The Millennials Arrive

The Millennial generation comprises the majority of students currently enrolled in college and has a strong influence among learners down through elementary education.  A variety of differences can been seen between the Millennial student population and previous student populations by describing and analyzing who the Millennials are and why they are the way they are (Dobozy & Pospisil, 2009).  One of the main issues is that the Millennial generation does not respond well to the traditional teaching methods, such as the lecture, that is so prevalent in today’s classroom (Pratt & Pratt, 2009).  As society must adapt and make changes for those who are aging the younger generations cannot be forgotten and society, specifically educators, must adapt and transform their methods for new learners as they emerge and engage the world around them (Abram, 2006).  According to Hoover (2009) society must agree to two large assumptions:  The first being that the Millennial generation is fundamentally different than any other generation and that the Millennial generation shares many similarities among themselves.

The Millennial generation refers to those individuals who were born between 1982 and 2004 (Hoover, 2009).  This generation is described by Wilson and Gerber (2008) as willing to participate in team or group activities, identifying with their parents and their parent’s values, being culturally, racially, and ethnically diverse, having a preference to multitask, engaging, connected, and community based.  These characteristic also flow over to those Millennials who attend, or will attend, institutions of higher education.  To help understand the differences between the Millennials and previous generations a comparison between the characteristics of the Millennials and previous college learners is needed. 

Over the next few weeks, The Reynolds Ripple will provide further research and information about this new generation of college students.

--CJ Bracken

Instructional Designer, Center for Distance Learning

Works Cited

Abram, S. (2006). Millennials: Deal with them. Texas Library Journal, 82 (3), 1-9.

Dobozy, E., & Pospisil, R. (2009). Exploring flexible and low-cost alternatives to face-to-face academic support. Teaching English with Technology, 9 (2), 73-92.

Hoover, E. (2009). The millennial muddle. Retrieved December 13, 2010, from http://chronicle.com/article/The-Millennial-Muddle-How/48772/

Pratt, D., & Pratt, D. (2009). Managing millennial students in the college classroom. Proceedings of the ATE annual meeting, Dallas, TX.  Retrieved from http://www.allacademic.com//meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/2/7/7/7/4/pages277745/p277745-1.php

Wilson, M., & Gerber, L. E. (2008). How generational theory can improve teaching: Strategies for working with the "millennials". Currents in Teaching and Learning, 1 (1), 29-44.