Planning for Neomillennial Learning Styles

Rapid advances in information technology are reshaping the learning styles of many students in higher education. The standard “world to the desktop” interface is now complemented by ■ multiuser virtual environments in which people’s avatars interact with each other, computer-based agents, and digital artifacts in a simulated context; and ■ augmented realities in which mobile wireless devices infuse overlays of digital data on physical real-world settings. Higher education institutions can prosper by using these emerging technologies to deliver instruction matched to the increasingly “neomillennial” learning styles of their students. Based on “mediated immersion,” these emerging learning styles include: ■ Fluency in multiple media and in simulation-based virtual settings ■ Communal learning involving diverse, tacit, situated experience, with knowledge distributed across a community and a context as well as within an individual ■ A balance among experiential learning, guided mentoring, and collective reflection ■ Expression through nonlinear, associational webs of representations ■ Co-design of learning experiences personalized to individual needs and preferences Many faculty will find such a shift in instruction difficult, but through professional development they can accommodate neomillennial learning styles to continue teaching effectively as the nature of students evolves. Beyond this professional development, to fulfill their students’ evolving needs and interests, colleges and universities must reconsider their investments in physical plant, technology infrastructure, and research. Further, in the long run the mission and structure of higher education might alter due to the effect on civilization of these new interactive media.