Meeting New College Students Where They Are

Presentation at the Annual DETCHE Conference, December 2, 2009

John B. Nash, PhDIowa State University

Associate ProfessorEducational Leadership and Policy Studies • Human Computer InteractionAssociate DirectorCenter for Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education (CASTLE)

Image CC Flickr user GlobalGameJam

Do today’s graduating high school seniors have what it takes to succeed between now

and the next half century?

The Challenge

for all students

1960 1970 1980 1990 2002-10%

-5%

0%

5%

10%

15%

Autor, D., Levy, F., & Murnane, R. J. (2003). [updated, D. Autor, 2008]. As shown in McLeod (2009).

Abstract

Routine

Manual

Percentile change in importance of task type in U.S. economy

academically, where are teens? how might their social media

habits inform your work?

in a couple of corners:Peek

meeting them where they are

academically

Credits (all Flickr CC) nics_events

they’re probably going to need some help

Status N %Ready for College 59381 16%Did Not Demonstrate College Readiness on This Assessment

303998 83%

CSU Early Assessment of Readiness for College - 2009

http://eap2009.ets.org Students tested:366,949

“…a heads-up as to whether they’re learning what the university expects.” --USA TodayQuoted on http://www.calstate.edu/eap/

CAHSEE Results July 2008for Mathematics and English Language Arts (ELA) for All Grades

Tested or Passing All Students English Learner (EL) Students

Socio- economically

Disadvantaged

Not socio- economically

Disadvantaged

# Tested Math 13,237 4,347 7,367 2,467

Passing Math 29% 21% 25% 31%

# Tested ELA 13,373 6,528 8,152 2,021

Passing ELA 30% 19% 25% 34%

http://cahsee.cde.ca.gov/ExitProg1.asp?cLevel=State&cYear=2008-09&cChoice=ExitProg1&cAdmin=S&tDate=07/29/08&TestType=E&cGrade=AG&Pageno=1

Proficiency of First-time Freshmen Who Were Regularly AdmittedCalifornia State University

GenderNumber of Freshmen

% Proficientin Math

% Proficientin English

Female 29,146 55.5% 51.8%Male 21,041 72.9% 54.6%Total 50,187 62.8% 53.0%

Fall 2008, Systemwidehttp://www.asd.calstate.edu/proficiency/2008/Prof_Sys_fall2008.htm

Freshmen Who Need RemediationCalifornia State University

GenderNumber of Freshmen

% Needing Remediation

in Math

% Needing Remediationin English

Female 29,146 44.5% 48.2%Male 21,041 27.1% 45.4%

Total 50,18737.2%

(GPA avg.=3.13)47.0%

(GPA avg.=3.16)

Fall 2008, Systemwidehttp://www.asd.calstate.edu/remediation/08/Rem_Sys_fall2008.htm

Students Teachers Parents Employers Professors0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

77% 74%66%

39%33%

Percentage saying "Yes"

PAF Reality Check (2002) in Wagner (2009)

A high school diploma means students have learned the basics

what do college instructors say?

Cannot comprehend complex readings

Cannot think analytically

Have poor study habits

Write poorly

Can't apply what's learned to solve problems

70%

66%

62%

59%

55%

Instructors asserting that first year college students…

Percentage Reporting

Achieve, 2007

300 College Instructors of First Year Students

they believe they’re prepared they’re not prepared they arrive confused their technology experiences may

not be what you believe they are

in sum

where are the levers?

“These kids can do amazing things when you build the learning around what interests them.” Denis Littky (quoted in Wagner, 2008, p. 170).

Call them what you will.

Their skill set and online proclivities have implications

(Wagner 2008; Boyd, 2009; Pew Internet and American Life Project, 2009)

“digital natives”

Image CC Flickr user sd

they’ve been growing up digital

Students have very little prior practice or experience acting as responsible, successful digital

citizens upon exiting high school

High School CollegeOne or more blocked

Blog sitesWiki sitesShopping sitesChat room sitesTwitterNingFacebookMySpace

HotmailGoogle MailYahoo MailInstant MessagingSkypeiChat

• No filters• No blocks• Fiber-quality

bandwidth

The public high school ed tech creed:

In filter we trust

Fryer, 2009

teens and

social mediaIt’s important to understand teen social media use in order to address issues in other areas of technology (boyd, 2009).

b4 college• Not excited about their lessons• Not excited about adults

they have a network, but they are not networking• Look at their friends list. That’s who they think they

are speaking to. They just want to hang out.• 30-40 close friends• >100 are connecting with everyone• >1000 is rare (purview of adults and politicians)

they are NOT on Twitter (average age on Twitter is 31)• Not using del.ico.us• “just because you have adopted a form of social

media doesn't meant that young people do or ever will” (boyd, 2009).

Class divisions among teens and social media

The goodie two shoes, jocks, athletes, or other "good" kids are now going to Facebook. These kids tend to come from families who emphasize education and going to college…They are primarily white, but not exclusively. They are in honors classes, looking forward to the prom, and live in a world dictated by after school activities….Most teens who exclusively use Facebook are familiar with and have an opinion about MySpace. These teens are very aware of MySpace and they often have a negative opinion about it. They see it as gaudy, immature, and "so middle school.”Boyd 2007

MySpace is still home for Latino/Hispanic teens, immigrant teens, "burnouts," "alternative kids," "art fags," punks, emos, goths, gangstas, queer kids, and other kids who didn't play into the dominant high school popularity paradigm. These are kids whose parents didn't go to college, who are expected to get a job when they finish high school. These are the teens who plan to go into the military immediately after schools. Teens who are really into music or in a band are also on MySpace. MySpace has most of the kids who are socially ostracized at school because they are geeks, freaks, or queers.Boyd, 2007

Implications for colleges• Just because they are using it, doesn’t mean it fits in the classroom.

– Instructors, professors need to figure out how a tool works in real life, then do it in the classroom.

– Search and sharing• Help them understand these tools

– Few know how Wikipedia works, the history, how it works, etc. (except that it’s bad (as they were told in high school))• Wikipedia has probably never been framed as an amazing, collective knowledge

production event.

– No critical thinking about remiss, even though they are the remixers – People think the digital natives are wiser than all of us.

• Not true. They are just using it in ways different from adults. • We project assumptions on them.

– Your new students are still teenagers.• We, as adults, have critical thinking abilities that they don’t’ have.

Drawn from boyd, 2009

Going forward

• Don’t reject what they're doing…but don’t put it on a pedestal either. – Ask them to show them the uses– Have a conversation with them on how the tools

they are using could be used for learning.• “(It) makes us rethink our position of power as

adults.” (boyd, 2009)

John Nash

jnash@iastate.edu

Cell: 650.799.6703

Twitter: @jnash

http://edventureso.me

References• Achieve (2005). Rising to the Challenge: Are High School Graduates Prepared for College and Work? available online at

http://www.achieve.org/files/pollreport.pdf• Autor, D., Levy, F., & Murnane, R. J. (2003). The skill content of recent technological change:

An empirical exploration. Quarterly Journal of Economics 188, 4. [updated, D. Autor, 2008]. • boyd, d. (2009). Teenagers who are Living and Learning with Social Media. 2009 Penn State Symposium for Teaching and

Learning with Technology. Retrieved October 31, 2009, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rmoc9F6fceQ• boyd, d. 2007. "Viewing American class divisions through Facebook and MySpace ." Apophenia Blog Essay. June 24 .

http://www.danah.org/papers/essays/ClassDivisions.html• California Department of Education (2009). California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE) Results

for Mathematics and English Language Arts (ELA) by Program (July 2008) for (All Grades) State Report. California High School Exit Exam Results. Retrieved November 29, 2009 from http://cahsee.cde.ca.gov/ExitProg1.asp?cLevel=State&cYear=2008-09&cChoice=ExitProg1&cAdmin=S&tDate=07/29/08&TestType=E&cGrade=AG&Pageno=1

• Fryer, W. (2009). CIPA. In Unmasking the Digital Truth. RetrievedDecember 2, 2009 from http://unmaskdigitaltruth.pbworks.com/cipa

• McLeod, S. (2009). Preconference Session on School Technology Leadership. Presentation at the Annual Conference of the School Administrators of Iowa, Des Moines, IA, August, 2009. http://www.dangerouslyirrelevant.org/sai2009.html

• The California State University (2009). Fall 2008 Final Regularly Admitted First-time Freshmen Remediation Systemwide. Proficiency Reports of Students Entering the CSU System. Retrieved November 29, 2009 from http://www.asd.calstate.edu/remediation/08/Rem_Sys_fall2008.htm

• The California State University (2009). Fall 2008 Final Regularly Admitted First-time Freshmen Proficiency Systemwide. Proficiency Reports of Students Entering the CSU System. Retrieved November 29, 2009 from http://www.asd.calstate.edu/proficiency/2008/Prof_Sys_fall2008.htm

• Wagner, T. (2008). The global achievement gap : why even our best schools don't teach the new survival skills our children need--and what we can do about it. New York: Basic Books.