Who are the Centennials and how can we engage them in the classroom? In this study we explore the Centennial demographic and their preferences for specific social media tools in both the traditional and online educational settings.
Centennials are those born at the turn of the century from approximately 1997 to 2015. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, this age group of the population accounts for almost 26% of the population in America (Vespa, 2017). This generation may be called Gen Z, iGen, Founders, or Centennials. Although data and demographics are beginning to emerge about this group, scholarly research regarding this demographic and its use of social media in an educational setting is sparse. We explore a variety of ways to apply social media tools in the educational setting in order to engage and inspire the IGens. The intended audience for this presentation would be faculty, students, instructional technologists,
The Centennials are “hyper” connected on social media (Twenge, J., 2019; Fromm, 2016). These individuals may forego typical social situations because they are so completely connected to friends via social media. These individuals, unlike the Millennials, have grown up with smartphones in their hands. Many of them not only use the phones for social purposes, they are also encouraged to use them as learning tools in school. They are constantly connected and have never been able to not “google” a topic. Some of the more traditional forms of communicating in the educational setting will also not appeal to this demographic. These students do not care for and do not use email as it is too slow and outdated. This demographic will pay more attention to rich video if it is included in their educational content (Baird, N., 2016).
What type of social media tool might be engaging in the classroom for Centennials? Why? Are there productive ways that educators might apply these tools in the traditional and online classrooms to engage these students? What are the challenges and benefits? We explore these and other issues in this study.
In an earlier study (McGorry and McGorry, 2018) we explored students preferences for social media tools. Students were asked about Snap, Instagram, Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter and “other” forms of social media. Respondents indicated that SnapChat and Instagram are their preferred social media tools of choice. Most frequently, the Centennials are using these most preferred tools to keep in touch with friends and entertain themselves. When respondents were asked to rank social media tools in terms of their use, YouTube, SnapChat and Instagram emerged as top preferences. While the audience equally uses YouTube, SnapChat and Instagram for general socialization on social media, there is a clear preference of YouTube for acquiring new information. Interestingly, there were no significant differences between males and females and their use of social media. In one on one interviews, students indicated that in using Instagram, they maintain a real Instagram account (RINSTA) and a fake Instagram account (FINSTA). Students use the RINSTA account for information they’d like to display and share with a specific audience, whereas the FINSTA account was used for fun and other communication with another audience.
What implications does this have for educators and future research? First, video will be critical with this demographic. Both SnapChat and Instagram use video in some format to communicate. The videos are brief, which means if educators were to use either of these tools, the most important information for these students must be communicated in a short period of time. Indeed, research indicates that the average attention span of this student is less than 10 seconds (Dua, 2015).
This leads directly to the next inference: team work, which is an important skill employers seek in today’s market, can be well facilitated with tools such as Instagram and Snap Chat. With these tools, students can select the audience with which they’ll communicate. Again, because these tools utilize images and video, content will need to be visual.
Due to the nature of these tools, and the fact that users indicated they prefer to use the tools to entertain themselves, educators will need to find ways to enable students to use them in a productive educational format that is simultaneously entertaining. Additionally, given that students create alternative identities with Instagram via RINSTA and FINSTA accounts, perhaps educators should consider having students create completely separate accounts for educational purposes.
In this study, we conduct research with 65 students college aged students to explore how social media might be productively applied in the classroom setting. We use tools such as Snap Chat, Instagram and You Tube in a variety of exercises. Students will be interviewed and surveyed to explore what they liked and disliked about the exercises and how they might be improved. Results will be presented and discussed as well as future implications. The presentation will include demonstration of the exercises with the social media tools
This is exploratory research on the centennial student and social media tools in the classroom. As such, additional primary research must be conducted to explore this demographic and their use of social media and opportunities to adapt the social media for educational purposes. Future research should include more detailed study of this demographic and their preferences for social media in the educational setting.
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