Ways to Engage Today’s Generation of Students Each year, every faculty member becomes one year older. However, the average age of each incoming student remains the same. This presents a challenge: How can we keep the communication and learning gap from expanding more and more as time goes on? Now we’ve stepped into digital and information age when this generation has been granted endless satellite channels, websites, text messages, and Ipod music choices to constantly go through daily. This makes it more difficult than ever before for faculty to keep the interest and attention of the students. Here are a few great tips for faculty on how to better engage today’s generation of students: l. Bring Cool Careers and Majors to Life This generation of students doesn’t see the connection between today’s lesson and what they really want to do someday. The more we can close that gap — to illustrate classroom relevance to their world — the better we can engage students and keep their interest. The prospect of getting a job and working 40+ hours per week for the next 40 years doesn’t exactly breed excitement in this generation. However, they can get excited through examples of “cool” young people in their field who are very successful doing something they LOVE for a living. While we mostly think of celebrities as TV stars or athletes, there are celebrities within almost every field. For example, Josh Bernstein of the History Channel’s “Digging for the Truth” and Discovery Channel’s “Into the Unknown With Josh Bernstein” makes history fun and interesting, especially to those who never believed such topics were fun and interesting before. Even MSNBC television personalities such as the politically branded Tucker Carlson, and Jim Kramer of “Mad Money”, do give an alternative flair to the otherwise “boring” world of po l itics and finance. 2. Find Clever Opportunities to Integrate TV/Movies/Pop Culture Is it important for students to understand the long history of business, psychology, leadership, etc? Absolutely! However, seeking out opportunities to supplement historical principles with books, movies, or music of today can definitely help bring the learning process to life. Cite a chapter, or even a paragraph or quote, from a source written since 2000 by someone 30 years old or under on the topic, and you’ll be amazed with the attention, interest, and results. One great example is the book Campus CEO : A Student Entrepreneur’s Guide to Launching a Multi-Million Dollar Business , written by Randal Pinkett, a sharp young professional who was a winner on the Donald Trump television show “The Apprentice”. This book includes many old-age, proven business princip l es from books written 50 years prior. However, which do you think is more appealing to read for today’s student? Any reference to reality television, video games, or downloaded music for their Ipod can immediately raise their attention. So, what do we mean by reference? A reference can be sharing a marketing article on the X-Box product, or a fresh class case study on a company such as Apple, or a statistical exercise on average the number of text messaging characters transmitted by the average college student each day. Have fun with examples from their world that can be used at every turn. 3. Use the Internet and Technology; In Ways that Speak Their Language In gen e ral, less instan c es of distributing articles from a magazine and more instances of citing article links on that magazine’s website is a good thing. The words “check out this website” will probably elicit a more positive response than the infamous “take one and pass it down”. The Internet is the virtual home of this generation. They’ve never lived without it. Whenever possible, have students research an individual or company website that is discussed in class. Beyond just articles and websites, what blogs within their field or subject can participate in now as students? There can be great benefits to communication with field professionals across the world, and can even help students stay on the cutting edge of industry issues. Most importantly, they might just have fun doing it. YouTube has a world of possibilities in the learning community. Within moments, a drafting or engineering student can view the design and construction of an NFL stadium using time lapse photography ( 时间推移摄影术 ), while a biology student can view computer animation of photosynthesis. Instead of reading about things or hearing about things, students want to see things with their own eyes, on their own computers. 4. Use Humor and Have Fun in the Classroom Certainly, the job of an educator isn’t to entertain. It is to educate. However: Do you remember a teacher who didn’t just teach a class, but impacted your life? Did you feel as if they could relate to you, and could even make you laugh? Did you have fun in their class, and look forward to attending each day? Zig Ziglar, one of the most successful motivational speakers in history, knew the power of incorporating humor in his presentations. Throughout his career, Zig would strategically place some type of wit, joke, or funny example every seven minutes during his presentation, no matter the audience or topic. As he studied, attention span begins to dip as time between jokes lingered. People pay attention because they don’t want to miss the next joke! So, what if you’re not that funny? Here are a few tips: Go to Google or Google Images, and search under “Business humor”, or “Funny Biology”, or “Funny Advertising”. Keep an eye out for funny articles, or even comical things on television, that might have some direct or even indirect relevance to the subject. When applicable and appropriate, allow an environment where students are encouraged to have fun in group projects or class exercises together. No one can articulate cool and funny lingo ( 行话 ) to students better than other students. Making learning fun is one principle that holds true no matter the generation. Teaching can be much easier when students look forward to coming to class.