This session was from Len Sweet who is like freaking Yoda or something. He is described as a futurist, not exactly sure what that is, but I most definitely want to be one. This guy is a Professor of Evangelism @ Drew Theological School and Visiting Distinguished Professor @ George Fox University, whatever that means.
Anyways, here are some of the highlights. He broke down our current culture into two categories which he called Gutenbergers and Googly’s. If you don’t get that, Gutenbergers are from Gutenberg who invented the printing press. Googly’s are obviously the younger generation that learns through technology. Older generations learn through books and Gen Y learns through screens.
Our education system is built for Gutenbergers but kids live in a Google world. He argues that the print world is left brained and the Google world is right brained. He said that anything that is working today and making money uses a Google interface. Within the education system, one thing that he said that is amazing is that this is the first generation that doesn’t need an authority figure to give them information. Meaning, a teacher. Students can learn whenever and wherever they want thanks to the internet. Here is the key. Millenials don’t need us to access information, they need us to process and assess information. In my experience, I very much agree with this statement.
One of the things that he coined that is currently revolutionizing teaching techniques that we have actually been wrestling with in our campus ministry and church in the last year is how Millenials learn. He calls it E.P.I.C. It stands for Experiential, Participatory, Image-Driven and Connected. This means that they want to experience something not just here a lecture, they want to participate in the learning process, they need to see pictures to learn and they want to do it in groups. If you minister, teach or work with young people, I would challenge you to make it EPIC.
“This means that they want to experience something not just here a lecture, they want to participate in the learning process, they need to see pictures to learn and they want to do it in groups.”
Doesn’t everybody though? Minus the groups thing. I mean, who just wants to be bored to death with a lecture (unless the person speaking is engaging or saying something that you’re really interested in).
I agree with Sam. Haven’t pictures been around for thousands of years? So have study groups. And before the Internet, there were libraries. The Internet has just made information much, much more accessible.
I think I’ve always had a problem with these generalizations about generations. Sure, I suppose we can make broad statements about large groups of people based on cultural changes, but most people will be an exception to at least some of them.
And the right/left brained thing? I still don’t see why that matters.
Other than that, it all sounds great. It’s very true that technology and independent learning have grown a ton in the last 20 years, so anything we can do to accomidate that is awesome.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t one of the big points of the “emeregent conversation” that there was a distinction made between generation theory and cultural epistemology? That is, it’s not a generation thing, because there are 12 -year-olds and and 30-year-olds who think this way?
Just wondering.
Well to answer you all’s questions. Portorikan, Things haven’t always been that way, you also are on the tail end of Gen X and many times there are parts of me that while I’m techincally born in Gen X, parts of me identify with Gen Y. There is some cross over between generations. There was no such thing really as learning in groups back in the day. That is a shift in education.
Joel, the printing press has only been around for a little over 500 years, so libraries were really a more modern invention. He was really speaking of learning in terms of the teacher was always the expert in class. I mean when you did math, did anyone ever not go to class and learn from a book, no the teacher was the source of information. Students don’t learn now to write by hanging out in the library. Of course there are some exceptions but thats not the way 95% of people learn, they learn from a teacher, if this wasnt true, we wouldnt have schools, we would just go and hang at a library all day. His point was is that this is changing, the teacher is not the expert anymore, because of the internet, people can google something and read an article written by someone smarter and more knowledgeable than their teacher. This is a new way to learn, it hasn’t happened before and its changing the face of education.
Pictures have been around for thousands of years, but that is not how our parents and grandparents and so on learned, they read books. They did not learn anything in front of a screen, it was all in books, that is different. The point with the left brained right brained stuff is that reading stimulates different parts of your brain than watching something on a screen, as a result it is changing the way people learn, scientists are saying that parts of the brain are different in younger generations than older when they are born because their brains are adapting to a new way to learn.
Adam, not super familiar with the argument between the two, all I would say is that thats about how far generation gaps are, so while their will be some differences, they will probably be more similar than different. Think about this, Gen Xers are now just entering their 40’s. The first Gen X-ers are in their 40’s and the youngest are in their mid 20’s.
To everyone, there are obviously stereotypes about generations and people don’t like to be lumped into them, and we will always have people that do not fit like a cookie cutter into them, but being someone that works with Millenials, I cannot tell you in my experience how similar they are, that includes you Joel:) I think the desire to be different from everyone else is actually something that marked Gen X especially, so while they all may think they are different but in actuality they’re the same.
Thanks for the reply Ross. Wow… I think that was the longest response ever from you.
thanks buddy.
“Millenials don’t need us to access information, they need us to process and assess information.”
Very, very true. We need to be continually reminded that wikipedia is not a reliable source of information, for example. Since ideas may be processed and related by so many minds in such a short amount of time, there is going to be much lost “in translation.” Like that telephone game on steroids.
well put arthur