http://virtualwayfarer.com/educating-millennials-why-were-doing-it-wrong/
Its a bit long article and tries to explain the reason.
Its an American point of view, but also fits into the Indian context.
For those having access only to email, i have copied the article below.
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Educating Millennials - Why We’re Doing it Wrong
August 19th, 2008 by Alex Berger
An educated populace is the cornerstone of a successful, affluent culture and a
necessity if the United States wants to remain competitive. Our education
system is the framework that enables and prepares America’s youths to support,
lead, and drive America’s future. Education, more than any other factor, is
responsible for America’s success. It is for that reason that the current shift
in enrollment and completion rates among males in higher education may be seen
as a crisis. It is immensely disturbing and potentially disastrous.
While there are a lot of theories as to the cause, no one has been able to
accurately explain why young male Millennials are abandoning the education
system and especially, higher ed. The lion’s share of the discourse on the
subject has focused on the increased presence of females in higher education,
the shifting nature of male’s roles in society, and other similar concepts.
While these may be factors, I believe they overlook the true cause and scope of
the issue.
The Cause
The infusion of brilliant young female minds into higher education is a
wonderful thing and there is without question some validity to the observations
made that womens’ aptitudes are better suited to the standard classroom format.
That said, I don’t believe the introduction of women to higher education is
what’s causing men to drop out. Rather, we are seeing a surge in the
individual student’s ability to learn and comprehend in a more complex reality.
The issue stems from the way members of the Millennial generation are
developing and their use of complex, multi-tasking skill sets that have been
honed in the daily practice of video gaming, internet access, chatting, and
involvement in online social networks. Simply put, tech savvy Millennials are
not being engaged or challenged by the one-dimensional delivery systems in a
majority of today’s classrooms. They are not interested in sitting passively
and having information spoon fed to them.
Much of this information is not interdisciplinary or connected to the real
world. They can do better on their own in this new, comprehensive ‘digital
classroom’. If we don’t reevaluate the way we educate Millennials, I expect
female enrollment numbers to peak and begin to decline as they become more
engaged in technology which follows the trend we are currently seeing among
males.
Source: National Science Foundation
The growth of the internet between 1995 and 2007 has been staggering as
evidenced by these NSF diagrams. The Millennials are a transitional
generation. The oldest Millennials are digital immigrants, while the youngest
are digital natives (as coined by Marc Prensky here). Those of us caught in the
middle vary widely. At 23, I find myself in the middle of the pack and
surrounded by friends who fall near both extremes. For my part, I consider
myself as close to being a digital native as is possible. At the same time, I
have friends my age who have only recently started using the web and engaging
in its immersing nature.
Source: National Science Foundation
The difference between digital natives and digital immigrants is - I believe -
what is responsible for the decline of males in higher education. Historically
males have been the early tech adopters. You’ve probably heard a joke or two
about the improbability of finding a female gamer and you’ll no doubt agree
that when you hear the word “geek” the last image that jumps to mind is of a
woman. While these depictions are cultural stereotypes, they have historically
been fairly accurate. For the last 20 years computers, the Internet, and video
games have largely been the domain of men. While that has begun to shift in the
last 3-5 years - especially in the gaming industry - fully engaged female
digital natives are still relatively rare.
To that end, males have been heavily exposed to - and had their social behavior
patterns effected by - technology to a far greater degree than females. The
behavioral shift I’m talking about is fundamental. It’s the way these
individuals relate to each other and the environment around them. Where
historically most of our interactions were relatively one sided - the news, TV,
the classroom, etc. - the modern male has grown up in a highly interactive,
immersive environment. Video games are the most extreme case where this is
evident, but the principle applies to the web as well. To use myself as an
example:
I started gaming in 1st grade. By 1998 I abandoned single-player games and
began gaming exclusively online. By 2007 I abandoned my TV subscription, opting
instead for the web and streaming video. Why? Because TV wasn’t engaging
enough. It was boring one-way communication. From YouTube, to Blogs, to
Facebook and Reddit, Web 2.0 is how I interact and relate to the world. I am
able to accelerate and pursue my own interactive, interdisciplinary learning
style. I run dual 22″ wide screen monitors. While writing this blog post I
have the blog up on one screen, Facebook (w/ Facebook chat), Twitter, Gmail (w/
Gmail chat), iGoogle, and Reddit up as tabs, and at the same time I may have a
movie playing which I periodically pause to focus on a thought, or to pull up
research for the post I’m writing…all the while, when I find something I want
to explore in greater depth, I go for it. To someone used to one-way
communication this may seem
chaotic. For most, it would seem to be information overload. For a digital
native accustomed to these interactive resources, it’s not only the norm, it’s
conducive to a productive and enjoyable experience. I can process information
on multiple levels through a diverse range of delivery systems.
Millennials, particularly the digital natives, are able to complete many tasks
and extend their understanding of issues well beyond the confines of the
typical classroom setting. Interestingly enough, these skills - this hands-on
approach - is what has allowed me to stay competitive at the leading edge of
the business world. It’s all based on interactivity. While the news and
researchers have historically avoided the subject in favor of running pieces on
violence inducing video games and brain rot several recent pieces like this one
confirm the positive effects and impact of video games. From a recent MSNBC
article available here, “One study of 33 laparoscopic surgeons found that those
who played video games were 27 percent faster at advanced surgical procedures
and made 37 percent fewer errors than those who didn’t”.
To those who are not familiar with these new applications of technology it
would be easy to label multi-tasking digital natives as ADD/ADHD or some other
label, suggesting that those who can’t sit as passive-adaptive students in a
classroom suffer from an illness. Look at the skyrocketing numbers of ADD/ADHD
diagnoses over the last 20 years. It’s not a virus, it’s not a sickness. It is
often young males who want to explore the world around them, who need to be
engaged on multiple levels, and who want to contribute as much as they receive.
It’s a generation of males who are developing the behavioral framework that
will allow them to not only exist, but to excel in the modern digital era.
These are the skills that will be required in the future to keep America
strong. Research has shown that video games can be used to “treat” ADD/ADHD
(example: Online Video Game Therapy For Mental Health Concerns: A Review by
Wilkinson, Ang & Goh). Video
games may be a key to understand ADD/ADHD. The skill sets utilized in video
gaming are the epitome of the new interactive paradigm which the education
system needs to both recognize and embrace.
The young males dropping out of and failing to pursue higher education aren’t
stupid. It’s not that they can’t compete with women. It’s that they are
disengaged because the current delivery system is not interactive and is
quickly becoming significantly less relevant. The modern male is hardwired for
fast-paced, multi-level exchanges. They are being forced into an education
system which still operates on a passive one-way model. You go to class, you
sit down at a desk in a sterile room, and you listen to someone lecture for
somewhere between 60 and 180 minutes. Oftentimes the lecture is little more
than a professor reading PowerPoint slides on the screen. If you’re lucky you
might be in a small class and be able to ask a question or participate in group
discussion for part of the class. All the while you pray you don’t get called
on, because you spent the night before exploring Wikipedia and reading about
the Amazon, international
business trends, and the history of the windshield wiper instead of reading a
dry text and memorizing theory. Too often the material in the schools is every
bit as dead and lifeless as the system delivering it. Unless he has the family
support or long term drive to satisfy the college degree for a quick check-mark
on job applications, he’s not going to stick around any longer than he has to.
The CEOs and Founders of most of today’s major tech start ups are prime
examples of this phenomenon. Ask yourself how many high tech start ups have
historically been founded by women? Of those founded by males, how many of the
founders are college or high school dropouts? How many have masters degrees?
How many have their doctorate? These “drop outs” are the individuals at the
leading edge, driving international business forward, and the system did not
provide what they needed. They had to leave school to learn and succeed.
The truly scary part is that this is just the beginning. The crisis in
education we’re seeing today will only get worse over the next several years as
the true digital natives begin to come of age. Make no mistake, it won’t be
limited to males alone. Now that the gaming industry and the rest of the
classic “geek” strongholds have become female-friendly, expect to see similar
shifts among women.
The problem isn’t the technology. It’s not video games or too much time on the
web. Ironically enough, these are all behaviors we should be embracing and
encouraging. The problem is that our education system has not adapted to serve
the population’s needs in the digital age. Fundamentally - it’s failing to
educate young males and as a result they are seeking more relevant material and
finding delivery systems elsewhere. It won’t be an easy transition and I don’t
have the answers for an easy fix. I do know that until we recognize the
importance of the digital native skill set, the attrition will continue.
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