Generations of information seekers

“How are the internet and its search engines changing the way we access information, and the way we read?”

At work we have done a lot of work about the different generations as our volunteers span from 18 – 88! Whenever we do this, I am acutely aware that there are no hard and fast rules and you can’t categorise ages in the same way. At a recent conference myself and a colleague attended a seminar about the milleniums, and how you engage them in learning. The points made – easy access, short attention spans, information on the move, less structured – were relevant for both of us. I think it is more to do with social influences than age influences. In fact many of the people who I know that utilise the technology as milleniums do…are in fact baby boomers.

Do learners take advantage of all that the tools offer?

At the start of this week we looked at a statement about a man not knowing what he was meant to do in his English class. Well, all learners need guidance. Only the few can pick things up and know what to do with them. Learning for me isn’t just knowledge transfer, it’s about applying it. So in order for learners to take advantage of the tools they need to be given guidance and support.

Do practitioners in technology-enhanced learning understand enough about how their learners read and search?

It’s a cop out I know, but some do, some don’t. The good ones give you links to further study and further information. In the resources we design, we give quick links to resources, websites to explore, and tasks to accomplish. It allows those who want to explore to do so. What I particularly like in this module is that I can link directly to resources from the module page. This was not always available in the last module I studied. This allows me to quickly access and save the resources I need. Some of the activities are designed to enable quick reading and processing, and we are encouraged to do our own searches.

The Google Generation.

Those who have been born with little or no recollection of life before the web.

'They [the google generation] need to feel constantly connected to the web'

I don't think this is a generational thing. In my experience it is more prevalent among the older,working population. Those who don't switch off their emails and are working inside and outside of work...now you don't have to work late in the office;you can do t at home.

‘They are the “cut-and-paste” generation’

This may be true, but I wonder if the creation of plaigarism technology just helps us to identify this more. When I was in school, I cut and pasted out of the encyclopedia – I just changed the world around. My teachers just didn’t have the time to read all the books to check!

‘They pick up computer skills by trial and error’

Personally, my experience is that this is more true of the older generation. Most technology has a logic to it that is easy to use. Mostly people who have the time use trial and error – it’s why the simple technology wins, as those that take longer aften get discarded first.

‘They are expert searchers’

Well, this all depends on what they are searching for!

Which of these apply to me? Possibly all of them…does that make me a 35 year old millenial?!! I have to say that I do get frustrated when I don’t have access to the internet – and yet when I go on holiday I don’t use a phone for over a week. There’s a time and a place where easy access to the web affords me an easier life. Today we had a team building day, where we went GPS treasure hunting. Without our smartphones we wouldn’t have been able to answer half the questions. Without our phones, we wouldn’t have been able to call each other to help with clues and work as a team towards our goals.

When I am planning training I often cut and paste information from the web, and watch u-tube videos. Why? I like to get as much information as possibleand sort through that to find the relevance.  I certainly pick p skills by trail and error. I am one of those people who would rather do it, than stop and read the instructions. I may have learned this from my dad. He learned all about computers before me. How? By taking them apart and putting them back together again, just like he did with cars. I like to find out how things work and explore. If it doesn’t work after the fifth time, I tend to abandon it. I am not sure that I would call myself an expert searcher…but I certainly utilise the web for many things….from recipes to shopping to finding the answers to questions.

So what does this mean for my learners? For me it goes back to the start. We are all different and use technology in different ways. We cannot assume that one group of people will use things in a way that is different to others. What we can do is ensure that there is a mix of activities and enough guidnace for those who need it.