TEACHING THE
SWIPE GENERATION
(EDUCATION 4.0)
JONELL S. GREGORIO, MAT
Instructor I
Aklan State University
“Today, 2 year olds can unlock a
phone, open and close their favorite
apps all by themselves…When I was
that age I was eating dirt.”
We are teaching the Generation Z
They are born from around the mid-90s to the early 2000s, a group of young people who
are now next in line to the Millennials.
They are digital natives.
In 2019, Gen Z outnumbered millennials, making up 32% of the world's 7.7 billion-person
population. (Bloomberg)
They learned to swipe before they could walk.
Technology is part of their everyday life activities.
Passionate about the importance and value of higher education; over 80% plan to attend
college directly after high school
Do-it-yourselfers
Communicate symbolically and with greater speed; replacing text with symbols and images
We are teaching the Generation Z
Want to engage in collaborative activities not just restricted to their campuses, but
globally
Prefer to study with friends – online or in person
Prefer to learn by doing and through real-life experiences
Excited about participating and being engaged
Have the attention span of one second less than Generation Y – their attention
span was measured as 1 second less than a goldfish
We are teaching the Generation Z
Autodidactic – they have the ability to self-educate
They can learn online but do not wish to learn in a vacuum; value face-to-face interaction
and collaboration with peers
Want to be challenged with engaging and interactive learning experiences
Learning is a continuous, multifaceted experience, best occurring hands-on
They are active on self-paced, learning websites, either as assigned or to discover whatever
they want to know
They expect interactive classrooms and smartboards as standard
Have an inclination toward sharing and exchanging idea
Crave environments in which they can share and co-create their education
Believe education technology websites and tools facilitate learning and understanding
Digital Habits of Gen Z
How Gen Z spends his time online
Gen Z spends an average of 11 hours on their mobile
devices per week. (Criteo)
Gen Z streams video for roughly 23 hours each
week. (Criteo)
Roughly 71% of Gen Z teens use mobile devices to
watch videos, while 51% use mobile for social media
surfing. (Think with Google)
What Social Media are the Gen Z using?
The Challenge for us educators
How to change pedagogy from teacher-centered and teacher-
regulated to student co-created
How to move instruction to Bloom’s upper levels of cognition –
evaluation and creation
Alternative textbook (digital) formatting, publication and adoption
Practice supporting collaboration, engagement and concision
Power and potential of mobile devices and digital lesson
development
Education 4.0 and the Swipe Generation
*Education 1.0 was teaching through
lectures and memorization
*Education 2.0 introduced the usage of
technology and Internet connection
*Education 3.0 geared towards knowledge
production
*Education 4.0 is an innovative-
production in education (Siltharm, 2017)
which leads for developing countries to
innovate in this twenty-first (21st)
century.
21st Century Skills Needed for Industry 4.0
According to Davis et al, (2011) from the Institute for the Future for the
University of Phoenix Research Institute, the work skills needed from now
on would be:
• 1) Sense-making
• 2) Social intelligence
• 3) Novel and adaptive thinking
• 4) Cross cultural competency
• 5) Computational thinking
According to Davis et al, (2011) from the Institute for the Future for the
University of Phoenix Research Institute, the work skills needed from now
on would be:
• 6) New Media Literacy
• 7) Trans-disciplinary
• 8) Design Mindset
• 9) Cognitive load management
• 10) Virtual collaboration
The Gen Z’s Preferred Tools for Learning
Their Learning Preferences
• Lectures and printed books did not rate highly with Generation Z
• Technology has unquestionably transformed their learning process
• 85% of students use online research for assignments (Semiller and
Grace
• Only 47% preferred a printed book compared to 60% by Millennials.
• In this same poll, over 2/3rds of Gen Z thought college was a
significant toward future success
Implications on Teaching
• Our teaching evaluation needs to transform
• Exams and research papers can only gauge what was
memorized for a specific exam or what they know about a
specific topic.
• Our new generation needs real-life knowledge that can be
related to their job area.
• Teachers need to be more skilled in different types of
devices, programs, and applications that can be integrated
into the classes.
Implications on Teaching
• Generation Z students are on their cellphones a lot, and
most of them use their phones for everyday activities.
• Maximize the use of cellphones in learning.
• Students also love social media. Use Facebook as a
platform for learning.
• Generation Z is very visual and interested in using YouTube
for their learning. Recommend videos to watch to augment
learning.
Implications on Teaching
Short online quizzes: Generation Z students prefer to answer short, online exams.
Teams/small groups: According to Rothman (2018), Generation Z prefers to work
in small groups. When they work in small groups, they can foster more creativity.
Active learning activities: Research has identified that Generation Z has a short
attention span. Assign shorter tasks in teams or individually.
Games: Games are very effective to review material and allow students to share
knowledge. Students can become very active and put forth a lot of concentration
on the game. Generation Z students are virtual gamers, and they love game
challenges.
Caring and feedback: This is the most important strategy. When we care about
what is happening to our students and their needs, students become more
engaged in the classroom. Caring about their progress gives them constant and
positive feedback. Although we may correct their papers, we give them feedback
on how they can improve, and we motivate them by giving them encouragement.
Positive words change people, and we need to do this with our students.
Remember..
• Gen Z often decide over things with a click or a tap, often
becoming impatient over the slightest delays.
• Create value out of these given facts: to sustain learning
environments that would encourage Gen Z learners to use
information for the benefit of more people, discuss and reflect
about it to better understand its implications, and moreover, use it
in such a way that it transforms and disrupts through innovative
solutions for everyone.
• The schools, as institutions of learning, must support the new
generation’s thirst for active, flexible, and collaborative learning,
one that drives towards the future with a spirit of independence
and critical thinking.
Thank you.
