Digital Natives

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Digital Immigrants believe their students can’t learn successfully while watching TV or listening to music, because they (the Immigrants) can’t. Digital Immigrants think learning can’t (or shouldn’t) be fun.

Digital Immigrant teachers assume that learners are the same as they have always been, and that the same methods that worked for the teachers when they were students will work for their students now. But that assumption is no longer valid.

From a professional POV

Employers are the main concerned people : they don’t know how to work with us. Youngest people are seen as lazy persons. They don’t like authority. They want to feel involved and independent. They don’t like when hierarchy weights too much on them, when they feel like they are nothing in the firm.

Let’s see now how are both teachers and employers adapting to these new expectations.

4th part : Measures 2’ (8’35)

From a teaching POV, the most important thing that should be changed is the way to spread knowledge. Teaching should be more interesting, otherwise we risk to face a bored class. Thus, if several subjects remain important such as reading, writing and maths, other will become less and less taught. Indeed, future subjects like programming, robotics or nanotechnologies should interest students.

You may be skeptical but if a generation can memorize over 100 Pokémon characters with all their characteristics, history and evolution, they can learn the names, populations, capitals and relationships of all the 101 nations in the world. It just depends on how it is presented.

From a professional POV, several tips are applied by employers.

Firstly, they have to set objectives for employees on short term. It will motivate them to work in order to reach it.

Moreover, these generations are very opened to the world, to exchanges and to any ideas. They love sharing and meeting up with other people. That’s why several firms are giving advantage to open space offices.

Concerning the recruitment, given that 59% of the 18-24 years old are looking for a job by Internet, firms are developping websites on which students can apply for jobs. Human resources understood it and began to create some very simple websites where instantness, transparency, simplicity and interactivity are the key words of the success of this new mean of recruitment.

A french firm, Decathlon, proposed a site on which you could send your CV and your cover letter in less than 19seconds. This was an absolute success for the staff recruitment of a new shop.

Conclusion 30’ (9’05)

As a conclusion I would say that over time, with efforts from both teachers and students, we must come to an understanding and students will, for sure, have fun learning new things. Same for working in a firm, if they are listened to by their boss, they will feel more involved and important and so they will give the best of themselves.