Meeting College Students Where They Are. Presentation at the Annual Conference of DET/CHE

Meeting New College Students Where They ArePresentation at the Annual DETCHE Conference, December 2, 2009
John B. Nash, PhD
Iowa State University
Associate Professor
Educational Leadership and Policy Studies • Human Computer Interaction
Associate Director
Center for Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education (CASTLE)

Do today’s graduating high school seniors have what it takes to succeed between now
and the next half century?
Image CC Flickr user GlobalGameJam

The Challenge
for all students

Percentile change in importance of task type in U.S. economy
Abstract
Routine
Manual
Autor, D., Levy, F., & Murnane, R. J. (2003). [updated, D. Autor, 2008]. As shown in McLeod (2009).

Peek
in a couple of corners:
academically, where are teens?
how might their social media habits inform your work?

meeting them where they are
academically

they’re probably going to need some help
Credits (all Flickr CC) nics_events

CSU Early Assessment of Readiness
for College - 2009
Students tested:366,949
http://eap2009.ets.org
“…a heads-up as to whether they’re learning what the university expects.” --USA Today
Quoted on http://www.calstate.edu/eap/

CAHSEE Results July 2008for Mathematics and English Language Arts (ELA) for All Grades
http://cahsee.cde.ca.gov/ExitProg1.asp?cLevel=State&cYear=2008-09&cChoice=ExitProg1&cAdmin=S&tDate=07/29/08&TestType=E&cGrade=AG&Pageno=1

Proficiency of First-time Freshmen Who Were Regularly AdmittedCalifornia State University
Fall 2008, Systemwidehttp://www.asd.calstate.edu/proficiency/2008/Prof_Sys_fall2008.htm

Freshmen Who Need RemediationCalifornia State University
Fall 2008, Systemwide
http://www.asd.calstate.edu/remediation/08/Rem_Sys_fall2008.htm

A high school diploma means
students have learned the basics
PAF Reality Check (2002) in Wagner (2009)

what do college instructors say?

300 College Instructors of First Year Students
Achieve, 2007

sum
in
they believe they’re prepared
they’re not prepared
they arrive confused
their technology experiences may not be what you believe they are

where are the levers?

“These kids can do amazing things when you build the learning around what interests them.”
Denis Littky (quoted in Wagner, 2008, p. 170).

“digital natives”
Call them what you will.
Their skill set and online proclivities have implications
(Wagner 2008; Boyd, 2009; Pew Internet and American Life Project, 2009)

they’ve been growing up digital
Image CC Flickr user sd

Students have very little prior practice or experience acting as responsible, successful digital citizens upon exiting high school

The public high school ed tech creed:
In filter we trust
Fryer, 2009

teens and
social media
It’s important to understand teen social media use in order to address issues in other areas of technology (boyd, 2009).

b4 college
Not excited about their lessons
Not excited about adults
they have a network, but they are not networking
Look at their friends list. That’s who they think they are speaking to. They just want to hang out.
30-40 close friends
>100 are connecting with everyone
>1000 is rare (purview of adults and politicians)
they are NOT on Twitter (average age on Twitter is 31)
Not using del.ico.us
“just because you have adopted a form of social media doesn't meant that young people do or ever will” (boyd, 2009).

Class divisions among teens and social media
MySpace is still home for Latino/Hispanic teens, immigrant teens, "burnouts," "alternative kids," "art fags," punks, emos, goths, gangstas, queer kids, and other kids who didn't play into the dominant high school popularity paradigm. These are kids whose parents didn't go to college, who are expected to get a job when they finish high school. These are the teens who plan to go into the military immediately after schools. Teens who are really into music or in a band are also on MySpace. MySpace has most of the kids who are socially ostracized at school because they are geeks, freaks, or queers.
Boyd, 2007
The goodie two shoes, jocks, athletes, or other "good" kids are now going to Facebook. These kids tend to come from families who emphasize education and going to college…They are primarily white, but not exclusively. They are in honors classes, looking forward to the prom, and live in a world dictated by after school activities….Most teens who exclusively use Facebook are familiar with and have an opinion about MySpace. These teens are very aware of MySpace and they often have a negative opinion about it. They see it as gaudy, immature, and "so middle school.”
Boyd 2007

Implications for colleges
Just because they are using it, doesn’t mean it fits in the classroom.
Instructors, professors need to figure out how a tool works in real life, then do it in the classroom.
Search and sharing
Help them understand these tools
Few know how Wikipedia works, the history, how it works, etc. (except that it’s bad(as they were told inhigh school))
Wikipedia has probably never been framed as an amazing, collective knowledge production event.
No critical thinking about remiss, even though they are the remixers
People think the digital natives are wiser than all of us.
Not true. They are just using it in ways different from adults.
We project assumptions on them.
Your new students are still teenagers.
We, as adults, have critical thinking abilities that they don’t’ have.
Drawn from boyd, 2009

Going forward
Don’t reject what they're doing…but don’t put it on a pedestal either.
Ask them to show them the uses
Have a conversation with them on how the tools they are using could be used for learning.
“(It) makes us rethink our position of power as adults.” (boyd, 2009)

John Nash
jnash@iastate.edu
Cell: 650.799.6703
Twitter: @jnash
http://edventureso.me

References
Achieve (2005). Rising to the Challenge: Are High School Graduates Prepared for College and Work? available online at http://www.achieve.org/files/pollreport.pdf
Autor, D., Levy, F., & Murnane, R. J. (2003). The skill content of recent technological change: An empirical exploration. Quarterly Journal of Economics 188, 4. [updated, D. Autor, 2008].
boyd, d. (2009). Teenagers who are Living and Learning with Social Media. 2009 Penn State Symposium for Teaching and Learning with Technology. Retrieved October 31, 2009, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rmoc9F6fceQ
boyd, d. 2007. "Viewing American class divisions through Facebook and MySpace ." Apophenia Blog Essay. June 24 . http://www.danah.org/papers/essays/ClassDivisions.html
California Department of Education (2009). California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE) Resultsfor Mathematics and English Language Arts (ELA) by Program (July 2008) for (All Grades) State Report. California High School Exit Exam Results. Retrieved November 29, 2009 from http://cahsee.cde.ca.gov/ExitProg1.asp?cLevel=State&cYear=2008-09&cChoice=ExitProg1&cAdmin=S&tDate=07/29/08&TestType=E&cGrade=AG&Pageno=1
Fryer, W. (2009). CIPA. In Unmasking the Digital Truth. RetrievedDecember 2, 2009 from http://unmaskdigitaltruth.pbworks.com/cipa
McLeod, S. (2009). Preconference Session on School Technology Leadership. Presentation at the Annual Conference of the School Administrators of Iowa, Des Moines, IA, August, 2009. http://www.dangerouslyirrelevant.org/sai2009.html
The California State University (2009). Fall 2008 Final Regularly Admitted First-time Freshmen Remediation Systemwide. Proficiency Reports of Students Entering the CSU System. Retrieved November 29, 2009 from http://www.asd.calstate.edu/remediation/08/Rem_Sys_fall2008.htm
The California State University (2009). Fall 2008 Final Regularly Admitted First-time Freshmen Proficiency Systemwide. Proficiency Reports of Students Entering the CSU System. Retrieved November 29, 2009 from http://www.asd.calstate.edu/proficiency/2008/Prof_Sys_fall2008.htm
Wagner, T. (2008). The global achievement gap : why even our best schools don't teach the new survival skills our children need--and what we can do about it. New York: Basic Books.

Meeting College Students Where They Are. Presentation at the Annual Conference of DET/CHE

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