Millennials talk, Nassau Community College

April 24th, 2007 Stewart

Just writing a quick note tonight in preparation for tomorrow’s Millennials talk at Nassau Community College, Long Island. I’ve embedded the slides below if anyone needs to look at them. I also wanted to add a few links:

Teaching Naked - Tomorrow’s Professor
http://amps-tools.mit.edu/tomprofblog/archives/
2007/04/786_teaching_na.html
I really like this article and the ideas it conveys. Not everything will work for everyone, but there’s some good ideas here on the whole.

23 things - Learning 2.0
http://plcmcl2-things.blogspot.com/
For faculty who need to “catch up” with the technological savvy of their students, here’s 23 things that make one outstanding tutorial.

Educating the Net Generation
http://www.educause.edu/educatingthenetgen
Free e-book from EDUCAUSE, and possibly the best book on college-age Millennial mindset ever.

I will add more on Wednesday after I get back. In the meantime, I’d like to encourage any and all NCC folks to post their comments and ideas here so we can continue our conversation.

Posted in 5tothenext, education, millennials | No Comments »

"You’re Okay, I’m Perfect"

April 1st, 2007 Stewart

For Girls, It’s Be Yourself, and Be Perfect, Too - New York Times

In Millennials Rising, there’s a cartoon of a Mil kid in her t-shirt that reads, “You’re Okay, I’m Perfect!” The quest for perfection among these kids, or more accurately pushed upon them by their ambitious parents, gets cited quite a bit as a Mil trait.

This article does a fair job of outlining this trait, specifically in teen girls, and in particular the added caveat that this perfection needs to be perceived by everyone around these kids as being “effortless.” “Effortless hotness,” as one girl calls it, but also effortless athleticism, effortless intellect, and effortless character and spirit.

Of course, anything close to perfection comes at tremendous cost. (See Robbins’ The Overachievers for more on that.) Career burnouts and divorce rates will likely rise considerably with the Mils. Maybe the emphasis should be that while one should strive to be great, it’s still okay to be just “okay?”

Posted in 5tothenext, education, millennials | 2 Comments »

Five to the next generation…

March 4th, 2007 Stewart

Fellow library blogger Jennimi and I have started up a little meme from our comments on my last post. We’re asking everyone to post with their response to the following question:

“What 5 things would you say to the next generation?”

She’s already posted hers which I like a lot; here’s mine:

* Education is a process, not an outcome. If you aren’t learning anything in college, odds are you are failing the system as much as (if not more than) it is failing you.

* Other people cannot tell you who you are. Self-discovery can really only happen when you unplug from the world.

* Do you really want your children to see those pictures of you doing body shots in Cabo? Because once they are out there, they are out there forever.

* The only people who have ever been accused of being great are the ones who had original ideas and built original things.

* Give something back every single day.

You can join in by tagging your post “5tothenext” and posting your five things. To get the ball rolling, I’m calling out:

M. Banks
D. Rothman
M. Zafron

(David, if you do this, I’ll finally post that “five things you don’t know about me” thing that I didn’t do before.) Thanks all!

Posted in 5tothenext, education, generation x, millennials | 4 Comments »