Nicholas, Arlene J; Stapleton, Wen, Starrett, & Kilburn and Wilson, Maureen offer a variety of opinions on Millennials, who they are, their vast knowledge on technology and online courses and the importance of receiving timely feedback. The opinions of these authors vary and at times contradict each due to some of the surveys that were conducted, they agree on other subjects even though their papers have nothing to do with each other. The reader will read and be able to understand who the Millennials are, how they are viewed by each author, how they utilize technology, and whether they prefer to do online courses and the importance of timely Feedback.
Millennials, who are they?
When it comes to the Millennial generation, many people have different opinions on who they are, their overprotective upbringing, and their future expectations. According to Arlene E. Nicholas author of Preferred Learning Methods of the Millennial generation, believes that Millennials “who have been called entitled and empowered due to their inclusion in decision making since childhood” because of how they were raised by overprotective parents. They have a short attention span due to their parents’ obsession on keeping them occupied and planning every minute of their day. Millennial were reared in an environment surrounded by technology gadgets, have learned how to use them and can no longer live without them. The Millennials’ short attention span is due to their parents’ obsession on keeping them occupied and planning every minute of their day. Prior generations are technologically behind compared to the Millennials and are now considered at a disadvantage. Maureen E. Wilson, author of Teaching, Learning and Millennial Students and Arlene E. Nicholas agree that the rearing methods of these parents contributed to Millennials adapting to working in groups and utilizing their time wisely. Stapleton, Wen, Starett, & Kilburn, 2007, authors of Generational differences in using online learning systems believe that Millennials fascination with “technology” and yearn for “group activities” and collaboration amongst themselves. In a negative note, Stapleton et al., 2007, noticed that Millennials “have a hard time planning their own online schedules and sticking to it.” This is a result of their parents scheduling all their activities and not being allowed to do it for themselves. One thing that all the authors agreed upon, was that Millennials’ are a combination of races and customs that will come together as one voice and be able to break racial barriers. Technology and Online Courses Millennials are technology savvy. …show more content…
They can use multiple devices at the same time and feel at ease using them. The author of Teaching, learning and Millennial Students, Maureen E. Wilson (2004) states that not all Millennials are technology smart and ask colleges and universities to develop a plan to assist them. She encourages the faculty to integrate the plan into their curriculum. Millennials are being required to take at “least one online course at least once a year.” Wilson (2004) A negative example of technology abuse is that some students use the internet to cheat and expect to not get caught, therefore, the faculty needs to persuade them about the negative consequences of plagiarizing documents. (Stapleton et al., 2007, p 102) “Warned that technology is not the only important consideration of distance education evaluation. More emphasis should be placed on learning tasks, learner characteristics, student motivation, and the instructor.” There is a perceived notion that Millennials enjoy being online and therefore enjoy taking online courses is not an accurate statement. Stapleton et al., 2007 found that ¾ Millennials that participated in the “Central Florida University study did not enjoy online courses when compared to other generations. The reason for their dislike was that they preferred to work and interact face to face and use limited amount of technology in the classroom. Nicholas, 2008, states that “instant messaging was their top choice of communication.” They “take photos, download music, text each other with their own created messaging language.” Based on the survey that she conducted on students from a private New England University, Nicholas, (2008), stated that students preferred to write notes rather than typing, rather than going to the library, they used google and other search engines. Last but not least, they preferred