For my “Principles and Processes of E-learning” course I have been assigned a reflection journal on the different generation of learners that I might encounter in my teaching. In preparation for this assignment I read several articles and watched videos on the variances between learners of differing generations. The following reflection is based on what I found and how I hope to implement changes in my own teaching when working with a variety of different generations.

Objective

I fit squarely in the middle of what is termed ‘Generation X’ (Gen X), having been born in 1972 (TILT, 2014). According to TILT, Gen X attributes include impatience and self-reliance; they respond best to relevant assignments and crave feedback; they require a clear connection between assignments and their own personal goals (2014). I feel this captures both how I view, and approach education, I am motivated greatly by feedback and use it to improve as I move through my educational pursuits.

The learners that I work with as an instructor are a mix of generations. I teach nursing, which has a high demand on people physically so most of the learners are between the ages of 20-45 years, with the majority being in their 20s or early 30s. This means, according to TILT, that the learners I encounter bridge two generations, Gen X and Millennials (2014). Being of the Gen X population I am in sync with the needs and learning styles of the students who fall into this category. For those in the Millennial population, TILT indicates that one of the major attributes of these learners is optimism, they are team oriented and they value learning activities and varied approaches to the presentation of materials (2014).

Reflective

Being a Gen X I like to work independently and with minimal supervision, I prefer to do the work and receive the feedback once the project is complete, I will then adjust accordingly in my next assignment (Rampton, 2017). However, Millennials prefer to work in teams, they prefer to collaborate with others, they want to use the technology available and they prefer immediate feedback (Rampton, 2017).

As an instructor I can see how the learners from the Millennial generation prefer to work together on projects, in class and with ongoing in the moment feedback. I have found too, anecdotally, that when there is a mix of Millennials and Gen X learners each group tends to work with members of their generational cohort.

However when these groups are made to mix I have found that the Gen X learners tend to defer to the styles of the Millennial’s, when the group is predominantly Millennial; for instance when working together on a group project these groups tend to use technology and collaborate as a group better. I have also witnessed groups with more Gen X members who split up the work and only come together for the end product, which is very indicative of the Gen X desire for independence.

Having reviewed the information on Gen X and Millennial’s, I can see that my own desires as a member of Gen X may not lend itself well to the collaborative nature of the Millennial. Also, my desire for deferred feedback after the project is completed may not mesh well with the Millennial’s desire for feedback throughout the process.

Interpretive

There are many articles and videos that provide insight and direction to teaching and learning within various generations. It has been a great exercise for me to look at the differing values and needs of generations and it has informed me that I will need to adjust my teaching strategies to meet the needs of all of the generations in my class.

It is helpful to know the approaches that Gen X responds to, such as asking for them to share their professional experiences and how their learning will contribute to their growth as a professional (TILT, 2014). Whereas Millennial’s will need to have technology incorporated into all of their learning activities as well as a diverse learning environment where learning activities are ever changing and engaging (TILT, 2014).

With this knowledge I will be looking more closely when crafting learning activities to ensure that the needs of a variety of generational learners will be met. I will need to consider the skills of each generation and I may need to provide additional support for the differences in the generations, such as assisting Gen X students with the technology or encouraging the Millennial’s to work independently when needed.

Bart’s 5 R’s, research-based methods, relevancy, rationale, relaxed and rapport, are also helpful when looking for ways to engage Millennial learners (2011). There is definitely some overlap between Gen X and Millennials as both are looking for their learning to be relevant (Bart, 2011; TILT, 2014). To satisfy both Millennials and ‘Gen X’ students alike I will strive to create learning activities that are relevant to real life application.

Decisional

The challenge that I think I will face when delivering a course on-line will be around how to create engaging environments for all of the learners involved. I will need to incorporate approaches that will appeal to a broad number of generational learners. For instance, TILT indicates that if providing individual work, you should also provide an explanation of how this work will help with learning (2014). When providing teamwork assignments, I will be sure to provide them with strategies to support working in teams and an explanation of how working effectively in a team will help their learning (TILT, 2014).

My concern with team assignments in an online environment is whether the learners will be able to arrange for meetings to discuss the assignments. I realize that Millennials prefer collaboration, but Gen Xers are happy to work independently. As previously mentioned sometimes when these learners are mixed into groups, they have very different ways of approaching the work and sometimes the end product can be disjointed. This is where it will be important to convey the rationale for how teamwork will contribute to their overall success both as a student and when they are working in their professional fields.

I will need to find ways to create interactive environments or offer advice on technology that can be used to arrange on-line and distance communication. For the Millennials they may be able to offer me some insight on new apps or technology that they use to communicate. For the Gen Xers I may have to provide detailed instruction on how to access and use the technology.

Furthermore I think it would be beneficial for me to have access to the ongoing work of the project so that I can provide feedback and direction in the moment to appeal to the Millennials but also provide deferred feedback once the assignment is complete with information on how to improve for the next assignment, in order to meet the needs of the Gen Xers.

References

Bart, M. (2011). Characteristics of Millennial Students: What Professors Need to Know. Retrieved June 20, 2019, from https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-and-learning/the-five-rs-of-engaging-millennial-students/

Rampton, J. (2017). Different Motivations for Different Generations of Workers: Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z. Retrieved June 20, 2019, from https://www.inc.com/john-rampton/different-motivations-for-different-generations-of-workers-boomers-gen-x-millennials-gen-z.html

TILT (2014). Teaching Across Generations – Part II. Retrieved June 20, 2019, from https://uminntilt.com/2014/07/14/teaching-across-generations-part-ii/

Journal 2 PIDP 3240 Feeling Overexposed

Managing Personal vs professional

identity_management_cyberspace

How Do You Separate a Personal Brand from a Professional One_ _ John Rampton

cyber mentoring

Objective

This journal will focus on the topic of feeling over-exposed due to my choice to develop an online community of learners and to develop a resource blog for assignments 3 and 4 in this course.

As previously mentioned I am an instructor with the BScN program at VCC College, I mostly instruct in the clinical setting; I am aware of the need for students and myself communicate with one another and to easily access electronic information. I however have always approached my professional life as separate from my social life, family life, student life etc; some may call this ‘compartmentalizing’ which is defined by Cambridge Dictionary Online as “to separate something into parts and to not allow those parts to mix together” (2015).

Since beginning to work on assignment 3 and 4 I have been experiencing some anxiety around keeping my professional and personal lives separate. The internet is a big place yet somehow my computer cache/cookies, search engines, cloud storage and whatnot seem to be able to connect my compartments even though I have made every effort to use separate e-mail accounts etc. This has created some issues for me as I begin to try and develop a separate professional on-line identity while linking all of the parts together, ie: twitter to face-book to my blog to LinkedIn to You-tube etc.

Reflective

Even in my personal life I have chosen not connect through all of the possible venues mostly relying on e-mail, face-book and that’s about it. I did attempt to previously create a Linked-In account but found that it was difficult to manage who could see all of my personal and work related information so I quickly deleted that account; I believe that you can control this a bit better now with the current Linked-In accounts but I have not yet fully investigated this and so I have not fully developed my Linked-In profile.

Since developing these new accounts I have had to delete and block personal friends and indicate to them that these accounts are for professional use and part of a school project; so far most have understood but it has still left me feeling incredibly exposed. Perhaps I am a bit paranoid but I have had some experiences in my professional life that have made me very aware that people can and will use things from your personal life in a manner that can make work feel uncomfortable, even hostile. Perhaps I am just too private a person? Or perhaps I think I am much more important to others than I am in actuality? But I can say this, there are some things that I do not necessarily want to share with my colleagues, peers and most definitely not my students.

It makes me very nervous to see that my professional face-book account indicates my personal face-book account as a possible friendship link and vice versa. It also makes me nervous to see that my current manager has already gone and reviewed my Linked-In account which is pretty bare bones at the moment. Needless to say the last couple of weeks in this course have been spent opening these new accounts and attempting to keep everything separate (meaning personal from professional) yet linked (meaning professional to professional and personal to personal) rather than on actually building the sites to serve as a resource for the community of learners. This has been a bit of a headache for me and a realization that even though I have worked to keep my cyber footprint small it is still there and somehow linked to all that I do on-line.

Interpretive

Bowen in his book titled ‘Teaching Naked” states that students need to feel connected to their instructors and that this includes having an instructor who understands and uses technology to the fullest, he states that if an instructor is not capable of using the current modes of communication that they may appear inept and even ‘un-cool’ to their students (2012). Bowen further states that one needs to keep their personal life separate from their professional life, which includes not using professional accounts to describe or discuss personal activities/life (2012).

Bowen provides us with this advice but doesn’t speak to how one might accomplish this separation. It is my thought that if one was completely cyber naive that they could start from scratch and keep things separate and in order. However someone like me who has had a cyber presence since 1995 and was not aware of how large and nebulous the internet would grow to become or aware of how linked we are to our cyber pasts maybe hasn’t take the right measures to maintain privacy or police what information about them is available on the internet. Had I known then what I know now I would have approached many things regarding my cyber footprint differently.

So now the problem sits, how do I ensure that my private and personal information is kept separate from my professional online persona?

Decisional

To this end I have searched on-line for advice and steps that I might take in order to keep my personal life separate from my professional life. There are many blogs and articles that are dedicated to this issue which has provided me with some sense of relief that I am not the only person who is struggling with this issue. Some of the articles provide similar advice to Bowen, for instance Rampton in his article states that there needs to be a definite separation of the two identities even to the point of not having friends that you work with on your professional accounts (2014).

Holland states in ‘Nursing: Decision making for practice’ in the chapter dedicated to professional values and decision making, that Nurses are held to a different standard as they are providing care to people at their most vulnerable; Holland indicates that when using social media one must always be aware that they are in the public eye and that what they have posted can and may be used against them if there is concern for public safety (2013). Holland encourages Nurses to keep their personal lives and professional lives separate even going so far as to encourage Nurses to use different on-line modes of communication for each ie: face-book for social and Linked-In for strictly professional (2013). Holland provides 15 different tips on how to maintain the separation between personal and professional including not drinking and posting on social media, not posting disparaging comments on social media about patients, friends, colleagues, managers or employers, etc. They also warn that professional licensing bodies may access even personal on-line accounts when a complaint is filed about a licensed member (2013).

The information that I have found is quite helpful and provides useful advice on how to maintain separate personal and professional on-line identities but I feel that they are mostly useful for those that may not have an already existing on-line persona. That being said I will be taking some of the advice provided to use in my attempts to separate my personal and professional accounts on-line. This experience has very much made me think about what is out there in cyberspace and how it links to me, that being said I will be spending more time filtering through my existing accounts and working to omit any questionable posts or links to my new professional accounts. I will be thinking carefully and choosing wisely what and whom I will include in this new endeavor to create and on-line learning community and resource. I realize that I really have very little to hide as I feel that I live quite an authentic life but I am starting to see that I am truly a private person who does not wish to share all the details of my life with everyone.

References

Bowen, J. (2012). Teaching naked: How moving technology out of your college classroom will improve student learning. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, a Wiley imprint.

Compartmentalize Meaning in Cambridge English Dictionary. (n.d.). Retrieved August 16, 2015.

Holland, K. (2013). Nursing: Decision making skills for practice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Rampton, J. (n.d.). How Do You Separate a Personal Brand from a Professional One? Retrieved August 16, 2015.