Millenials

My very favorite session from the 2009 Lilly Conference in Greensboro was titled: Active Learning, Constructivism and the Millennial Student: A Comfortable Marriage. The presenter began by handing out a worksheet for each participant to self-reflect on the classroom strategies they used. Mine indicated I use a mix of constructivist as well as more traditional methods. I found the parallels between this presentation, my own teaching philosophy, and my profession of occupational therapy are all pretty much in alignment with constructivism. What I had not anticipated (nor experienced) was that there were similar parallels to the Millennial Learners. On paper, I can follow the discussion that Millenial Leraners exhibit simiarities with constructivist tendancies , but in my practice I have not experienced the synchrony. This has, however, sparked an interest that I will begin journaling my beliefs and experiences in the classroom.

The Planary session during lunch on Friday presented "Student Issues" at local campuses. For the most part, I concurred with the various panelists that my experience here at WSSU was similar. One thing is clear: our students today have a tremendous amount going on in their lives. As our program deals with graduate students and adult learners it is very important to remember the context of our students learning and "living" and to approach them as individuals. One of the panelists presented more from a legal standpoint which I found very interesting and feel as faculty we need to know more about.