Do Generation Xers learn differently to Boomers and the Internet Generation?

A colleague asked me recently "do you take somebody's age into account when designing and delivering training for them?"

As a learning professional in the IT industry, it's my job to provide learning resources for the employees in my organization. Broadly speaking, my colleagues were born between 1965 and 1982 - the so-called Generation X cohort, with a number of people born before this date range (who the Americans call 'Baby Boomers') and a few - increasing - new hires born after this time, variously called Generation Y, the Net Generation, self-regarding narcissists, Generation Next , depending on who you ask.

My colleague's question got me thinking: as well as individual learning styles (VAK, multiple intelligences and so on) are there generational learning styles? More specifically, is it the case that the technology you were exposed to as a child has some effect on the way you learn throughout your life? As an extension of this, are learning professionals using the most effective channels to enable learners to develop their skills, knowledge and experience in further education and workplace environments, or are we 'boxed in' by unconscious biases determined by the teaching approaches, technologies and media we ourselves were taught with?

I haven't carried out much research on this question, but have the educational media types and attendant technologies described in Table 1 'hard-wired' each generation's cognitive processes to acquire knowledge in specific ways?

Table 1. Generational learning modalities

Generation	Paradigm	Educational Media Types
Boomer	Analog	Projected Slides Overhead projector Film Reel-to-reel tape Slide Rule
GenX	Transistor	All the above as well as… Cassette Tape Video tape Electronic Calculator Personal computers (Apple II, Commodore PET etc)
Gen Next	Microprocessor	All the above as well as… CD-ROM (Early CBT) DVD PowerPoint Personal Computers (IBM PC, Windows 3.1) Internet 1.0 (Alta Vista, Yahoo! Discussion Forums etc) Internet Messenger Mobile (cellular) phones
Millennial	Networked	Some of the above as well as… Web 2.0 Web-based training/online educational resources Personal laptops/PDAs Blogs Wikis Podcasts Second Life Social Networking

Marc Prensky would say that there is some validity in this. As he asserted in his seminal article Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants, we can say that there is a well-established divide between those born pre- and post-1990 - Gartner, in their 2008 Symposium, recognized that the generation now entering the workplace "think different" (to appropriate a phrase).

Could the same be said for Boomers and Xers and does this effect the ways people of these groups acquire knowledge? I'm a Gen X kid and I guess we were probably the first generation to have "home computers" (Sinclair ZX Spectrum 16K anyone?) and home gaming systems like the Atari, as well as access to machines like the Apple II and the Commodore PET in a classroom environment. I can't say if having access to this technology changed the way I learned, because using these tools was the way I learned. Similarly, mine was probably the last generation to use log tables in maths class and simultaneously the first generation to use electronic calculators (despite fears at the time that using such gadgets would "weaken the brain" - I kid you not - I heard a teacher use that phrase).

Would I have developed differently if I had been born 10 years earlier and used a slide rule? Or 20 years later, where I could carry out calculations on my mobile phone?

Probably.

I don't know enough about the learning styles of those born in the Baby Boom years to make a judgement about how differently their early development was affected by their environment and the learning tools available to them, but I would make an educated guess that the ongoing learning needs of that generation would require a different strategy to that of Gen Xers, which in turn would require a different approach to how digital natives learn.

Interesting times ahead.

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Martin Dougiamas says: Moodle 1.9 now released! Hurrah!!

Like the man in the title said, Moodle 1.9 has been released.
Headline features include:

• Gradebook - Completely rewritten from scratch for speed and flexibility. The new gradebook consists of plugins for reports, imports and exports. There are a number of standard reports which are useful for graders, students etc. The grader report allows you to treat the gradebook much more like a spreadsheet with manual editing, calculations, aggregations, weighting, locking, hiding, textual notes and so on.
  
  
• Outcomes - You can also now develop a list of expected outcomes (competencies) and connect these to courses and activities. You can even grade against multiple outcomes at once (i.e. Rubrics).
  
  
• Events API - The new Events API provides a way for any code to "hook" into events in a clean, loosely coupled way. A lot of events in Moodle (such as adding a user or a course) now trigger events that developers can hook into.
  
  
• Scalability and performance improvements - A complete overhaul of the Roles implementation for correctness and scalability. Large sites with thousands of courses and users now load quickly and behave well under heavy traffic, thanks to reworked code for Roles. Additional boost for sites using PHP pre-compilers and significant improvements in the database access code for all databases. Many other parts of Moodle have been optimised to cope better with large numbers of courses and students. Overall performance is very noticeably increased.
  
  
• Moodle Network - Moodle 1.9 and Mahara E-portfolio v0.9 now do transparent Single Sign On - one to one, one to many, many to many. Students can maintain their personal E-portfolios in Mahara.
  
  
• Tags - Allows users to describe their own interests in terms of tags, which creates interest pages around those tags, bringing information together from a variety of sources (Blogs, Flickr, Youtube etc)
  
  
• Improved question bank - Allows questions to be shared by the whole site, a course category, a single course, or be kept private to a single module. More control over who can do what to each question. Improved file management for files linked to by questions.
  
  
• Notes - Detailed notes can be kept about individual users (for example teachers might want to keep and share notes about students in their class).
  
  
• Bulk user actions - Administrators can perform bulk user actions, such as the mass deletion of user accounts. Extended features in the bulk user upload script to allow generation of user fields based on templates.
  
  
• Custom corners theme - Beautiful and curvy (in all browsers).

Find out more here [links to Moodle.org]

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Non-formal learning in action: Information Sessions

As discussed in my last blog entry, learner intention - specifically deliberative learning (where the worker schedules time to learn) is a key definer of non-formal learning. As such, the development of an educationally sound theoretical framework, pedagogical approach and instructional design process (are essential in create a learning environment (both synchronous and asynchronous) conducive to the requirements of knowledge workers. At the same time, the content model must make effective use of available technologies, with the express purpose of countering the effects of cognitive overload (learners had consistently remarked on an imbalance of text to other media types – occasionally too much, but also, interestingly, in some instances not enough text on-screen to elucidate the topic, with the presenter “talking to, or around” the content where textual reinforcement would have assisted the participants understand the concepts being discussed (see Table 1).

I have developed the Information Sessions according to well-established learner-centric instructional principles. Specifically, they use a Constructivist theoretical model and a fusion of the ARCS Model and a Systems Design approach to the instructional design of content. A modality of Gagné’s Assumption is used as the basis for the Information Session structure, and the actual presentation format adheres to Gagné’s Events of Instruction (1-5, 7). Content is developed according Rapid eLearning principles. Information Session presenters are guided by the production team through the content creation process.

Table 1 Information Sessions High-level Typology

Function	Approach
Theoretical Framework	Social-Constructivist Model
High level ISD Process	ADDIE & RIO/RLO Model
Strategy	Based on Blooms Taxonomy of Educational Objectives
Structure	Based on Gagné’s Conditions of Learning
Content	Uses a multimedia mix of text, slides, images, animation, Flash and video demonstrations
Delivery	The events are hosted as live Subject Matter Expert (SME)-led events, presented in the following format
Synchronous	Asynchronous
Live audience at Information Session location	On-demand post live event
Synchronously streamed on the web	DVD-ROMs available to KWs. Each DVD-ROM contains one series of 10±2 Information Sessions

An important aspect of Information Sessions is the simultaneous use of face-to-face presentation with synchronous Web delivery, as well as post-event asynchronous distribution of content via the Web and on DVD-ROM, ensuring the widest-possible distribution of content and ensuring just-in-time access to knowledge and domain expertise across an organisation.

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