Millennial Students: How Teachers Are Using Technology for Good

In this day and age college instructors need to embrace the technology the millennial students' culture is emmersed in. That same technology students use to ignore you during class and distracts them from doing their homework, may just be the key to communicating with them.

Yes, the Myspace and Facebook have become staple online communities. Many people of all ages have these accounts, but it is the younger populations that are usually more addicted. These sites annoy instructors on many occasions, but that does not always have to be the case.

We all know keeping our students' attention is an up hill battle. This is especially true with the millennial students we run across in our classrooms. Getting a hold of students outside of class can be difficult. They tend to not update information with the records office, so old cell numbers may be on file. In my case, I work at a community college. Our online portal is still being refined, and it isn't exactly user friendly at times. This really turns off many of my traditional students, so getting them to even just log on to check their e-mail can be a challenge. I want to put lecture notes and extra credit out on the course web site for them, but that would me I would have to get them to log on to blackboard.

For years, I tried to think of a way to communicate with my students about the class and the opportunities they had to work in blackboard. I wanted a way to get a old of students who had maybe missed a class or two without having to leave a message with their parents (who undoubtedly would wonder if an instructor called the home). I wanted to find a way to communicate to them, and to let them know about other opportunities, without totally abandoning the online system the school had set up. Little did I know, I had the answer right in front of me for nearly two years.

Two years ago, I opened a myspace account. I didn't really use it at all for the first year and a half. Then an old boyfriend helped me revamp my page, and soon I too was addicted. I used it as a way to communicate with my friends and family, and a way to make new friends. I never thought about using it for professional reasons. Pretty soon though I was advertising my writing career on my page and in my blog.

Still I never thought about using an online community for my education career. It wasn't until I attended a Academic Advisor training that it made sense. If I built a group for my class, everyone could join. I wouldn't have to friend anyone, and I would still have a way to communicate with the class.

After looking into it, myspace groups didn't have many of the features I wanted. Plus, I looked at myspace as more of a social outlet. I am careful of the content on my page, but I still id not want my students to think it was okay to friend me there. That is when I began to look into Facebook.

I liked Facebooks groups better. I liked having more options, plus I could make a new account and keep it as low key as possible. Yes I have friends and family on there too, but I keep the more social things strictly on MySpace.

I joined Facebook, and I made a group for my class. I made the group private, so I have to approve the members (so not just anyone could join). My students can join the group, and I can send them messages and even 'poke' classmates who have been missing for a few class meetings. At the end of the semester the group is deleted. Then it is time to build another group for a new class.

I may have to fight the use of technology in my classroom, but I will be the first to endorse using it to your advantage. Use the technology your students have embraced to your advantage, and you may find communicating with them a great deal easier.