Overcoming geny perspective

Emanuele Rapetti
Lorenzo Cantoni

Agenda

1. Minding the gap
2. 3 views
1. Enthusiasts
“the question”:
2.
3.
Concerned ones
Critics
are they different?
3. Empirical data
4. Conclusion
5. Overcoming the gap Let’s start…
MINDING THE GAP

Emanuele Rapetti – NewMinELab – USI Lugano (CH)
@ EDEN2012

@ EDEN2012

The problem in theory

• Three views populate a controversial debate:
– Enthusiasts About the idea that it
– Concerned ones exists a generation of
– Critics digital(ised ) learners

@ EDEN2012

Three samples There is one thing you know for sure: these kids
are different. They study, work, write, and interact
with each other in ways that are very different
from the way you did growing up. They read blogs
rather than newspapers. They often meet each
other online before they meet in person. […]
They`re more likely to send an instant message
The enthusiast
(IM) than to pick up the telephone to arrange a
date later in the afternoon. […]. And they`re
connected to one another by a common culture.
Major aspects of their lives – social interactions,
friendships, civic activities – are mediated by
digital technologies. And they`ve never known
another way of life.
(Veen, 2006)
@ EDEN2012

[…] hyper-networked kids who can
Three samples
track each other’ every move with
ease, but are largely ignorant of history,
economics, culture, and other subjects
[… And the fault comes exactly from
ICTs usages:] for digital immigrants,
people who are 40 years old who spent
The concerned one
their college time in the library
acquiring information, the Internet is
really a miraculous source of
knowledge. Digital natives, however, go
to the Internet not to store knowledge
in their minds, but to retrieve material
and pass it along. The internet is just a
delivery system (Bauerlein, 2008).
@ EDEN2012

A pletora of labels
Boomer babies; Boomlets; Born digital; Digital kids; Digital
Natives; Digital residents; Echo Boom; Gamers; Gen.com;
Generation Next; Generation Tech; Generation Why; Generation
XX; Generation Y; Generation 2000; Grasshopper Minds;
Homo Zappiens; Instant-Message Generation; Millennials; Net
generation; Net-agers; Next Great Generation; Nintendo
Generation; Prozac Generation; Screen Generation; Coddled,
adrift, and slackers; Dumbest generation; Narcissist; Net
addicted (to pointless activities); Shameless; The ones who click
(instead of thinking); The ones who take Google as Gospel;
Violent; online ullies…
@ EDEN2012

Three samples
they make grand claims about the
difference between the millennial
generation and all previous generations
and they argue that this difference has
huge implications for education. But
most significantly, these claims are
made with reference to almost no
The critic
empirical data. For the most part, they
rely on anecdotal observations or
speculation. In the rare cases, where
there is hard data, it is usually not
representative
(Bullen, et al., 2009).

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Implications in…

• Pedagogy (theory of Education)
• Didactics and instructional design
• Sociological approaches

• Anthropology

…depending to the focus implied by the chosen label

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LoDE

Learners of Digital Era

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Listening to LoDE
• Our research was meant to explore which
assumptions concerning LoDE are observable

– 562 questionnaires random selected
– Answered by university students
– of Ticino university institutions
(italian speaking canton of Switzerland)

– (+ qualitative part)

• Statistical treatment
– (crosstabulation + Pearson’s –chi-square procedure)
Emanuele Rapetti – NewMinELab USI Lugano (CH)
@ EDEN2012

AGE variable details
MEAN: 24.5 years;
MEDIAN: 23 years;
MIN: 17, MAX:75.
The whole was divided into three “age groups”:
• 17 to 23 years (58.5% of the sample),
• from 24 to 29 (28.1%)
• 30 and over (13.3%). This is primarily aiming to highlight any
possible differences between LoDE belonging to Gen Y – namely, born
after 1980 – and the others, who had in 2009, more than 30 years

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Crosstabs + Pearson’s
Chi-square values procedure
• Crosstabs procedure: questions relevant for digital learning * “age classes”.
• 81 tabs were analysed
• applying Pearson’s Chi-Square to check the assumed relationship;
• while to determine its nature Cramer’s V value (converted in %) was used.

• Such a procedure makes it possible to answer the question: does Age make
any statistically relevant difference?
• Out of 81 crossings, Pearson’s values resulted significant in 8 cases, meaning
“age classes” variable was proofed to have a statistical influence.

• Nonetheless, this influence is interesting only in two cases (highlighted in
bold in the following three tables).

@ EDEN2012

Question 4.4:
“how much ICTs improved…”
The fact of ...increases ...the likelihood to consider that ICTs
being older... of... improved significantly...

“the way you practice your hobby or
0.8%
interests”
0.5% “the way you do your students’ tasks”
0.1% “the way you learn”

“the way you collaborate with your
3.9%
peer”

@ EDEN2012

question 5.2:
“Which is your favourite strategy
to learn?”
The fact of ...increases ...the likelihood to be more
being older... of... in favour of...
0.2% “lectures in classroom”
“printed
0.6%
dictionary/encyclopaedia”

“online platforms
0.3%
(eLearning)”

@ EDEN2012

Question 8.1:
“how much do you agree…?”

The fact of ...increases
...the likelihood to answer that...
being older... of...

“It would be good if there were
4.0%
more eLearning in my courses”

@ EDEN2012

Question 4.4:
“how much ICTs improved…”
• The way you practice your hobby or interests,
• The way you do your student's tasks,
• The way you learn,
• The way you have relationships with your friends or
your family,
• The way you share your ideas or creations,
• The way you collaborate with your peers.

ANSWERS: a lot, fairly, a little, not at all
@ EDEN2012

question 5.2:
“Which is your favourite strategy
to learn?”
• Lectures in classroom,
• Individual study,
• Individual lesson,
• Printed dictionary/encyclopaedia,
• Multimedia supports,
• Online platform (eLearning),
• Search engines,
• Websites/specialized blogs,
• Social networking sites,
• Wikipedia.


@ EDEN2012

Question 8.1:
“how much do you agree…?”
• eLearning is an important element of my courses,
• Without eLearning I would be unable to study,
• eLearning is one of a number of important components of my courses,
• eLearning makes courses more enjoyable,
• My university is not very smart in the way it uses eLearning,
• With eLearning I interact more with other students,
• I find difficult to use a computer,
• I find difficult to use technological devices (e.g. Pda/mobile phone/mp3
player),
• Having access to a computer connected to the internet is a problem for me,
• eLearning makes learning easier for me,
• It would be good if there were more eLearning in my course


@ EDEN2012

conclusion

• According to our sample...
– ... the fact of being younger is not a good variable
to identify people appreciating ICTs in learning
– ... rather, in some cases, reality is opposite than
expected
– ... generally speaking, LoDE even seem to like
more “classical” strategies (instead than ICTs) in
learning

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Overcoming the gap…

@ EDEN2012

References
• BAUERLEIN, M. (2008). The dumbest generation: How the digital
age stupefies young americans and jeopardizes our future (or,
don't trust anyone under 30). London: Penguin Books.
• BULLEN, M., MORGAN, T., BELFER, K., & QAYYUM, A. (2009). The
net generation in higher education: Rhetoric and reality.
International Journal of Excellence in E-Learning, 2(1)
• VEEN, W. (2006).In Vrakking B. (Ed.), Homo zappiens. Growing
up in a digital age. London: Network Continuum Education.

• Webpage: http://www.usi.ch/personal-info?id=1600

@ EDEN2012

emanuele.rapetti@usi.ch

@ EDEN2012

Overcoming geny perspective

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