As a teacher, what is the major difference between 1997, 2007, 2017 students? by Dave Consiglio
Answer by Dave Consiglio:
- Distractions and cheating in the form of the Internet, camera phones, and social media.
- When I started teaching (in 1999, but close enough) students were just as uninterested, just as bored, just as sleepy, etc. as students are today. They weren’t any smarter or more motivated, or less so, either.
But, in 1997, kids who were bored had to write notes, or talk, or sleep. There was no constant electronic distraction. Almost no students had cell phones, and those that did had “dumb phones”. The Internet was nascent, and there was effectively no social media on it. Even in 2007 social media was a far cry from what it is today. The first iPhone debuted at the very end of the 06/07 school year, and it would be a few years more until the phone had the features (and the bandwidth) to make social media the enormous distraction it is today.
So, for the first 10 years or so of my career, the distractions in my classroom were essentially non-existent. The last 8, however, have been full of cell phones loaded with the latest social media craze.
In 1999, cheating was hard. You had to physically bring paper in to a test, or spend significant time in the risky business of copying a physical assignment. Now, a quick click with the camera phone and every student in class has a copy of the homework.
As a result, homework has been rendered effectively useless. Students started having perfect homework assignments and abysmal tests right around 8 years ago – right around the time that camera phones and texting became ubiquitous.
Tests are problematic, too. I used to notice that test scores slowly got better throughout the day – the students who took the test late in the day got the inside scoop from the kids who had taken it earlier. But the effect was small – often 2–5%.
But, starting in around 2012 or so, that effect got much larger. Students got better with the phones, and policing a test is getting harder and harder. If your classroom phone rings, or you need to write an email, everyone in the afternoon class is looking at the answers.
You can also forget using anything you find on the internet in the classroom. The minute I assign something, my students pull out their phones and start looking it up. If I require students to start the work in class, they almost always just flatly refuse. “I’ll do it at home” is the canned response, but that really means “I’ll cheat at home.”
So, I have to individually write every assignment. I also write Python code to create different versions of tests for every student. I have to do pretty much all work in class – homework is either copied (if it can be) or ignored (if it can’t).
- A significant increase in apathy
- I don’t know if this is a universal thing or if it’s localized. But, I have so many students who are more than happy to receive a D- that it would shock the uninitiated. I try so hard to motivate students, to encourage and support them in their quest to get even a C. Many, though, say “meh” and settle for a D-. Try as I might, I have yet to find a tool that has more than the slightest effect on apathy. If you have good ideas, I’m all ears.
- Size
- Childhood obesity is undoubtedly increasing. Students are getting larger and larger. Many of my students eat Hostess cakes, Hot Cheetos and Mountain Dew for breakfast. Every. Day. Many don’t exercise at all. Fast food is everyday food.
- A general sense of foreboding about the future.
- This one makes sense to me. When I was in high school, I had a genuine sense of the incredible future I was about to encounter. I knew college would be amazing. Classes, parties, girls, and then a career that paid a decent wage and maybe a wife and a family and a house.
Today, many students don’t have that same sense. Sure, it wasn’t really true when I was in school. Lots of students didn’t finish college, or did but ended up with no real job prospects. However, it is even less true today than it was 25 years ago. I think problems 1–3 may be the result of problem 4. If you genuinely believe that you have little chance of improving your life, why not just Snapchat all day, or “meh” your way through school, or eat junk food constantly? Why work toward a bright future if you don’t think you’re going to have a bright future?
Students haven’t changed. Not one bit. 16-year-olds in 1999 are fundamentally the same as they were 20 years before or 20 years after. But, the world has changed beneath their feet, and this new world isn’t so bright for teens as the old world was.
As a teacher, what is the major difference between 1997, 2007, 2017 students?