It is not unusual for teachers to express some bewilderment about teaching today's students. These students were born into a world of information technology; they think and behave differently from previous generations. This generation has been given different names, including "post-80s", "generation Y", "digital natives", and "the net generation". Pedagogy that teachers previously used no longer seems to be effective for this generation. What should teachers know about the characteristics of this generation?
Tech-savvy
The most salient characteristic of this generation is its comfort with technology. They prefer to communicate through e-mail and text messaging rather than face-to-face contact and prefer webinars and online technology to traditional lecture-based presentations. They are experienced with e-tools such as wikis, forums, and blogs, and more importantly, they think these e-tools can benefit their learning. As a result, they often seek immediate information for their assignments from these e-tools, not by looking through textbooks or academic journals. They believe they can complete their assignments faster without paying such a high personal price.
Achievement-oriented
The net generation has been nurtured by parents and teachers that they can do anything they want to. They are confident, ambitious, achievement-oriented, and therefore more demanding of higher grades. At the same time, they have high expectations of their teachers. These students have grown up with the speed of video games and are extremely comfortable with technology. As a result, they have little patience for conventional lectures and have expectations of technological tools in their learning.