Gen Y, Christmas Cyber Monday, and Homework - what do they have in common?

Don, 

The Generation Y presentation went well. Those who attended left a bit depressed as they realized that this new generation took very seriously "elders are the role model". This generation has modeled itself on the concept that actions speak louder than words. No previous generation has followed this as resoundingly as Gen Y.

I enjoyed your digital technology social media impact thoughts. I think what is so interesting about cyberbullying is that no one seems to understand that they can simply turn the computer off or go to another cite. Being proactive does not seem to be a part of this generation's mode of operation. There is a small trend that is actually a backlash toward technology with this group. They still use technology, but appear more discriminating as to which pieces of technology they are going to live with.

Moving on to "Invasion of the Money Snatchers!" Sorry to hear that Black Friday has found its way into your neck of the woods. I was really hoping that there was a place in the first world nations that didn't have this "experience." One thing that has spun out of this has been the Cyber Monday -  the Monday following Black Friday – deals and promises and price cuts on all things electronic! Movies for 20% off, computers on dizzying close-out sales! My email box is still stuffed with "up and coming" specials.

Are you sitting down, Don? Okay, so I'm cruising through the latest news one evening as a break from all the papers I've been grading (we are at the end of the quarter) and I run across an article about some teachers agreeing students get too much homework... that it causes more stress and sleep deprivation than it does to improve knowledge and skill development; that only students in grades 7 – 12 really benefit from it at all.

Now the examples that were given were extreme – an hour of homework a night for 2^nd graders. I agree, that is a bit out of hand – but I'm not sure allowing students to avoid stress (so don't do the homework or only do part of it), not learning how to manage stress (by learning how to better manage their time), telling them to not do the work is in their best interests. It was suggested that students email their instructors when they feel overwhelmed. That is a good strategy – and the first time a young, brand new-to-the-job employee does that to a boss, they don't have a job anymore. And often the young new-to-the-job person doesn't have a clue as to why they've been released.

School and homework were my practice grounds for adulthood. I spent many nights working with my dad to learn physics and algebra and stats– I was sleep deprived and so was he – but we didn't live and stay in the thought and mood that this was terrible, horrible, god-awful. We knew it would end and we worked toward that.

Several school districts have changed the order of class work. Students now listen to the lecture at home, and do the homework in school under the instructor's supervision. The reports are mixed as to whether or not this is effective. Since my class periods are 4 hours long, I do both. It works for those who come to class.

At the college level, especially this time of the quarter, I hear a lot about being sleep deprived, not having enough hours or minutes in a day to accomplish what has been assigned. When asked how long they've known about the assignment, most will admit they've known for at least a couple of weeks, if not more. I did, however, have a tutoring student last week who tried to convince me the writing assignment had just been assigned. When I showed him the syllabus for the class and pointed out when it had really been assigned, he admitted he'd not been to class lately... REALLY? Fresh snow during the week – he just had to try the new powder out even though he missed class and sure enough, he got stranded because of blizzards so he missed more classes ...

I should be keeping an excuse list – and starting about 6^th week, putting it on the board. I had another rash of food poisoning again last week – students who didn't know each other or eat at the same places all came down with food poisoning at the same time. Now, I sure that in their minds, they had food poisoning. But  several admitted that they'd been celebrating the night before. Food poisoning, REALLY? Hope I don't sprain an eye doing the eye roll.

To tell the truth, I don't know which is worse, students ducking class and homework or the Christmas sales.

I've been investigating internet search engines to better help my research students and myself with research. I have a list of about 35 different search engines, found a chart with 100 search engines on it... amazing! I'd forgotten that there was more to the internet world than just google and yahoo, bing and .gov. Been having fun tracking down sources for what I think might be my next writing project.

So the website is up and current for December. Books for sale are up and ready... guess Wormhole is contributing to the Christmas sales. But I can guarantee readers will be pleased, amazed and mystified!

Have a great week everyone.

Don, I took a look at your next conversation – "Thou Shalt Chill" as the 3^rd Commandment? I like it!

Carolyn

All images downloaded from Google images

Fig 1 – More on Black Friday retrieved from brooklynbuzz.com

Fig 2 --  Huge best cyber Monday deals retrieved from www.hugecybermondaydeals.com

Fig 3 – Cyber Monday Sales top $1.25 billion retrieved from mashable.com

Fig 4 – The Case Against Homework retrieved from www.thecaseagainsthomrework.com

Fig 5 – My homework philosophy retrieved from placlair.wordpress.com

Fig 6 – Homework retrieved from slates-tablets.com

 Fig 7 – Too much homework retrieved from www.aplacetolovedogs.com