Educating the Facebook generation

The new generation of learners is not information hungry. Data and facts that constituted a large part of basic education are now available online for free. Students don't have to look towards schools or libraries to obtain information. All the data and more is now available with one click through the Google search bar.

This mass of gigantic information readily available on the internet has clearly resulted in the fact that education in no longer about teaching facts and data but about content-based learning and the skills to use that content.

This generation of student who are native users of technology are called the 'Z' generation or sometimes called the 'I' generation. This generation has an inclination to learn more from technology than from brick and mortar. Some attributes of these learners are that they watch TV on an average 16 hours a week; spend 5 hours a day on social network; Book reading has reduced to two hours a month and they build a virtual social world though Facebook and Twitter.

The Facebook revolution is not only for students. 96% of the Y generation (born before 1996) have joined a social networking site and have cyber membership. If Facebook was a country it would have the third largest population in the world, having moved up from fourth position two years ago to third position currently.

Given these statistics, smart educators have begun to realise that instead of banning the social network sites altogether, they should be accessible on these sites, where they can catch the interest and the train of conversation of the students. Parents also have community pages to share general concern about the school or the system of education in general.

Apart from the social networks, there are several internet tools to support education. The most popular being the Wikipedia.  The Youtube is a good reservoir for teaching material for concept learning. There are other online teaching communities such as Teachers Tube.

Online teaching is hitting conventional teaching hard in the developed countries. In the US, almost one third of students in the higher education sector learn online. Some studies show that online students are exhibiting better retaining skills than students who learn face to face.

Long distance or satellite based education is a great tool to harness teaching. Skpye and other internet collaborative tools allow tutors who sit in different locations to teach real time in a classroom as well as interact in Q&A sessions with students.

While the technological advances are many and new advents of technology are hitting education rapidly, there is a still a culture change that most educators are struggling with. It is frowned upon if a principal has a Facebook page. Teachers are wondering if it suits their profile to be on Facebook. Except for those who are tech-savvy, most educators still shy away from being a cyber citizen.

These technology tools that students are so quickly adapting may create a gap between educator and students unless the educators quickly ramp up and become part of this sweeping change in lifestyle.

Many countries and education departments have banned the use of Facebook in schools, but that doesn't stop students from using it from home. Using Facebook in school is not necessary for harnessing technology in classroom. A model that allows the maximum use of online education aids inside the classroom and an environment where teachers connect with students, after school hours through social network may be the way to go forward.