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Net-Generation Learning: Teaching at Internet Speed

Track 2
Promoting Learning in Online Communities
Pedagogy and Research for the Technology-Based Learning Environment

Abstract

The Internet has had a great impact on the manner in which we acquire much of our information and perform many tasks. In a fundamental way the methods we use to work, communicate and learn have been dramatically reshaped over the past decade. For the college student of today this "Internet-enabled" environment is not novel but rather is the norm. This presentation reports on the findings of a nine-month research project on teaching and learning that attempts to develop a model to capitalize on the new skills of this Net-generation.

Description

The Internet has had a significant impact on the manner in which we acquire much of our information and perform many tasks. In a fundamental way our habits of work, entertainment and communication have been reshaped over the past decade. For the college student of today this "Internet-enabled"
environment is not novel but rather is the norm. It is not a far leap to expect that the college student of today brings to the learning situation a much different series of experiences, skills, expectations and learning modalities than did the student of just a few years ago.

As they present in the classroom these students may appear less engaged in traditional instruction, less tolerant of the traditional design of class activities and assignments and more willing to welcome the new and non-traditional As teachers, we may be aware of (and, perhaps reminded of, by our students) that
they have access to and experience with newer information on some subject than we. These Internet enabled and "re-wired" students certainly present a challenge: the question of this presentation is, do they present a threat or an opportunity?

This presentation reports on the findings of a nine-month research project that examined the information acquisition and learning habits of undergraduate and graduate business students. The primary foci of this project were to answer the questions:

1. Is there a generalizable model of technology-enabled information acquisition that can be identified among the subjects of this research? and;
2. Is there a generalizable model of academic work completion habits that can be identified among these students?

These two questions speak to the core issue of this project: Are there skills that students bring to the classroom which capitalize on technology and information in a manner that is significantly different from students of a generation ago. Preliminary findings suggest that students are comfortable with a more
non-linear approach to teaching and learning than the traditional syllabus suggests and that students' acquisition of information and their completion of academic work more closely resembles a hyper-mediated, non-linear instructional design. The second part of this presentation will describe a model for developing instruction that incorporates what we have learned about the manner in which students acquire information and complete academic work. This model suggests that a course design that allows students to customize course tasks, create an individualized content completion schedule and construct knowledge in their own manner (and then demonstrate that knowledge through a student-designed
method) may enhance student performance, improve student satisfaction and capitalize on new learning methodologies of this "net-generation".