Article

Saturday, October 21, 2006 • BY KELLY HEYBOER • Star-Ledger Staff

They are called Millennials, Generation Y, the Net Generation, Echo Boomers or the Next Gen.

They can text message, listen to their iPods and instant message on their laptops -- all at the same time. They are patriotic and relentlessly optimistic about the future.

They rarely read books for fun and most likely aren't reading this newspaper.

They are the most diverse -- and perhaps the smartest -- generation in U.S. history. And Richard Sweeney thinks the nation's colleges and universities need to start making changes to teach them better.

Sweeney, the university librarian at New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark, specializes in documenting the behavior of Millennials, the generation born between 1979 and 1994 or so. Over the last few years, he has become a popular speaker on the academic lecture circuit, touring the nation to talk to college faculties and higher education groups about closing the widening gap between Millennials and their Baby Boom professors.

"I believe there is a real incentive in trying to engage these kids," said Sweeney, 60. "These are consumers. They want to learn."

Sweeney, a father of six (including two Millennials), began noticing a change in the learning patterns of students while conducting his annual campus focus groups on how students use NJIT's library.

"About seven years ago, I started noticing some differences in the focus groups," said Sweeney of Metuchen. "I began to see distinct differences."

As the Generation X students graduated and left campus, they were replaced by the Millennials. The new students seemed to be studying more in groups in the library. They huddled around their laptops teaching each other. They watched videotaped lectures of other professors when they couldn't understand their teacher's lessons.

Intrigued, Sweeney began to gather data on Millennials and read the growing number of academic studies on the new generation. Though it is clear not everyone in the age group behaves the same way, the experts detected patterns.

Compared with previous generations at the same age, Millennials (the term for the generation preferred by researchers) have more friends and contact them more frequently, usually through instant messaging or text messaging. They are the first generation of "digital natives" and have spent almost their whole lives using cell phones and the Internet.

Many spent thousands of hours of childhood playing video games. As a result, they learn best by doing, with interactive graphics, collaboration and the ability to advance through trial and error.

"They were gamers as kids. Some of them are still gaming. But it has changed the way they look at things," Sweeney said. "This gaming behavior has changed much of the way they think."

They also have grown up with a staggering number of choices -- from what jeans they wear to what television shows they watch. They expect multiple options, personalization and customization in everything, including their college education.

"They want more choices, not less," Sweeney said. "They want to do it their way."

The traditional lecture, where a professor stands in front of the class and delivers a monologue, is among the least effective teaching methods for this generation, Sweeney said.

Professors shouldn't be surprised when they spot multitasking students e-mailing, text messaging, listening to their iPods or working on other assignments while simultaneously listening to a lecture in class. Chances are they are able to absorb the lecture and do several other things at once, he said.

Last month, Sweeney lectured on Millennials before several hundred professors and instructors at Passaic County Community College in Paterson. After his presentation, Sweeney brought in a small panel of county college students to test his theories. The students, who had not heard Sweeney's lecture, sat on stage and answered questions about their lifestyles and learning preferences.

Most confirmed Sweeney's theories that Millennial students are not reading books for fun, watching television news or reading newspapers. Nearly all said they get their news from Yahoo, Google or other sites.

Only one of the seven students had read a newspaper in the last week -- and that was the Socialist Worker, the newspaper of the International Socialist Organization.

Five of the seven students had their own pages on MySpace.com, the popular social networking Web site. All had logged onto the site within the last week. When asked if they had ever checked out MySpace, only a few professors raised their hands.

Afterward, architecture major Kevin Ortiz said he was glad his school's professors were taking the time to try and learn about his generation and their lifestyles.

"They don't understand our generation," said Ortiz, 20, of Passaic. "They don't have all the tech we have ... They are a little confused."

But liberal arts major Victoria Tremble, of Paterson, said the professors may be worrying for nothing. A good teacher is a good teacher, no matter which generation.

"I don't see any problem," said Tremble, 21. "I've had pretty ... interesting teachers."

After the presentation, professors gathered around Sweeney. Some were skeptical this generation was really any different from other students they had taught. Others asked Sweeney for tips on changing their teaching methods to better suit the Millennials.

Sweeney suggested colleges start by catching up with their tech-savvy students. Some schools, including Duke University and Purdue University, offer lectures that can be downloaded onto iPods.

Sweeney said it will take time for professors to figure out how best to engage the students before the last of the Millennials begins entering college in 2012 or so.

"One size doesn't fit all," he said. "There is no measurement done on what is successful and what is not."

To teach tech-savvy Millennials, forget boring books and lectures

Return to Articles page