote collaboration. Some activities that naturally do this are jigsaws and think-pair-share (See links above).

4. Individual Accountability: Every student has a role and is accountable for work. This can be accomplished by students labeling what part of the group project they contributed to or by having an individual assessment on the information after the group work.

5. Don't give up! Keep experimenting and reflecting on the activities you did with your students. What worked? What didn't? Why? Starting to use cooperative learning strategies can be a bit unnerving at first because we give up the authoritarian teacher role, but the rewards are immense. Our kids deserve it, and we're modeling perservance too!

Cooperative Learning Resources

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Teacher Resources to Transform Your Class

My Home Page
My home page has links to a variety of resources for teachers, students and parents. Check it out.
Teaching Strategies to Transform Your Class
Learn how to use best teaching practices and the Law of Attraction to create an amazing class.
Math Websites by Rebecca Newburn
Do your kids need help with fractions? Integers? Order of Operations? Help has arrived. Your students can watch YouTube math videos and play fun math games to learn math. Use the website to pre-teach, reteach and just have fun! This link takes you to all of the different math lenses that I've created.

Share This Site with a Friend

If you found the information in this site helpful, please share it with friends and colleagues. There is an "email" button on the right side bar.

You may also want to post it to your del.icio.us account. If you don't know about del.icio.us, and social bookmarking, check out my blog, www.information-age-education.com. Read about teaching internet research and learn about this handy tool to "socially bookmark" resources. It's like an on-line, public catalogue that you can share with others.

Technology Use

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Reader Feedback

The Millennials are the first generation to be born in the Information Age. If you have any ideas on how to help other teachers make the paradigm shift from an Industrial Revolution-based school system to supporting these digital natives, please make a post.

If you know of any other great teacher blogs, I'd love you to let me know so that I can post them. It'll be helpful to have a variety of ways that teachers are using blogs to engage and educate.

Any feedback on the lens is appreciated.

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Rebecca_Newburn

Ms. Rebecca Newburn has been a math and science educator for 17 years. She is interested in supporting Millennials, the New Generation, by creating resources... more »

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