Ines: What do you think the workplace will look like in 5 years? Many generational experts seem to think that we are moving away from traditional corporate structures and into a world of freelancers…Do you think this is the case?
Bruce: I’m not a futurist. I’d say that work is likely to be increasingly free of boundaries when it comes to where and when people work. I’d say work relationships are likely to become more and more short-term and transactional. I’d say that on-site, uninterrupted, long-term, exclusive employment relationships will be less and less common.

Ines: There’s a lot of talk about Gen Y having the highest self-esteem of any Generation so far. Have you encountered this in your research?
Bruce: Why are Gen Yers so confident and self-possessed, even in the face of all this uncertainty? One reason is surely that they grew up in the Decade of the Child. Gen Xers were the great unsupervised generation (we made the latchkey into a metaphor). But Generation Y was the great oversupervised generation. In the short time between the childhood of Generation X and that of Generation Y, making children feel great about themselves and building up their self-esteem became the dominant theme in parenting, teaching, and counseling. Throughout their childhood, Gen Yers were told over and over, “Whatever you think, say or do, that’s okay. Your feelings are true. Don’t worry about how the other kids play. That’s their style. You have your style.” This is what child psychologists called “positive tolerance,” and it was only one small step to the damaging cultural lies that somehow “we are all winners” and “everyone gets a trophy.”

Gen Yers have been respected, nurtured, scheduled, measured, discussed, diagnosed, medicated, programmed, and rewarded as long as they can remember. Their parents, determined to create a generation of super-children, perhaps accelerated their childhood. On one hand, kids grow up so fast today (I often say that twelve is the new nineteen); on the other, they seem to stay tightly moored to their parents throughout their twenties. Their early precociousness,in fact, turns into a long-lasting sophomorism. Many psychologists have observed that Gen Yers act like highly precocious late adolescents well into adulthood. (I often say that thirty is the new twenty.)

Ines: Your work reveals an interesting feature about Gen Y. On one hand, they’ve grown up with the hyper-connectivity and flexibility of the Internet and digital age, thriving on customization and diversity. Yet from your research they obviously need a great deal of structure in the workplace. What’s the key to reconciling these two Gen Y characteristics in the workplace?
Bruce: Gen Yers want freedom to maneuver at work. They want some latitude when it comes to their schedule, where they do their work, whom they work with, what they do, and how they do it. The problem is that every task, responsibility, and project has parameters that constrain every employee’s freedom.

But as much as they love freedom, Gen Yers also gravitate to structure and boundaries. For one thing, they don’t want to waste their time. Don’t forget, since they were kids, Gen Yers have been hyper-scheduled by overbearing adults. Whether they were being subjected to metal detectors, locker searches and lockdowns in school, or their own “individual learning plans”—and everything in between—Gen Yers are well accustomed to programs and procedures. One Gen Yer describes it this way: “The last thing I’m looking for is somebody telling me, ‘Yeah, do it how you think it should be done,’ but then it turns out she already knows exactly how she wants it done. I don’t want to beat my head against the wall trying to figure something out if you’ve already got it figured out. I definitely am interested in putting my personal stamp on things, but if that’s not going to happen, tell me up front.”

If you want to give Gen Yers more freedom at work, the biggest favor you can do for them is establish clear boundaries and give them a structure within which they can function with some autonomy. It is true that some jobs require employees to take risks and make mistakes. Even in those cases, it is the manager’s job to help Gen Yers avoid taking unnecessary risks and repeating mistakes that others have already made. Creativity and innovation do not require recklessness. You tell the advertising copywriter to “think outside the box,” but you must also help him avoid libel, slander, and obscenity. You need the nuclear scientist to be innovative, but you must help her avoid a nuclear explosion. It’s great if your food preparation workers are creative, but you don’t want them changing the recipes on regular menu items. As a leader, you have to create a structure and clear boundaries in order to create a space in which risk taking and mistakes are truly safe in the context of a job.

Often a good way to allow Gen Yers to express creativity is to give them assignments that are truly matters of first impression. Maybe you, as the manager, don’t yet have a clear goal in mind; you don’t know exactly what you are looking for yet. This is a great opportunity to ask a young employee to “take a crack at it” and “do it however you think it should be done” and really mean what you say. It’s perfectly fine to use this Gen Yer to help you work out the early stages of your own creative process. But make sure you are clear from the start about the structure and boundaries. Explain that you are delegating only the initial stage of the creative process and you intend to take the project back.

In fact, whenever you have a new task, responsibility, or project for one of your very capable young employees, always start by spelling out expectations. Make absolutely sure that person understands exactly what he is expected to do and how he is expected to do it. That’s the only way to get employees to adopt your organization’s best practices and turn them into standard operating procedures.

Ines: Ines: And how should be the performance appraisal or the follow-up after gen Y´s tasks?
Bruce: As long as the assignment lasts, you should follow up regularly with one-on-one check-in conversations to review the employee’s progress. In those conversations, you should ask, “What have you already done? What steps did you follow? What step are you going to do next?” Listen carefully to their answers. Make it a habit to wrap up these conversations by deciding on a specific place and time for your next meeting to follow up.

Every assignment, no matter how much freedom and creativity is required, must have clear goals and specific deadlines with measurable benchmarks along the way. Boundaries and structure, however loose, are actually the keys to making freedom and creativity in the real world possible.

You might think a generation raised on mantras like “we’re all winners” and “everyone gets a trophy” wouldn’t be particularly competitive. But that is not the case. While the self-esteem movement was chipping away at Generation Y ers’ competitiveness, the testing movement was building it back up. Still, testing breeds a different kind of competitiveness: competition against standards and benchmarks, against averages and means, and against one’s own past performance.

Think about a video game that a Gen Yer might practice and practice, beating one high score after another, set by himself. He wins every time, and nobody has a reason to feel bad. That’s the kind of competition Gen Yers are looking for: they want to compete against themselves in a safe environment where they can try over and over again to improve on their own performance benchmarks. When it comes to competitiveness at work, this is what one Gen Yer had to say: “I’ll do whatever they want me to do. Just tell me someone is keeping track of all this stuff I’m doing. Tell me I’m getting credit for it, that I’ve been racking up points here like mad. Tell me someone is keeping score.”

When Gen Yers know you are keeping track of their day-to-day performance, their measuring instinct is sparked and their competitive spirit ignited.

If you can think of easy ways to convert the performance you need from your young employees into a point system, then maybe you should consider it. I promise you, a point system will get Gen Yers focused like a laser beam. If you want them to start showing up earlier for work, attach points for every minute they arrive early, and take away points for every minute they come in late. If you want Gen Yers to meet quality standards, give them checklists of every detail and specification, and give points for every detail and specification completed—and take away points for every one missed. If you want Gen Yers to speed up, set a realistic quota of tasks per hour and give points for every task done over the quota—and take away points for every task under the quota. And so on.

Another approach is to help Gen Yers keep track of their own work by using self-monitoring tools. Activity logs are diaries that Gen Yers can keep, noting contemporaneously exactly what they do all day. Each time he or she moves on to a new activity, the Gen Yer might note the time and the new activity. By using these tools, Gen Yers can document their own hard work every step of the way and build their own track record of success.

My advice to managers is to plug into Gen Yers’ transactional mind-set. Stop paying them and start buying their results, one by one. The more you trade results for rewards, the more reliable their performance will be. The smaller the increments you buy in, the more effective it will be.

The key to your success will be defining those measurable pieces of work and setting a price per piece.

By Renato Andrade

Another edition of the “Results ON Day” took place in São Paulo, this time on the theme of social media.

Besides for the latest tendencies, research, and case studies about social networks (Twitter, Orkut, Facebook, blogs, etc), Gen Y’s behavior and life online was a topic of frequent discussion.

Here, I’ve made a summary of 12 topics which were commented on during the debates by 8 social media experts.

- Network, follow interesting people on Twitter, participate in blogs and virtual debates. Sign up for classes that have to do with your work or other interests. Personal tip: Many classes that are advertised on social networks are also transmitted via the web.

-Everything you write online is monitored, even if it’s unconscious it can influence the success and price of a product. A question on Twitter like, “What cell should I be” or “Buy the cell phone by brand X” is constantly evaluated by advertising agencies specializing in digital marketing.

-We live in the era of the impatient consumer, also a characteristic of Gen Y. Businesses spend fortunes to serve and comprehend this new generation.

- The consumer today has the following thought process: “I want everything now, or I’m going to cry very loudly!” this is the infantilization of the Internet.

-I’ve read almost everything on “Cloud Computing.” It’s the buzz word right now, and is being used by companies like AT&T, Dell, HP, IBM, Intel, Microsoft e Yahoo.

-Specialists in education believe that University education is still important, but the mistake is creating the “package of courses” that the student will never use in the business world. In the future, it won’t make sense to study for 4 years if only a few classes are necessary for your work.

-Young people from other parts of the world don’t used social networks in the same way Brazilians do. The biggest social network in oriental culture is a version of Twitter where users have two accounts: one is their personal account and the other is a character which represents them. Because it’s such a conservative environment, full of military repression, individuals are afraid to show their true identity.

- Students are lost when they have to decide what they want to do with their lives. One reason for this is the lack of references and real knowledge when it comes to the future. Generation Y, in many cases, is the first of their family to pursue higher education.

-Different from the opportunities other generations had, it’s now easier to enroll in University. But there’s a lack of real role models and references when it comes to choosing one’s profession.

-Universities in the future need to help the student choose their profession. This isn’t happening today.

-The web has created a professional world which is more competitive and complex. Proof of this are new positions that are emerging (IT, webmaster, programmers, etc.) However businesses have a lot of trouble finding qualified professionals to carryout roles in these new departments.

-The majority of research regarding online behavior talks about generation Y, but executives (currently Baby Boomers for the most part) are the ones who navigate the web most.

In conclusion, participating in ResultsON Day made me realize that businesses are opening up space for consumers to give their opinions about products and services. Therefore, we should enjoy being a collaborator, and make use of the tools we have in the market, creating a virtual identity, which adds value to this universe.

What about you? Are you part of a virtual community exchanging ideas and information? What’s your opinion on the current use of social networks for young people?

Leave your comment here.

For more info visit:
http://resultson.com.br/day2009midias/

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.

An Interview with the 2009 Miss Mundo Brasil Luciana Bertolini

Standards of beauty are constantly evolving, a rare glimpse into society’s current state of mind. In 1951, the era of the housewife, Miss World, the oldest surviving international Beauty Pageant is founded. Twenty years later, in 1970, the contest is subject to protest as host Bob Hope is bombarded by smoke and flour bombs thrown by feminist protesters. By the 1980’s, the pageant attempts to revamp its image by adopting the slogan, “Beauty with a Purpose,” placing emphasis on contestants’ involvement in charity work. For the first time in history, participants are also judged on their “intelligence” and “personalities.” Now, in 2009, Luciana Bertolini is Miss Mundo Brasil, and a Miss World hopeful…

Growing up, Luciana was no little miss sunshine. Though the 24-year-old model and Journalism student, has just won the title of Miss Mundo Brasil, and will be competing in the Miss World contest this December, her future as a beauty queen is somewhat of a surprise, especially to her 10 year old persona, who clearly remembers thinking, “I don’t want to be wearing a heavy dress full of pearls and stones, parading around with a crown…”

In fact, she recalls the shy but spirited 10-year- old girl, who upon winning her first beauty contest, hid her crown and ripped up her photos, practically dying of embarrassment at the whole ordeal.

And yet, she soon realized she couldn’t cheat destiny. Luciana’s older sister, Adriana Reis, was also named Miss Mundo Brasil in 1998, marking the first time in Brazilian history in which two sisters have earned the same title.

So how did Luciana make the transition from angry ten-year old beauty pageant winner to Miss Mundo Brasil? Luciana explains, “I realized that my participation [in the contest] could open doors for me, especially since I want to work as a journalist.”

When asked about the difference between her experiences as a model and beauty pageant contestant, she concludes, “Models have to be like walking clothes hangers…The good thing about the Miss World contest is that you feel and are treated more like a human being.”

In an exclusive interview, Luciana shares what its like to be a participant in Miss World. She reflects on everything from the ever- evolving standards of beauty, to being a young woman in the midst of the Fashion industry, to what it means when a random little girl on the street confuses you with Barbie…

Ines: Congratulations on earning the title of Miss Mundo Brasil! Was this something you’ve dreamed of doing ever since you were a child?
Luciana: When I was 10 years old I participated in my first beauty contest and won. At the time, I didn’t like being part of it. I remember that when I won, I was embarrassed, I hid my crown…you know kid stuff. I was really shy as a kid. I also remember ripping up some of the photos my mom had taken of me in the contest, which of course made her really sad!

Ten years ago, my older sister also won the title for Miss Mundo Brasil. I remember saying, “I don’t want to do this, I want to focus on my studies, and my professional career.” It really wasn’t something I was thinking about.

However, when I turned 21 years old, another opportunity to participate popped up. This time I realized that my participation could open doors for me, especially since I want to work as a journalist. I’m currently studying Journalism at University.

One thing I really like about the Miss World contest is that they value intelligence. All the candidates are interviewed about current events and controversial issues. For instance, one of the questions they asked me was about the current state of the Brazilian Senate…

Ines: It’s funny, because the perception we often have is that beauty pageant queens always dreamed of doing this, but for you this wasn’t the case…
Luciana: No it wasn’t the case at all! I remember when my sister won the title of Miss Mundo Brasil, I was twelve years old, and we slept in the same bedroom. She would come in and spread all her stuff all over the room. She would make a huge mess with her crown and everything! I remember seeing that, and observing how busy she was, running from one event to the other. I remember thinking, “I don’t want that. I don’t want to be wearing a heavy dress full of pearls and stones, parading around with a crown…”

Ines: So what exactly made you change your mind and want to participate?
Luciana: Of course being part of a beauty contest involves the ego. All women like being called beautiful. But I wasn’t solely motivated by this part, or all the glamour that goes along with it.

I realized that the contest could open doors for me. By obtaining a title like Miss Mundo Brasil or Miss World, it’s another thing that differentiates your resume.

Ines: Why did you choose to study Journalism?
Luciana: I’ve always been really shy. But I’ve always tried to overcome my shyness by doing things I’m scared of doing.

For instance, I started working as an event promoter. I had to talk to strangers on the street and convince them to try products and things. It was difficult for me. It really scared me to death! But I wanted to do things to overcome the shyness a bit and loosen myself up.

I’ve also always loved to write. That’s the way I’ve always expressed myself. When I would tell people that I wanted to study Communication, they would ask, “what do you mean? You are so shy…” But that actually motivated me more, as I saw [pursuing Journalism] as a challenge.

Ines: I read that you said your proudest day was the day you got accepted into University…
Luciana: I really value education. I think that a lot of girls are influenced by fashion in the sense that they start modeling, and forget about their studies. But a model’s career is short. Not everyone experiences the success of Gisele or Adriana Lima. So I think it’s important to have your feet on the ground.

Ines: Can you tell me more about the contest’s idea of “Beauty with a Purpose?”
Luciana: The contest in Brazil embraces an environmental cause, which is the preservation of the Amazon. So we work really closely with the ONG “Amigos da Terra.”

Miss Mundo Brasil essentially dedicates her image to working with social causes and towards social change. The goal is to try to get people to reach a higher level of social consciousness. I have to really know what I’m talking about, I can’t just talk the talk. I really have to know about sustainability. For example, this Friday I’m going to be going to a lecture on sustainability.

Ines: Is sustainability something you feel really passionate about?
Luciana: It’s really funny because my friends make fun of me, saying that I’ve always been “Miss Ecology.” Ever since I was little I couldn’t stand seeing people litter. This comes from my upbringing. When we littered, my father would make us go back and pick up the trash. So my friends say, “Of course you won the contest, it had to be you.”

I guess I’ve always had this environmental consciousness. I just didn’t have as much knowledge about it as I do now. So the cause really does speak to me. I cared about it ever since I was a young child.

Ines: What is beauty?
Luciana: Beauty is ample. The standards of beauty today aren’t the same as the standards a few years ago. Beauty standards are constantly adapting themselves. They are created by society. Often, in beauty contests it’s not the girl who is most beautiful, in the physical sense, who wins. I think that beauty, independently of the era, is a combination of attitude, elegance, intelligence, and charisma.

If someone is beautiful on the inside, I think that transpires. So I disagree when I hear people saying, “It’s a beauty contest not an IQ contest.” It seems cliché, but beauty encompasses so many things. That’s why I really value the Miss World contest, because I think they realize this.

Ines: Yes. It’s interesting that the candidates are currently high achievers. They speak various languages, and usually have at least one University diploma.
Luciana: Definitely. The thing is that beauty queens have always been really stereotyped. There’s still a lot of prejudice. People imagine a beautiful woman with no brains. They think of someone who is totally innocent and naïve.

A lot of people will remark that I’m quiet but really astute. I think we have to preserve our innocence in regards to some things, but you also have to be conscious of other people’s not so good intentions.

For instance, you have to understand that after you win a title, many men are going to come after you, saying the things you want to hear. But the truth is, they see the title and not the person. It’s important to know how to separate things.

I’m a very realistic person. So, for a man to say certain things, I think he needs to know you very well. I’m not fooled by words. There are girls that will believe whatever they hear. Men are “trained” to say what we want to hear.

Sometimes it’s really funny because you hear the same lines over and over again, and then you know something is wrong! Like guys saying, “You are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.” That sort of thing doesn’t have value for me.

Ines: Does the idea of “judgment” ever bother you? Do you ever feel like an object being judged in this contest, in the sense that maybe people don’t end up seeing what’s inside, but just focus on your appearance?
Luciana: Sometimes you do feel like an object. People see you, they judge you on your appearance, but they don’t know you.

Ines: What about the idea of body image, do you feel there are some unrealistic ideas on the body? And is it difficult being a woman in this sort of environment?
Luciana: A little while ago, a law passed stating that models could only work if they had a certain level of body fat. A lot of models have died from anorexia. The standards of fashion are very rigid and quite cruel. After all, the model is a human being. A lot of people forget that. They see you as a Barbie, who doesn’t have any feelings.

I don’t think the beauty standards are going to change. Why do models have to be so thin? The reason is that the model can’t be attracting too much attention. The clothes need to be attracting the attention. Models have to be like walking clothes hangers. The good thing about the Miss Mundo contest is that you feel and are treated more like a human being.

Ines: Since you are involved in both, what do you perceive as the main differences between Modeling and participating in a Beauty Pageant?
Luciana: The model needs to sell clothes or a product. With Miss Mundo, it’s really the opposite. She needs to show the jury who she really is. She dedicates her image to social action and social change. The Miss is an example, especially for kids. Actually one time, I was walking by this little girl and her mother. Her mother said, “Look honey, it’s Barbie.” And the little girl looked at me, with sparkling eyes. That experience really made me think. I realized the responsibility involved in being Miss Mundo Brasil. A child looks at you, and tries to be like you. You become an ideal, not just in terms of beauty, in terms of everything. That’s why you have a much bigger responsibility than a model for instance. You can’t be drinking, or dating in public. You have to be a lady. You have to take care of your image. You really become an example and a point of reference.

Ines: The Miss World contest is the oldest surviving beauty pageant. From your perspective how have the standards of beauty changed?
Luciana: In the past, the winners of the Miss Mundo and Miss World contest had curves. The really skinny ones rarely won. Of course, this is changing today. I find this a bit sad. The Miss Mundo contest is also following the standards of the fashion industry.

Ines: What do you want to accomplish in your life?
Luciana: I want a career in Journalism. I also want to write books.

This is a question that has always haunted me. It still does. The roots of the question go even deeper: what do I want to get out of life? This philosophical question should be a question everyone asks. I don’t believe in simply letting life take over, relying completely on destiny, and yet I feel that most people live this way.

My generation was raised with the ideals of a “stable, solid, career” and a “structured family.” A solid career used to mean having a steady job in a good company, with a special focus in your area of expertise. The structured family meant marriage “until death do you apart,” with children. Combine all that with your own house, and you have the equation for perfect happiness. At least that was the life most dreamed of in the past.

Looking at today’s modern dilemmas, I ask myself if the old formula for success still applies.

Certainly, for this new generation, the point of life isn’t the same. Perhaps a huge change has been the feeling of realization and achievement. I’m talking about professional achievement. In this context, “solid careers” and marriages “until death do you apart,” don’t make much sense. Futurologists believe that formal job positions will greatly decrease, not to mention the idea of a traditional marriages. These days, people try being together first, before they even think of marriage. That is, if they ever do.

I believe that the big difference between my generation and this new generation is that we are living to build the future, while Generation Y is living in the present.

My Generation does everything for a better future. The formula of the future in the past was: “solid career” + “structured family” + “home ownership.”

On the other hand, Generation Y’s priority is to live. Of course they envision their future as bright and cool, but they think of a short-term future, not a long-term one. This generation wants to build a future, as long as it’s a near future.

I still wonder what I want to get out of my life. The feeling of realization and achievement are very personal and specific to each person. The feeling of fulfillment often feels like something almost unobtainable, and this creates frustration and inner conflict. On the other hand, every time we achieve something new, we think about our next challenge. Our being thrives on challenges, which quite possibly makes us the unhappiest species on the planet.

We make buying a car a priority in life, followed by owning a house, followed by exotic travels. Our search never ends. We always want more. This new generation seems less preoccupied with conquests, and appears more volatile. Maybe I’m wrong, but wherever I am, they always seem much more preoccupied with their own lives, than in getting the latest Montblanc pen.

Look in the mirror and ask: What is the life you are searching for? What is the purpose of life? What does success mean to you?

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.

Tell me what you think the profile of generation Y is. Born starting in the year 1984, we are technology lovers, video game obsessed, passionate about science fiction, nerds with pride, and simply ecstatic about every form of virtual communication out there. Now, what if I told you that besides for a certain level of appreciation for technology, I don’t have any of these characteristics, which are supposedly so typical of generation Y?

Around me, I see a lot of people forcing themselves to fit into a certain role, simply because they want to fit the box they are supposed to be in. The predetermined place, standard, profile, or generation. Taste is personal and the year in which you were born has nothing to do with it. Being part of Gen Y, I would never trade my classic horror films about serial killers for any Matrix movie!

What characterizes my generation is our behavior and not our tastes. Listening to rock from the 70’s and the 80’s I notice that I don’t have the faintest idea of what bands my generation is currently listening to. Still I have the rush of urgency that is said to typical of Gen Y. And although I think video games are a total waste of time, I hardly recognize myself after participating furiously in any sort of work-related challenge.

I don’t have the main fault my generation is often accused of. This probably stems from not being constantly rewarded in my childhood, especially if I didn’t deserve it. Thank God! I feel lucky to have participated in a competitive sport ever since I was eight years old. This made me see that you don’t always get a medal, and that medals have different values. To win the gold you have to be the best. And yet, this consciousness didn’t make me less daring than any of my classmates or coworkers.

I’ll always trade online chats for a real face-to-face chat with laughs versus those cartoon smiley faces. Still, I call my friends from my smart phone to plan our face-to-face gathering, and while I get ready I make a play list for my I pod, which I listen to on the way there.

I stay far away from campus parties and anime festivals. I’ve never read a Harry Potter book or seen a Harry Potter film. I think the weirdest thing is seeing people play cosplay. Still, I challenge all hierarchies, because I don’t believe in them. If you want my respect, you have to earn it, and no name or position gets you a free pass.

Of course, it’s important to know what Generation Y listens to, watches, and wears. But I need to find the mediums that motivate us in the corporate world, especially because we will soon be taking over the businesses created by our parents and grandparents. Perhaps because Gen Y is just starting to enter the workplace, I only realized the bomb was exploding when I started working and faced the inevitable culture shock. If businesses aren’t ready for us now, imagine what they were like six years ago…

*Julianna is a journalist, who majored in Journalism. She is currently pursuing graduate studies in Corporate Social responsibility. She is working on developing corporate sustainability and green business. To learn more, check out her blog: www.sustentabilidadecorporativa.com

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.

In an exclusive interview, she shares her thoughts on how the millennial generation is changing the art of Marketing.

Ines: On your blog you write about how your interest in the millennial generation began 5 years ago, when they began to enter your college classroom. You explain that it was impossible not to notice how different this generation was. Can you talk about the differences you noticed back then and the differences you see today?
Carol: I think one of the first things was that they didn’t deal with ambiguity very well. They wanted a lot of structure, and they wanted to know exactly how to do it right.
I think one of my blog posts was called “The Professor’s Lament,” and I joked that if you asked them to memorize the alphabet by tomorrow, they would come back and ask you “which alphabet?” “Do you want it backwards or forwards?” “Can we sing it?” They need a lot of assurance that they are doing it right. I also found that I couldn’t make any changes, like I couldn’t say, “Oh, I found a new way to do this…”
I think the biggest surprise was how little they actually knew about Marketing. I was teaching “The Basics of Marketing.” As the most marketed-to generation, I expected them to be much more sophisticated, and they weren’t, and I found all of this really surprising. I jotted down some thoughts, and sent them to “Ad Age,” and they published it. This was in 2006…that was when some of the first articles started coming out about the millennial generation, so I just joined the conversation.

Ines: In your opinion, how should businesses successfully market to the millennial generation? And what exactly does it mean to reach this generation by being “quick,” “meaningful,” and “shiny” as your blog suggests?
Carol: I didn’t create that set of words, I found it in a Gen Y article by a young Canadian planner, and she’s fine with me using it. I think that it does kind of summarize what Gen Y is about. They’re pretty suspicious of advertising and distrustful. They look at everything with a cynical eye. They’re much more trusting of information that comes from their friends, or other sources, than they are from advertising. I think what they don’t realize is that advertising isn’t allowed to lie. So I think there are some implications there for marketers: don’t spend a lot of time making elaborate claims. They’re not going to pay any attention to them. You really want to spend more time building a relationship based on something that matters to them. And they have a lot of things that matter to them, particularly in the area of “cause marketing.” That’s what I mean by “meaningful.” So it’s not only relevant to the product, but also relevant to other things that they’re interested in. Also, I think I was quoted as saying “There’s a special place in branding hell for brands that say one thing, and do another, with the millennial generation.” They value authenticity.
When you look at the brands they like, some people are surprised to see they’re the brands that everyone likes: Apple, Coca Cola, Vogue Magazine. Well, there’s a reason for that. These are brands that have a long history of being authentic, and saying what they’re going to do.
As far as the “shiny” part goes, they love things that are flashy and new, like the latest technology, so you don’t want to come at them with the simple, tired, stuff.

Ines: In the article, “Millennials: Clued in or Clueless,” you find that “…students take it as a matter of faith that advertisements mislead consumers about the truth of a product’s performance…and are all too ready to believe that ads use a host of subliminal messages to improve product perceptions.” More so, we know that this generation prefers listening to their peers, rather than relying on a brand, and that they are quite skeptical in general, which is also very clear in your article “What Millennials think of Social Media.”
Are we moving towards a world where it’s more about the “person” behind the brand and a sort of “peer-to-peer,” “word of mouth,” marketing?
Carol: I think it’s always been about the person behind the brand. I teach my students that your brand has a message, but it also has a personality. The personality is not what you do, it’s how you do it. The most important thing with personality is to be consistent. There’s a great F. Scott Fitzgerald quote, “…personality is nothing other than consistency and gesture.” And it’s really true. I think what we’re finding now with the “personalization,” of everything on the web, is that the brands that do have a consistent, recognizable, personality, are the ones that are going to succeed the most.
I had a blog post where I said that one of the reasons brands struggled on Facebook initially, was that they were still behaving like brands instead of a person, and you go to Facebook to learn about people. So brands needed to talk about the parties they’re throwing, and show pictures, and do things that people do, not talk in terms of “brand talk.” I think they’re starting to get it, and that’s why Facebook is becoming profitable finally!

Ines: In the book, “Next: A vision of our lives in the future,” the authors express a paradox about this generation, characterizing them as individuals who are nostalgic for a past they haven’t lived. This is seen through the ways they cling to old music idols like Mick Jagger and Madonna, or even Michael Jackson. The authors argue that a paradox lies in the way this generation values some things from the past, while completely rejecting other things.
Do you also see this generational paradox? If so, how does one go about marketing to this ambiguity, thus having to reconcile the past and the future?
Carol: I watched “That 70’s show” last night with my 15-year-old son. I had never seen it before. He loves that show. The 70’s was my childhood, and yet he does relate to that. I think that with the millennial generation, their values are not any different from traditional values, but they’re more culturally liberal. They still value honesty, creativity, family, and success. There’s really no difference in terms of what they value. What they’re doing, is putting a different spin on it. They’re redefining what success means. They’re redefining the role of creativity in their lives, of self-expression. They’re redefining what family means.
I think one of the brilliant things about the “ABC Family Channel” is that it gets that! If you watch those shows, they’re not the way they were even 3 years ago. They’re multicultural, they’re dealing with issues that real families are dealing with, and they show multiple generations liking each other! There’s been a shift. So it isn’t that the values are different, it’s just a different interpretation.

Ines: Where do you think the relatively new art of blogging is headed? Are blogs a way for companies to speak and advertise to the millennial generation?
Carol: Absolutely. A lot of millenials blog, but not all of them, but they do read blogs. There’s a great site, “Brazen Careerist.” Penelope Trunk is amazing, she’s created a community of Gen Y bloggers, and I think we’re going to see more of that. Her community is around work, but I think there are other communities that are going to spring up, and are springing up. I mean, look at “Deviant Art.” There are communities around cooking, wine, and very specialized interests. All marketers have to do, is rather than create a community, just join it, join the conversation…

Ines: More and more, we see advertising campaigns that are pretty interactive, like the “T-Mobile sing along.”The consumer becomes a participant, rather than just a passive buyer. How do you see the role of the millennial consumer evolving?
Carol: I think we are going to see more and more of that. At first, there were very few campaigns that were participatory like that, now there’s a lot. Last Christmas, Starbucks did their “Project Red Campaign.” Now we’re seeing a lot of crowd sourcing which is interesting. Dunkin Donuts had huge success with “Design a Donut.” I think we’re going to see more and more things like this.

Ines: In Sao Paulo, I’ve recently noticed that there have been a few “temporary stores” opening.
The design is extremely elaborate, and nothing implies that this store would be temporary. Yet, they open with the intention of being open for a couple months, clearly a way to advertise their brand, on a well-known street. Are we moving towards a world that’s like our online world, where things are more and more temporary, including physical stores?
Carol: I think the Temporary store is a really interesting phenomenon. I think Jc Penney did it first in Times Square, and they got a lot of attention with that. It’s a really another form of advertising, it’s just much more experiential. It’s not cheap but I think it has incredible impact. It’s a great way to reach young people who aren’t likely to pay attention any other way.

Ines: You talk about how this generation enjoys somewhat sophisticated pleasures, and “living large,” at least in terms of wine and gourmet foods. This doesn’t seem to change even in a recession. What do you think the desire for these products says about this generation?
Carol: Well I think it says a lot about the way they were raised. They grew up in a very economically prosperous time. Their parents were better educated than parents had been before. They got exposed to very sophisticated things early on, and more of them have traveled.
I think the whole interest in things like cooking, wine, and fashion, is driven partly by self-expression, but also those are things you can share. They’re incredibly functional. You can talk about wine, and you can talk about food. It’s an experience that’s communal.

Ines: But you also present a paradox. Most of the college students you know, if not all, consider themselves poor, but still indulge in these pleasures. What are your thoughts on that?
Carol: I think they do think of themselves as cash-strapped, even the ones who by normal standards are living pretty well. I don’t think they are ever not going to think of themselves as frugal. They’re careful shoppers, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t buy things that they perceive as a “need.”
I think that’s the challenge for marketers. Move things out of that “nice to have” and into the “must have” category.

Ines: That’s why you also mention that it’s not smart to position your brand as luxury?
Carol: I don’t think so, though there have been several brands that have been doing just that, and are enjoying some success, so maybe I’m wrong. The Burberry campaign with Emma Watson seems to be successful. And a Burberry coat is a luxury, by any standards! You know, girls want the fancy bags. How I reconcile that is I think they move that expensive bag into a “must have” category, so it’s not a luxury for them. In the same way, that a Mac Book, is a must-have, as opposed to something half the price, which is just as functional.

Ines: How does your role as a mother and Professor impact, shape, and influence, the work you do? It’s interesting because both these roles make it so that you’re very connected to this generation. Do you see this shaping what you choose to study, and the lens through which you perceive and examine things?
Carol: Absolutely. I was putting together a presentation for a major entertainment client. One of the things they commented on, on my draft, is that it pulls on everything. It pulls on my own experience in the classroom, and with my kids. It pulls on anecdotal data from Gen Y blogs and Twitter. It pulls on secondary research, and it pulls very heavily on my own research. We [Brand Amplitude] do a lot of client work, about the millennial generation for major brands. Also, we’ve done a lot of studies for ourselves, like the one on social media, and the millennial generation in the workplace.
So I think we’re at the cutting edge of a lot of these things. And that’s partly because I’ve got my ear to the ground, both personally and professionally.

Read more about Carol Phillips: http://millennialmarketing.com

In the last weeks a phenomenon has swept over social networks in Brazil. Nothing unexpected, especially because as social-network-addicts know, it’s impossible to predict what crazily cool thing they’ll come up with next.

Allowing Orkut contacts (currently the most popular social network in Brazil) to be transferred to Facebook, is a monumental step. Perhaps the creator of this application didn’t realize what kind of enormous reprecussions his creation would have.

Brazil has the most Orkut users in the world. Other social networks like Twitter and Facebook are slowly growing in Brazil. People have gotten used to the Brazilian style of Orkut. It has truly become a second home to them.

Generation Y discovered these tools, allowing them to connect with friends, that they might have never seen again or kept in touch with, without social networks. More than just a distraction, social networks are becoming a social habit. Society has grown accustomed to, and become relatively dependent on this medium of communication.

Perhaps this is why Gen Y has been a bit resistant towards Facebook. They were happy in their Orkut world. Orkut and its applications are extremely familiar to them, and easy to use.

Also, the new innovations popping up on Orkut were never hard to get a grip on, as they were always user friendly. While other countries dominated Facebook from A to Z, Brazilians still asked “Why Change?” Especially because most of their friends didn’t know the site. Moving everybody to Facebook would be a lot of work.

Yet little by little, young Brazilians, especially those belonging to Generation Y, became the motor propelling social networks. They were invited and encouraged to get to know “Facebook.”

One thing that Brazilians really seem to love is the idea originally taken from Twitter where Facebook users share “what are you doing?” The idea of telling others in real-time what you are thinking is really interesting. Also, a lot of games available exclusively on Facebook allow friends to play and compete together. This also goes along with the idea of sharing in real-time.

And so the Facebook fever rose. Now with the ability to import Orkut contacts onto Facebook, people will feel more and more at “home” on Facebook. Brazilian participation has risen significantly, for the simple fact that this tool greatly facilitates conversion, and wasn’t available before. There’s no doubt that with a large Brazilian presence on Facebook, the social network will continue to grow exponentially.

And what does all this have to do with Gen Y and Brazil? A lot! It allows us to understand what moves youth today. They are moved by familiarity. They are drawn to that which is not threatening, and doesn’t go out of their comfort zone too much. Of course, Gen Y in Brazil does want to “shake and move,” exploring new experiences, but only to a certain point.

Brazilians, especially in comparison to Europeans and Americans still romanticize this idea of “home sweet home.” Although Gen Y is constantly characterized by their speed, velocity, and instantaneous nature, they are still loyal to their origins.

In this case, the origin is Orkut, and Brazilians may take a while to realize that they can come and go as they please when it comes to social networks. Facebook was a beginning, but clearly there will be many more beginnings and middles, captivating the attention of Gen Y in Brazil. Whether we like it or not this generation is the beginning of everything.

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.