The current generation of college students are known by many names; Millennials, Generation Y, Internet Generation, Echo Boomers, and Nexters, to name just a few.  No matter what you refer to them as, modern college students present new and sometimes difficult challenges to many instructors.  The articles below may be helpful in gaining a better understanding of modern students, however as with any generation it is not wise to assume that all modern students fit into the same mold. 

New! Video: Father Google and Mother IM: Confessions of a Net Gen Learner
Carie Windham, Student Relations Specialist, EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative
The rise of the Millennials has spawned new conversations about engagement and learning on today’s college campuses. But what do these Net Gen learners really want? And what do they need to survive in a Web 2.0 world?

More Links Coming Soon

• Millennials Coming to College: This article by Robert DeBard, demonstrates how literature about Millennial students offers a view of some of the thematic elements that bring this generation into focus for educators who would appeal to these characteristics to help students learn, develop, and grow.   

• The Net Generation in the Classroom.: In this article Scott Carlson examines the use of modern technology to teach new generation of college students. According to Richard T. Sweency, university librarian at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, today's college students, sometimes called the Net Generation or the Millennials, will soon alter the way professors teach, the way classrooms are constructed, and the way colleges deliver degrees. Born between roughly 1980 and 1994, the Millennials have already been pegged and defined by academics, trend spotters, and futurists: They are smart but impatient. They expect results immediately.

• Advice for (and from) the Young at Heart: Understanding the Millennial Generation.: This article written by Michael L. Atkinson, offers input and advice to students, parents, and professionals--faculty and counselors--in connection with the so-called millennials, young students entering university since year 2000.

• Teaching Millennials, Our Newest Cultural Chort.:  Angela Provitera McGlynn, focuses on the varied aspects related to the education of millennial students, born in or after the year 1992,in the U.S. Amazingly this group of students actually represent nearly 30% of the American population.

For more information on Millennials call or visit the Teaching and Learning Center,

315 Culbertson Hall x-5572.

Return to regular view	Text-only	Updated: 02/11/08