By Lindsey Wright*

With the flexibility of online coursework, it’s no wonder why so many students are choosing web-based education programs. Having the freedom to complete work on their own time allows students the opportunity to tend to their daily schedules of work and parenting. Thanks to online education, more individuals are able to get the education they need without compromising their financial or familial roles.

Moreover, there are no restrictions as to what university is chosen. This provides students with opportunity to communicate with others on a global level, allowing them to be exposed to different ideas and viewpoints. With these positive elements that go hand-in-hand with Web-based education programs, so it’s not surprising that enrollment levels are skyrocketing. This recent trend may sound promising, but will it create an atmosphere where the traditional college setting is less valued?

Better Opportunities Lead to More Productive Workers

Not only are educational courses evolving, but also are the methods in which education is obtained. Attending an online school used to be equal to the traditional classroom settings at brick-and-mortar schools, except students were given the opportunity to complete work at their own pace. However, now Web-based programs expand on the standard, teacher-centered classroom setting and welcome peer-based interactions online, as well as the exchange of information with others across the world.

Plymouth University is one of many schools that advocates for online learning. The university reports that the concrete skills acquired are not only useful in an online educational setting, but also in the professional world. For example, online courses prepare students to communicate with others through digital interaction, a necessary skill when dealing with both coworkers and clients.

Self-discipline is also a staple of online learning and relevant in modern-day work environments, as those who work from home or have Web-based jobs will know how to handle the demands of managing workloads. Due to the fact these same skills are not as well achieved from traditional classroom settings, workers fear there will be a gap between standard and online learning obtained by their employees.

Generation Gap between Workers

Fortunately, the majority of today’s classrooms are taking a virtual approach in addition to teacher-centered discussions. Students have the opportunity to interact with one another online, complete projects over the Internet and submit material using online interfaces. With these features in place, students obtaining an education today will be granted the same opportunities no matter what type of school they attend.

However, for those that have acquired their degrees in past years when Web-based programs were not yet offered, a generation gap will almost certainly manifest in professional contexts. Julie Chisholm, a lecturer at California State University, published an article on Academe Online that expressed both the pleasure and danger of online teaching and learning. Chisholm found that the viewpoints the instructors had toward online learning were based on their own career paths and where they were on the age-career spectrum.

In general, instructors who were younger and had recently completed online classes themselves were more in favor of online learning. These professors were also more likely to know how to use online programs and found many positive features in utilizing them. On the other hand, professors who were older and hadn’t completed online coursework were less in favor of online education. They lacked the skills required to operate online programs and didn’t have much personal incentive toward learning how to use these systems.

Is Online Learning Better?

A study conducted by East Carolina University looked at the difference between online education and traditional education to determine which was better. Although the study did not conclude that online learning was the better choice, students in the online programs did have improved grades and test scores. Thus while it isn’t clear whether one learning style is superior over the other, it does seem apparent that our changing educational system will impact how employees are regarded in the workplace.

Potential Problems in the Workplace

It’s expected that a generation gap will exist in the professional workplace between online and traditional education. The most common problems that employers will face are a division in the competency of their workers to be able to navigate the Internet and adjust to Web programs and protocol.

Furthermore, the confidence, speed and efficiency that students with online degrees will have under their belts, will make them much more competitive in the workplace. It is likely that these professionals will be able to develop new and innovative alternatives to managing and organizing company information. This knowledge could cause not only generation gaps within the workplace, but also increased negative competition, devalued feelings and an inequality across workers.

Most of the discussion has been in favor of an online education, but what about those that hold traditional degrees and their perspective on an online education? It’s possible that some employers will consider online degrees to be less credible than those from a standard, four-year university. Placing greater importance on this educational learning style will cause further rifts between coworkers.

For instance, workers who attended traditional schools may feel that they hold “real” degrees and went through the rigorous process of applying, being accepted and attending structured classes, making their education and experience more authentic. As such, employers must recognize the advantages to both traditional and online courses, giving each the respect they deserve. With this approach, coworkers will learn to value each other’s diverse backgrounds and be more inclined to look at the experience as a whole instead of how the education was obtained.

Bridging the Gap between Online and Traditional Education

With the potential problems that employers and employees face in the work setting, it’s crucial that online learning is not only understood and respected, but also anticipated. In his article “21^st Century Schools: Bridging the Gap Between Traditional and Digital Learning Resources,” Frank B. Withrow point out that the first step toward closing the gap is to ensure that all educational programs allow for modern-day technology. This gives all students the same opportunities, no matter what type of school they chose to attend. It also ensures that all students will be qualified for the same position and acquire equal knowledge and experience.

Yet the bigger dilemma lies in the generation gap that already exists with age, and now educational learning style. Since those who have already achieved their degree from a traditional classroom setting cannot go back in time, employers should provide workers with the option to refresh their skills by taking courses online. Giving all employees the same opportunities will close the gap between these two radically different learning styles, while making all workers feel competent, valued and worthy of promotion.

The addition of the Internet in contemporary society has forced people to not only rethink, but also change the world in which they live. Educational systems have modified their operations to fit the online, global world that exists today. However, for these advancements to be effective, the business world needs to follow suit. By offering workers the same opportunities regardless of their educational backgrounds, employers will be closing the gap between education systems, allowing all of their employees to reap the same benefits.

*Lindsey Wright is fascinated with the potential of emerging educational technologies, particularly the online school, to transform the landscape of learning. She writes about web-based learning, electronic and mobile learning, and the possible future of education.

By Sarah Newton

As England comes home defeated from the World Cup, it becomes so obvious that there is lack of good talent coming up through the ranks of sport in the UK and it seems that this skill shortage is hitting hard.

My eyes were recently drawn to an article in Construction Manager (my hubby is in the field) entitled, “Industry is storing up trouble over skills shortage, reveals CIOB survey.” http://www.ciob.org.uk/resources/research

This survey reveals that the industry is laying the groundwork for an on-going skills crisis. A third of respondents  said that the recession had resulted in reduction in graduates at their firms, while 20.3% said it had stopped altogether, with 32.9% saying that apprenticeships were down and 17.5% stating that they had stopped apprenticeships altogether.
Lyne Crowe, regional manager of the recruitment consultant Hays Constructions, says that the industry sees graduates and recruitment as a major cost, rather than a long term investment.

While I know nothing about the construction industry, my guess is that this trend is far-reaching and worldwide.

To me, cutting down on employing fresh talent seems totally counter intuitive. Not only do we create future problems for ourselves in terms of skills, but we also cut out the new creativity, energy and enthusiasm that young fresh meat can bring.

As a company, when the going gets tough do you cut your most valuable resource, the young fresh talent? What can you do to make sure this doesn’t happen?

By Carol Phillips*

Nearly 20 years ago, William Strauss and Neil Howe wrote a book that theorized a 22 year generational cycle based on repeating generational archetypes called simply “Generations“. They called these cycles ‘turnings’. Children raised during a particular Turning share similar historical and cultural experiences, which results in their being like each other, and different from other generations. This was to my knowledge the first appearance of the word ‘Millennials’.

A chapter that begins on page 335 of 427 (paperback version not including Appendices and Sources), is titled “Millennial Generation”.

What makes this chapter on Millennials so fascinating twenty years after it was written is how uncannily it matches what we know to be true of how Gen Y is different from preceding generations.

Part of the reason for its accuracy is that the demographics of this generation were fairly predictable, even in 1991, and demographics are one of the forces that shapes generations. Strauss and Howe were able to accurately project the likely size (76 million) and make up (12% immigrant) based on fertility and immigration trends, even though only 33 million of them were alive when the book was published.

The authors were also tuned-in to the major shift in parenting and education as a cultural priority that was already underway by the early 90’s. This shift would prove to have a remarkable impact on Millennial self-perceptions, aspirations and values. Nearly twenty years ago they noted that “this new generation of children is being treated as precious” and “Boom parents and teachers have also been slowing down the childhood development clock — unlike the Silent, who sped it up.”

“First-wave Millennials are riding a powerful crest of protective concern, dating back to he early 1980s, over the American childhood environment. In1981, the year before the “Class of 2000″ was born, a volley of books assaulted adult mistreatment of children through the 13er (Gen X) birth years. Within the next couple of years, other authors began reconsidering the human consequences of divorce, latchkey households, and value neutral education.

In 1984, two kids as devils movies flopped at the box office, marketing the end of a dying genre and the start of a more positive film depiction of children.

From 1986 to 1988, polls reported a tripling in the popularity of ’staying home with family’….In general, Boomer parents are determined to set an unerringly wholesome environment for their Millennial tots.

Where Silent parents had brought 13erkids along to see $-rated movies made about them, Boomers take the Millennials to see G-rated movies made for them.””

“From 1976 through 1988 the proportion of students held back in elementary school jumped by one-third.”

One of the central tenets of the book is that the fourth generation in each cycle, the “Fourth Turning”, tends to be more civically minded and engaged. They look for signs that yesterday’s fourth graders might be more evolved as citizens and found it in Anna Quindlen’s observations that kids seemed to be “assimiliating society’s ’shalt nots’ about crime, drugs, polution and education with disquieting energy and unanimity.” (page 341) Twenty years later, we know from the research that today’s young adults are much more ‘upright’ than earlier generations in terms of their overall optimism, attitudes toward the environment and social action and behavior regarding drug and alcohol use, teen pregnancy, and crime.

What Howe and Strauss could not have known in 1991 was the remarkable impact that technology and the most severe economic recession in over 60 years would play in shaping this generation.

Beyond demographics, two of the forces that are shaping up to be the most influential are easy access to information of all kinds and a realization that America’s high flying lifestyle is most likely unsustainable. They have already resulted in a more empowered, yet sobered, generation that is exhibiting very different consumer and media behavior as they move into their prime earning years.

BrandAmplitude’s latest ebook (“ How Millennials Are Different“) is focused on spotlighting the ways that Millennials are different from generations that came before at the same age. The book, which zeroes in specifically on longitudinal data from Pew Research and other sources, shows Gen Y is different in many significant ways, only some of which were predictable in 1991.

Nevertheless, what Strauss and Howe foresaw about how Millennials would be different from preceding generations based simply on cultural and demographic trends, they got remarkably right.

*Carol Phillips is the president and founder of the brand strategy consulting firm “Brand Amplitude.” She is also a Professor at the prestigious University of Notre Dame. Carol began her career as a market researcher and strategic planner at Leo Burnett. Later, as an Account Director, she led agency teams at four different agencies – Y&R, Leo Burnett, Mullen and JWT – for a variety of clients including Sprint, Nextel, Ameritech, Heinz, 7UP, and Philip Morris. She blogs at www.millennialmarketing.com.

By Cíntia Reinaux
A brilliant text written by Rubem Alves* uses a metaphor to explain why parents should be a bit more strict with their kids. Alves jokes that parents today wouldn’t be able to stand Michelangelo. They would say, what does Michelangelo have against marble?

Alves states, “…he had something against marble, because inside that marble was Pietà. Where would Pieta be if Michelangelo hadn’t been so tough on the marble?

My conclusion? Education is art. And nothing is more counter to art than leaving raw material exactly as is. Those who do that aren’t dreamers or artists. Feelings of guilt sprouting from motherhood and fatherhood often turn into Jello. A rock is still a rock. We need to know that love is hard.

Many people discuss the “trophy generation.” More and more, young people are rewarded, but not because they necessarily deserve it. On that note, Elaine Brumm** nails it when she writes, “doing something for the merit eliminates the equation…” New generations seem to not notice how hard life is and how much work it takes to obtain what you desire. Even if you work extremely hard, there will always be something which is simply out of your reach.

It’s rather preoccupying how much new generations seem to learn, very early in childhood, to systematically guilt others for their own failures.

If a kid get bad grades, he or she will often blame the school or the teacher. And that same kid grows up to be the employee who will blame his or her boss or external factors as an excuse for a stagnant carrer. And yet how could it be any other way?

Generation Y is perhaps one of the most promising generations that has emerged in a while. Expert multi-taskers, bathing in technology, with enormous cognitive capacities. Yet, these same skills are also the ones which get this generation labeled as: superficial, immature, egocentric, impatient, and anxious.

It’s as if all this potential hasn’t been properly channeled and cultivated. Of course, we couldn’t hope that young people would get to the workplace completely ready. Yet, how could they reveal their Pieta if they never learned to use a hammer and a nail?

And so, a rock is still a rock. I don’t think it’s too late. With a little strength, discipline, and help from elders, we will teach them to use the tools they need.

*Rubem Alves is a psychoanalyst, educator, theologist, and Brazilian writer. This is an excerpt from her book “Sobre o Tempo e a EternaIdade”, Ed. Papirus, 1995, págs. 37 e 38.

**Eliane Brum is a journalist for Revista Epoca. She describes the generation of self-deserving individuals in the text “ “A era dos adultos infantilizados” published on Nov 16, 2009.

Cíntia Reinaux is 25 years old and feels so proud of being from Pernambuco. She seems to be a great sister and her patience is always completely tested by his brother, a Gen Z. She is an administrator who loves Human Resources and, in her free times, she likes to tell stories about her adventures in Canada, from where she has recently returned, on the blog http://reinaux.wordpress.com.

“Guysssss can you pay attention please?!”” This is the request, verging on begging, which is so typical of a High School teacher. Capturing the attention of young people has never been easy, not even when the world was slow, and there was no technology to dream along with.

If it wasn’t simple in the past, imagine the difficult task today, trying to get Gen Y, in all its anxiety and impatience to focus.

Whether it’s technology’s fault, or the way in which we were raided, with intense velocity, we have a difficulty even in staying focused in front of the TV. Proof of this is that most child TV shows today don’t last more than 10 minutes.

There’s a legend about HR professionals stating that they spend hours, racking their brains, trying to find the best way to motivate, engage, retain, and get generation Y to focus on relevant topics (or not so relevant topics sometimes.) Whether its in lectures, in the classroom, or in businesses, “paying attention” is the topic of many articles, reports, books, and debates.

So I suggest this: use music, lights, the latest technology, electronic artifices, and 3D movement. This is valid. Always. People often forget that we are the “technological generation.” We will only be happy and focused if technology is present.

We value creativity and most everything which isn’t the norm or commonplace.

In order to illustrate this, I’m going to tell a story. The department of Grupo Foco which outsources its services to Avon, has most of its consultants spread out all over Brazil, and the travel constantly. Communication takes place mostly through e-mail or telephone, or whatever alternative there is to the physical.

Recently we decided to have motivational training, to create stronger relationships between our consultants, who barely knew each other, and discuss new ways of working and developing projects. This training had to take place in one day with a restricted budget.

So we came up with the idea to meet in the countryside, close to Sao Paulo. The dress code was relaxed, people wore whatever they felt like. Participants shopped at the supermarket (where they had a certain amount of money they could spend and a certain amount of time to shop, just like a game.) They had to choose the food they would cook. They split up the tasks and responsibilities based on their abilities, and the fun began. Some were responsible for the food, the music, and setting up the space. Barefoot and having savored the menu they had created, new work strategies began to emerge, as they started to imagine the possibilities to make their work even more efficient.

The results could not have been better. The stress of the office, and of running from place to place, were gone. This allowed them to get to know each other in a deeper way, as they tackled important work questions. Of course, they were very concentrated. Out in the countryside, cell phones didn’t have reception. It was that simply. Mission accomplished through a bit of imagination and “thinking outside of the box.” These are the other things Gen Y loves. We crave everything that’s different and new. Of course, this doesn’t always mean “hi-ultra-tech.” Got it?!

Por Mariana Coimbra*

After reading Eline’s posts on the miniskirt,  I decided to write about my perspective on this whole situation.

As a loud and proud member of Generation Y, and a person who questions things, I think that I can talk a bit about this episode. Though the reactions have been exaggerated and blown out of proportion, we must recognize that the other students felt disrespected. I’m not going to get into the debate on whether the reactions Geisy received were disrespectful. But I believe that the sentence, “Respect yourself, to be respected,” applies here.

Unlike most people, I believe that values are immutable. Values are universal concepts, and their truth remains constant and intact throughout generations. Purposely hurting someone’s feelings and disrespecting other people, will always be synonymous for the absence of values.

Generation Y is constantly analyzed, studied, criticized, molded, and labeled. All the time. As if we are an immutable generation. Yet, we must take into account, that the oldest members, born in 1980 are at least 29 years old today. We are no longer spoiled children who got trophies and played around in shopping malls. Today, we are growing up. This process is slow, perhaps a bit overdue, and difficult. Yet it’s easy to see that often the values are there and intact.

We are capable of understanding how many things work, and most of us have values. It’s not rare to find someone for Generation Y citing some lesson that they learned from their parents or grandparents. They have values.

The Uniban revolt doesn’t have anything to do with the micro-skirt Geisy wore. It does have to do with the image and reputation of our generation. We have values, and we are conscious that Geisy’s act was simply a confrontation towards her University. Freedom does have limits. As my mother says, “One’s freedom stops when it starts to impede on another’s rights.” Adapting this to the case of Uniban: The freedom a student to use an indecent article of clothing stops with the right of thousands of other students having their image preserved.

I can choose whether I want to go to certain clubs where women with short enough skirts don’t pay the cover. I know that at the moment that I enter that club, my image will be compromised. Of course, this doesn’t apply to a University setting where all individuals should be respected. For me, respect is the act of considering other people, and putting yourself in their shoes.

In the same way that students from Estácio de Sá, don’t want to be labeled for the incident in 2001, when an illiterate student actually passed the vestibular (the exam required to enter Brazilian University,) the students of Uniban don’t want to be seen as people without principles, and don’t want to be labeled. They want to preserve their image. Not respecting the institution where you study, by using inappropriate clothing, is a lack of values. It’s irresponsible towards thousands of other Uniban students. I mean, think of the consequences if the first lady, accompanied President Lula dressed in Geisy’s miniskirt?

Let’s not be demagogues to the point where we actually believe that image doesn’t count. The example of the Estacio is living proof. Students still suffer prejudice from that incident today. In regards to Uniban, in the Folha article, one girls actually said, upon seeing the outfit, “Oh god, it can only only be a girl from Uniban!”

In conclusion, is it Geisy’s right to use that sort of clothing, exposing her body in this way? Is her personal freedom larger than the right of all of Generation Y, to show that they have values? The question remains…

*Mariana Coimbra was born in Belo Horizonte (MG), spent her childhood in Ouro Branco (MG) and her teenage years in Palmas (TO). She is currently living in em Recife (PE), but also has a small house in New York City (her mother lives there). She has already been a bartender, a store attendant, a Christmas tree decorator, a snowboard apprentice, and has also tried to be an athlete. She has been a babysitter, a bakery employee and an intern. She is a Gen Yer, wants to be a future trainee and is a persistent, adaptable and flexible person. She is also the superintendent of her building, currently having to be a housekeeper, a blogger and, at the same time, a Law student and her mother´s little princess. She dreams of being knowledgeable about everything someday, even though she knows it´s impossible. She prefers to dream big and for her there is only one thing better than learning: to share what she has learned! Follow Mariana on her blogs: http://porquenaopassei.blogspot.com and http://pontodotrainee.blogspot.com or on Twitter.

By Eline Kullock
I just read an article on Folha On Line in which an actress, wearing a short dress (not even that short in the eyes of a baby boomer,) went to various prestigious Brazilian Universities (including the Law School at USP, FMU at University Ibriapuera, and PUC).  The actress, pretending to be a student, asked random questions like, “Where’s the bathroom?” just to test the reaction of students to her outfit.

Ironically, this actress suffered the same crazy reactions as the Uniban student Geisy Arruda, who was violently bullied, insulted, and ostracized by her classmates for wearing a short mini skirt.  The actress did undergo less violent reactions than Geisy.    In Geisy’s case, the police even had to get involved.

As I watch and reflect on this, I think about the pendulum theory.  Hippies created a counter culture, starting a revolution. Non-conformist went it came to war, they rebelled against the values of their time.

As society obtains certain liberal values, the pendulum seems to swing back to the other side.  There’s a rebellion against these liberal values, and a quest for a “middle ground” of the pendulum.

Are young people who rejected the micro-skirt attempting to express what can and can’t be done?  But this is the generation that CAN DO ANYTHING.   ANYTHING.  TOTAL FREEDOM FOR ALL.

Of course this “can do anything” mindset doesn’t encompass harmful actions, such as stealing, and killing.  However, it does include posing naked on the Internet.  It seems that young people don’t care about this.  “The body is mine, and I can do what I want with it.”    This has always been the message Gen Y has expressed.  A level of zero prejudice.

Even in my lectures young people are less prejudice than baby boomers.  There’s usually the sense that they accept people more as they are.  The accept diversity.

However, I’m really surprised at the number of weddings I see among very young people.  Up until very recently, wedding rates were low.  Our generation, the baby boomers, were revolutionaries.  We opened up doors for people to simply live together, without the need for a signed piece of paper, a priest, or a rabbi.

Generation X lived together and usually didn’t care so much about the tradition of marriage and religious ceremonies.   Especially because the fairytale of a virgin bride isn’t even close to reality anymore, it’s become totally irrelevant.   And yet, why is that in big Brazilian cities like Sao Paulo and Rio, I see more and more young people really wanting to get married?  What’s more, they want the classic wedding that we considered really old-fashioned in our day!

Does all this have to do with the shift and movement of counterculture?  Is this a movement of a current generation saying “enough!” to certain things?  Enough to “you can do anything?”   I can only understand the ban on the miniskirt (not only in the case of Geisy but also in all the Universities the actress went to), through the pendulum theory.   But if this isn’t the explanation, then I’m completely confused by the signals this generation is sending.  Perhaps some college students can explain what’s going on to me…

Have you heard of the Gen Y that doesn’t understand or know the meaning of processes? They are used to getting everything now. They like things to be easy and quickly resolved. You probably have. That’s where I’d like to start this post. A few weeks ago, I had a very unique experience that allowed me to observe generational behaviors.

I traveled to a remote beach only accessible by boat. Electricity was rationed, our showers were cold, food had to be delivered and was directly proportional to demand. The Internet? Nonexistent. Cell phones? You only get reception in certain places, with the help of fisherman who make up 80% of the population. TV? You could only watch it during the 4 hours a day when electricity is available.

Of course I marveled at how these people lived, without information or connection to the world, without cars, without traffic, free of everything modern. But even in the middle of all this, something really caught my attention. While my friends and I hiked along a path, we saw a group of men. Four men in their 40′s, with little boys who couldn’t be older than 6. At first we thought it was a bit strange since there were mostly young people around. Then we noticed that the men were with their sons.

We overheard a father talking to his son as they hiked:

-”Son, here we are, at the highest point of the mountain. This is the moment where our victory starts, after the difficult path. Let’s wait for our friends and applaud when they arrive. The important thing isn’t who makes it first. The important thing is getting here.”

I could see the little boy’s eyes sparkle. The sparkle of a challenge overcome. The sparkle that isn’t very common for a 5 year old, especially these days. Once the friends arrived, it was beautiful. They hugged and celebrated their victory. Everything was being filmed by one of the fathers. Full of pride, he was stuck to his camera.

We asked if they were all together, and they replied that this was an odyssey! They had told their mothers that this was a man’s trip.

Later we saw the little explorers again. They were in a local restaurant, and the learning wasn’t over. While they ate, their fathers taught them good table manners, how to respect others, and how to share with their friends.

At this moment, a group of young people arrived at the restaurant. They had a lot of hiking gear, they wore huge backpacks, and bandannas protected their heads. They looked like professional mountain climbers.

Again we overheard the parents:

-”They are the pirates of the place. They are looking a treasure hidden in the mountains, and they don’t stop hiking, not even to eat or sleep!”

The kids looked like they were in a mixed state of enchantment and apprehension. Their eyes glued to the group of young “pirates.” It was probably one of the most memorable moments of their trip. Later, they excitedly boarded a fisherman ship, and ran on the beach, truly living a unique moment. Their fathers recorded everything, proud of having survived a weekend with the boys, away from Sao Paulo, and mothers, in a place with so little infrastructure. This weekend would probably stay firm in everyone’s memory.

At that moment, a million thoughts flew into my mind. Did we really have to go so far to teach proper table manners, the value of overcoming challenges, the taste of victory over difficulty, the art of learning through play, or the importance of time spent between parent and child?

Does one really need to escape “civilization,” fleeing to a place with no cell phone reception, where it’s impossible to connect laptops or use blackberrys to properly raise one’s kids? I’m sure this isn’t the case. However, in this place, so distant from reality, I saw something I hadn’t seen in a long while: parents passing on values to their kids. This was the way most of our own parents had been raised. They had learned the necessity of processes and various steps, to reach a final goal or objective.

I started to feel nostalgic for the time when conversations with parents were not interrupted by cell phone rings or vibrations, by people signing into AIM, or by the stress of traffic, and the lack of time to learn.

That vacation spent on that faraway beach definitely marked the lives of those kids, not to mention the lives of their parents. And yet, it also impacts our lives, the lives of generation Y, as we started to question if this is the way we will eventually raise our own children. I hope so.

In Philosophy, ethics can signify what is good for an individual and for society. Through this lens, we establish a natural sense of duty in
relationships, and in society.

For a while now, I’ve been participating in numerous discussions on the implementation of a new subject in school called “Ethics and
Citizenship.” This
new subject would work with students to give them basic notions of life in society, incorporating Philosophy, which is no longer a part of the basic
school curriculum today. The subject would aim to help young people coexist better both in and outside of school.

This subject exists in many schools, but the problems continue, as they are rooted deeper, within the very foundation of education. Ethics and citizenship, from my perspective, is not simply a subject in school, with a fixed hour dedicated to them, and a Professor responsible for giving tests and grades. Rather, this should be the basis of all of education. Not to mention, the foundation of all human relationships.

To express these ideas better, I turned to my dictionary, my best friend at times of uncertainty.

*Ethics* – Part of Philosophy responsible for investigating principles which motivate, distort, discipline, or orient, human behavior, reflecting especially on the essence of norms and values present in society.

*Citizenship* – The condition of a person, as a member of the state, with rights that allow for participation in political life.

The first definition holds two key words: investigation and essence. I remember a film that I saw a while ago called *Teachers*. The story dealt with a young man who couldn’t find work after graduating from High School. Therefore, he sued the school claiming that the education he had received, was responsible for his unemployment. This made me think about the role of teachers. The teacher was played by the actor Nick Nolte, who decided to investigate, along with his students, what exactly was going on in the classrooms of this public school. He found a bit of everything. One teacher dressed up as historical characters to teach History. Another napped behind a newspaper while students took a test. One of the students asks Mr. Nolte to film the hallways, showing what goes on when the teachers aren’t looking. At that point, you see the teacher who suggested making the film smoking in the hallway.

Leaving the movie theater, I thought about the essence of what’s expressed on screen. A teacher, so liberal and modern, that he’s willing to collaborate to reorganize the school, even though it involves some not so good behavior. Is he being less ethical than those who let the school and its students sink into failure? Those who don’t want to see that they’ve got the future of society in their hands? “Do what I say, even though I don’t.”

The search for rights and duties of a citizen should be the very classroom, though it’s often not. The other day I saw an unfortunate scene. I was asked to be a coordinator for a class titled “Ethics and Citizenship.” During this particular class, the students watched a Cuban film, which illustrated an incredibly different society from our own, and introduced a discussion on ethics in Cuba. Through a typical Cuban family, one could see the bureaucratic day-to-day lived by those under Fidel. After the film, I though the teacher would start a debate in which students had to declare whether they were “for” or “against” the Cuban regime, discussing the consequences of a population, comparing and contrasting this with the Brazilian experience. Yet, none of this happened. Instead he launched into a political speech, talking favorably of the Cuban regime. After this, he promptly handed back their practice “Vestibular” (comparable to SAT). I think we all felt frustrated, the students and I. The teacher who taught Etics wasn’t so ethical.

I also remember reading an interview in Veja with Dr. Dr. Ben-Hur Ferraz Neto, a specialist in liver transplants. In the interview, he affirmed that the best health plan would be for operating rooms to be a black box. In these conditions of total non-transparency, just imagine how many fatal errors could be committed without anyone taking responsibility for them.

I think this could be a solution for the classroom, even though it seems completely unethical at first glance. In an educational institution people come together. Students and teachers, full of their own personal problems and anxieties, repeat themselves in a day-to-day dance. The black box is obviously a symbol. A box in which one can keep or record everything that has been done, everything that has been said in that environment.

In the same way that businesses don’t use a black box, no school would use it to clear up situations. And yet it could be helpful in certain situations of conflict, or as proof of crucial educational questions that may greatly influence the lives of children and young people studying in this environment.

I’ve taught at certain religious schools, which used a small transmission device, linked to the principal’s office to police students and teachers. Today
I hink that I could have participated in a better way. These school recordings should have given way to discussions about ethics that would contribute to creating better citizens, aware of their rights and duties. A reflection on whether their actions were good for those in class and for the society in which they live…

By Ines Schinazi

Perhaps what makes Generation Y’s educational experience most different from the experience of past generations is the overwhelming presence of technology in the classroom, and all the implications this brings.

While cell phones and laptops are often considered to be distractions in school, they can also be powerful learning tools, as demonstrated by UT Dallas Professor Monica Rankin in “The Twitter Experiment.”

Prof Rankin explains that she saw an opportunity to use “…the technology and equipment that students are very comfortable using already, and incorporate that into what we’re doing in the classroom to give them an alternative and a new way to learn.”

The Twitter Experiment makes us think about how technology is “flattening” education. Twitter changes traditional class dynamics, stimulating more dialogue within class, while also allowing for class information to be diffused to a global audience.

Prof Rankin describes her own Undergrad experience as consisting mostly of “…the kind of talking head at the front of the room, addressing a large group of students, and the students passively trying to absorb all that information.” She says, “There was very little interaction between the Professor and the students.”

While there are obviously many problems that come with using Twitter in class, the playing field between Professors and students is leveled, as communication between both parties is facilitated, stimulating a dialogue rather than an ongoing lecture. As Prof Rankin demonstrates, Twitter allows her to achieve a level of class participation that would otherwise be impossible in such a large class.

The “flattening” of education also transcends the classroom walls, flowing into the larger realm of society, making the information discussed in Rankin’s class, available to anyone who can access Twitter. As Cameron Quitugua, one of Prof Rankin’s students, explains, “We’re putting stuff that college students are paying for to learn, out on the Internet, and that college students are researching, out on the Internet, for other people to find. I’m really big on Wikipedia and the ability for you to find whatever you need to know on the Internet. For us to put more History and knowledge out there, through intelligent discussion, is pretty cool.”

In an exclusive interview, Prof Rankin speaks about her experiences conducting the “Twitter Experiment” as well as her thoughts on the growing intersection between Education and Technology.

Image: Professora Monica Rankin
Ines: In the video “The Twitter Experiment” you state that prior to the experiment, you weren’t really familiar with Twitter yourself. So what exactly drove you to incorporate Twitter in your class?
Prof Rankin: That’s exactly right. I had never used Twitter. I had heard about it, but I didn’t know a lot about it. What I did know, was that people could send updates through computers or by text messaging from their cell phones. I was teaching in a classroom that had limited technology already built-in for students. A lot of students would bring a laptop to class, but not all of them, and everyone brings a cell phone to class. Some professors are upset by this, and try to ban cell phones, since they see this as a distraction. But I was thinking maybe there’s a way to incorporate the technology and this equipment that students are very comfortable using already, and incorporate that into what we’re doing in the classroom to give them an alternative and a new way to learn.

Ines: Clearly, Twitter successfully encourages a great deal of student participation. From your experience, why do you think this is?
Prof Rankin: I think there are a couple of things. To be very practical about it, students found it interesting. It was different and I think that attracted their attention to start with. This is something that many of us had never seen in a classroom before, certainly not in a class of this size with 90 students. So I think just having a slightly different approach automatically peaks their interest a little bit. But further than that, I think that our use of Twitter really appeals to a lot of students who might not be comfortable in a traditional classroom discussion setting. In any typical discussion that I’ve done regardless of the class size, usually what you will have is about 10% of the class dominates the discussion. The vast majority of the class may say one or two comments, but they remain pretty quiet. Then you have another 10 % of the class who says absolutely nothing. Well I think that Twitter changes that dynamic significantly and it allows people, who’s strength might not be speaking in front of large groups of people, it allows them to have an opportunity to play to their strengths. It gives them the opportunity to incorporate things they are comfortable with into the learning environment. It changes the dynamic quite a bit. I was really pleased with what I saw happening in the classroom for the most part. I think certainly there are a lot of problems with Twitter. It wasn’t the ideal solution, but I think that with what we had to work with in the classroom, and what we had access to, it was one of the best solutions we could have found for that particular semester.

Ines: You mention how the “140 characters” limits the sorts of comments students can make, but at the same time really forces them to make a concise argument, which they often have trouble doing. However, from your perspective, do you think 140 characters risks making class discussions too superficial, limiting the ideas or topics one can explore?
Prof Rankin: I suppose there is always that concern. I’m not overly concerned about that myself. I think that the new generation, raised with all this technology, have learned to process information, in a way that us older folks don’t really understand. I think that with having a small snippet of information, a lot of people can take that small snippet, and go through a deeper internal process, of understanding it and analyzing it, and kind of picking it apart. I think that I would prefer students have access to a larger character limit. 140 is really quite limiting. I think that allowing them to form more complete thoughts with a larger character limit, would be highly beneficial. But I also think that forcing them to limit those statements to some extent is a really useful exercise. It really helps them form “to the point,” “concise,” arguments. So I’m not overly concerned about it. I didn’t see that it was a problem, especially the way that we combined Twitter with group discussions. I don’t think Twitter alone is going to be the solution, but combining it in various ways, can help get around some of those limitations.

Ines: In the video, many students seem to like the idea of not having to speak up in front of a large class. Twitter offers that comfort since they can just express their thoughts through writing.
However, do you ever worry that as technology increasingly intersects with education, students may lose the ability to convey their perspective “out loud?”
Prof Rankin: I’m not terribly worried about that. I think that instructors are going to come up with new ways, all the time, to incorporate the various modes of communication. One of the things that we did in the experiment in the classroom, is we actually did have them working in small groups where they were interacting with each other, and then based on what they were talking about in their small groups, that’s what they would “tweet.” So it wasn’t like a classroom of students, completely isolated as individuals, doing nothing but using technology, and not speaking to anyone. There was a lot of face-to-face and personal interaction going on, in their small groups. I was roaming the room the entire time, interacting with the groups as I was going around. So it was kind of a combination of all of these different methods and I think that worked really well. Students could talk to each other in the small group setting, and they could also share their thoughts with a group of 90 people, and do it fairly comfortably.

Ines: As a college educator you prepare your students to enter the workplace. Obviously, the classroom is changing. But how do you think the workplace is changing and does incorporating technology and social media in class help students as they enter the professional world?
Prof Rankin: My impression is that students are going to get far better practice at using technology and social networking than what I can provide in the classroom. I’m certainly not an expert on anything technological or anything having to do with computers or digital media. So the actual “hands on application” of using those kinds of technologies, I think I’m the last person who needs to be training people.
But I do think that what students get exposed to in the classroom are new approaches to using things like this, and new ways to combine technology and Humanities for example, that often times are considered to be at opposite ends of the spectrum. Education is certainly not the only area that’s looking at innovative ways to combine these types of things, and challenge the way that people had traditionally approached these kinds of things. They’re certainly going to face those expectations when they enter the workplace, the kind of “thinking out of the box” and the “looking for alternatives.” So hopefully this exposes them to what some of the possibilities are, and how some people are trying to face those challenges.

Ines: Did you notice any differences in terms of the way female and male students use and interact with Twitter in class?

Prof Rankin: I didn’t actually pay a lot of attention to gender differences. I didn’t do as good of a job as I would have liked in tracking who was using a computer or a cell phone, and we also had a number of students who weren’t comfortable doing either, so they would just handwrite notes. I didn’t think about it early enough in the semester, to actually keep very specific statistics on that kind of information.

Ines: Since you teach History, which is a pretty traditional discipline, did you encounter a lot of resistance, in terms of other Professors or students, as you brought Twitter into class?
Prof Rankin: I wouldn’t really call it resistance on the part of students. I think some students were reluctant to participate in the public forum of Twitter, and others didn’t have the same access to the technology.
Either they didn’t have a laptop that had a wireless connection, or they didn’t have an unlimited texting service on their phone.
I think that a lot of the students who didn’t directly participate opted out of it more for practical reasons, than because they had some fundamental disagreement with what we were doing. But you know, I think others weren’t into social networking and weren’t really comfortable with it, and I think that’s fine.
The reaction I got from other Professors has been mixed. There’s a lot of Professors that have been really interested in it. A lot of my colleagues at UT Dallas have asked for more information and have tried to look at ways to see how they can incorporate similar kinds of experiments in their classrooms. I’ve talked to a number of colleagues at other Universities.
But I’ve talked to other Professors who say that they would want absolutely nothing to do with this kind of thing. That this has no place in the way they conduct their classrooms. And I think that’s fine. I think that’s one of the great things about University Education. Students get access to Professors who use a wide variety of approaches and come at their classrooms with various strategies and variety. So the Professors who are comfortable with it, will start “playing around” with it. Those who aren’t will not, and students will be better off, having those different experiences with those different professors.

Ines: From the Professor standpoint, did you find it at all chaotic or overwhelming to have to field all these Twitter comments in such a large class?
Prof Rankin: I think that it would have been more overwhelming for me, had I not had a really good Teaching Assistant. My TA Megan Malone, was a really integral part in making this successful. She helped to monitor the digital discussion, while we were in the classroom, and while things were unfolding, so that I could be going around the room, and interacting face-to-face with the students. If she hadn’t been helping me “behind the scenes” I think it would have been a very different environment, it would have been much more chaotic, and a lot more for me to handle by myself.

Ines: You make clear how positive Twitter can be in a large class. However, what about using Twitter in smaller classes? Is this something you would consider?
Prof Rankin: I would consider using it for a smaller group. I’ve given it some thought. I think a lot would depend on what we’re trying to do in the class, and what we’re trying to accomplish, and what kind of students are in that class. I’m not using it right now. But I haven’t ruled it out for smaller classes in the future.

Ines: The Twitter experiment makes us think about the ways in which education is evolving. How was your own learning experience in college, most different from the experience of your students today?

Prof Rankin: Well that was a long time ago. But when I was in college there was very little interaction, particularly in some of the traditional courses like my History courses. There was very little interaction between the Professor and the students. Aside from the traditional lecture, [there was] the kind of talking head at the front of the room, addressing a large group of students, and the students passively trying to absorb all of that information. That was the traditional approach, and that was essentially what I was exposed to as an Undergrad. Things are far different today. More often than not, Professors are trying to encourage more interaction from students, a kind of active participation from the students sitting in the classroom, recognizing that there are a lot of benefits to the learning process, as students become more engaged. I think that’s a great advance that Education has made over the last several decades, as more and more Professors are engaging those types of approaches. I think technology will help to facilitate that. Precisely what I was looking for, when I decided use Twitter in the classroom, was to be able to engage 90 students, all at the same time in 50 minutes. And I think the more technology continues to evolve, the more opportunities and options they’re going to be for educators to use technology to help do that.