I am excited about our upcoming free webinar, Transferring Knowledge to the New Style of Learning: Extending the Classroom Beyond the Four Walls with Karl Kapp on September 26. Karl is the author of
Gadgets, Games and Gizmos for Learning: Tools and Techniques for Transferring Know-How from Boomers to Gamers. This book is a must read and has helped me with communicating to the incoming freshman as well has helped me over the hurdle of using some of the new technology by giving me ideas and solutions. In preparing for the webinar, I asked him a few questions and over the next few days leading up to the webinar, I will share the answers. If you have questions you would like Karl to answer, please put write them in the comment section.

What is the hardest part of communicating with the today’s generation?

The hardest part is understanding the concept that just because they prefer to communicate differently than previous generations, that doesn’t mean they are poor communicators or don’t know how to communicate. It is just that they communicate differently. For example, many students in today’s generation are as comfortable sending a text message as picking up the phone or interacting virtually as they are face-to-face. Sometimes faculty are more comfortable with more traditional ways of communication and immediately label different methods of communicating as “wrong” or “bad.” So the difficulty comes when values are placed on communication methods. A text message can be just as valid a method of communication as a phone call.

In the next few days I will post up more questions and answers with Karl! Again, if you have questions you would like to ask Karl, please write them in the comment section. I hope to see you at the free webinar!

Mark Viquesney