This document discusses the changing nature of today's college students and how educational approaches need to adapt. It notes that traditional teaching methods no longer work with the "new learner" who is anxious, constantly connected, and more demanding. Today's students need accommodations for various disabilities and lifestyles. They also desire more mobility through study abroad and internships. The document suggests engaging students through challenges and real-world problems rather than traditional lecturing. It advocates delivering content online but using the classroom for discussion. Social media is transforming the entire college experience through tools like prospective student networking portals and mobile audio channels. The biggest takeaway is that instructors need new training methods focused on teaching students how to learn rather than what to learn

1. Fasten Your Seatbelts:
My Students Today are Your Top Talent Tomorrow
Diane Gayeski, Ph.D. Dean
Roy H. Park School of Communications Ithaca College
copyright 2013 Diane Gayeski

2. When I say ‘college student’, what do you think?

3. When I say ‘college student’, what do you think?

4. Copyright 2009 Diane Gayeski
Mark Dunn, college junior
Hyperactive?

5. The challenge: How to engage these ‘difficult’ learners
who are top talent by leveraging new media and techniques

6. The tradition:

7. What used to work, doesn’t.
• The new student: anxious,
tethered, restless, less verbal,
more demanding

8. What used to work, doesn’t.
• The new student: anxious,
tethered, restless, less verbal,
more demanding
• More need to accommodate
physical, learning, psychological
disabilities and alternate lifestyles

11. What used to work, doesn’t.
• The new student: anxious,
tethered, restless, less verbal,
more demanding
• More need to accommodate
physical, learning, psychological
disabilities and alternate lifestyles
• Increasing mobility – desire to
study abroad, engage in
internships

12. What used to work, doesn’t.
• The new student: anxious,
tethered, restless, less verbal,
more demanding
• More need to accommodate
physical, learning, psychological
disabilities and alternate lifestyles
• Increasing mobility – desire to
study abroad, engage in
internships
• “Upside down” classroom

13. What’s your strategy to deal with the
“new learner”
• A) We have not really given this any thought
• B) We’ve talked about it
• C) We have made individual adaptations in
our learning strategies
• D) We have a well-developed strategy to deal
with changes in the new learner population

14. Social media transforming the entire
college experience

15. IC Peers – prospective student networking

18. portals

21. Mobile audio channels

22. Social networking

23. Blogs and Feeds

25. The format
Instructors manage
conversation, synthesize
concepts, provide feedback
Guests on Skype provide advice,
examples. Students tweet, interact,
work in groups to respond to
challenges

30. Real-world challenge from
Diane Sawyer and David Muir:
get 500k more young viewers in 4 months

32. What new training delivery or
performance support methods are
you trying out or considering?

33. • Use classroom for discussion, online /
social media for content delivery
• Don’t forbid multi-tasking – REQUIRE it
• Don’t teach. Challenge.
• Teach them to learn
• Engineer confusion
• Two-way learning – who’s the expert
here?
• Start with the questions, the problems –
NOT the answers or the ‘content’
• Learners ‘make’ the course- not ‘take’ it
• Make it seamless with “real life”
Breakthrough ideas

34. What’s the biggest surprise or
‘take away’ from this discussion?

35. Diane M. Gayeski, Ph.D.
Dean, Roy H Park School of Communications
Ithaca College 953 Danby Rd Ithaca, NY 14850
Gayeski@ithaca.edu
Gayeski Analytics www.dgayeski.com