Training the Net Generation
Friday September 20, 2013
By Robyn Viljoen
As our work evolves from being in a certain place at a certain time to perform a specific job. To determining your day based on the emails that have filled your inbox while you were sleeping and the ability to be productive without having left home. Our constant connection to the internet and the expectation of customers with a mindset of, “You have a Smart Phone so you can respond as soon as you get this message.” I do often ask,” Is it really sustainable?”
I meet super humans every day and I’m in awe of how much they get done. I sometimes justify it by thinking, “Well they don’t have a young family or they are single or they have this massive support system so that’s why they manage.” However when I have sat down and had some honest conversations everyone appears to be in the same situation…tired, overworked, juggling multiple responsibilities and trying to keep up to speed with the constant change.
Best explanation I’ve heard of our Net Generation is we are “Wired but Tired”. There is so much information coming at us we just want to take it all in. I am constantly saving PDF’s to read, bookmarking blogs or trying to find time for a webinar. With all this new knowledge we generate new ideas for our businesses and ourselves. We also becoming more impatient as this high tech ultra-fast communication means we want everything immediately.
The Net Generation is longer a group of individuals that were born in a specific era. They are everyone that is comfortable utilising technology to consume, generate and share information. This covers most of today’s workforce. So what do we need to start considering as trainers when delivering training to the Net Generation?
In their book “Educating the Net Generation” by Diana and James Oblinger you can determine if you part of the Net generation if you display some the following characteristics:
· You are more comfortable typing than writing a document.
· Your tool for remembering “phone numbers, addresses, meetings etc.” is electronic.
· You go to meetings and travel with a laptop.
· You are constantly connected to the internet via cell phone and have your cell phone with you at all times.
· You engage in some format of social media.
· You engage in several activities simultaneously.
· You play online games.
If we look at universities and their approach to educating the Net Generation, this how Howe and Strauss have described the traits of current students:
· Digitally literate
The intuitively use a variety of internet devices. They are visually literate and express themselves using images. Their ability to move between virtual and real is instantaneous.
· Connected
They are constantly connected and always available and their cell phone goes everywhere and is never off.
· Immediate
The Net Generation is fast. They multitask and move quickly from one activity to another. They place more value on speed than accuracy.
· Experiential
They prefer to learn by doing rather than being told what to do. They learn well through discovering something by themselves or with peers.
· Social
They are prolific communicators and they gravitate towards activities that promote and reinforce social interaction. Many of their exchanges on the Internet are emotionally open, sharing very personal information about themselves.
· Teams
A peer-to-peer approach is common where students help each other. The Net Generation find peers more credible than teachers when it comes to determining what is worth paying attention to.
· Structure
The Net Generation is very achievement orientated; they like to know what it will take to achieve a goal. Their preference is for structure rather than ambiguity.
· Engagement and Experience
The Net Generation is oriented toward inductive discovery or making observations, formulating hypotheses, and figuring out the rules. They crave interactivity. And the rapid pace with which they like to receive information means they often choose not to pay attention if a class is not interactive, unengaging, or simply too slow.
· Visual and Kinaesthetic
The Net Gen is more comfortable in image-rich environments than with text. Researchers report Net Gen students will refuse to read large amounts of text,
whether it involves a long reading assignment or lengthy instructions.
· Things that Matter
The Net Generation readily takes part in community activities. Given a choice, they seem to prefer working on things that matter, such as addressing an environmental concern or a community problem. They believe they can make a difference and that science and technology can be used resolve difficult problems.
So what does this mean for us as Trainers in the workplace? If you are currently delivering training these are changes you can make immediately:
· Remove all long bullet point text slides from your presentations.
· Save some trees and stop printing workbooks that no one reads and throws away after your workshop.
· Save your materials onto flash drives and give this to participants to take away.
· Use a variety of media in your training.
· Get participants to search for answers on the web during your training.
· Incorporate games that involve texting other participants during your workshop.
· Capture learning and share this via a website or blog.
· Build in more team work.
· Make your courses shorter.
· Speed up.
· Don’t Lecture.
· Take digital photographs and use real images in your slides.
· Keep your material fresh and up to date. Three years is a long time in the world of technology.
· Develop some Just-In-Time learning using Modlettes.
I think we are living in some of the most exciting times in Learning and Development. Technology is becoming cheaper and opportunities to use them greater. As you go out to teach the Net Generation be open to what they can teach you.