Generations

My how times change! I was just looking at typical characteristics by generation (Lancaster and Stillman, 2003) and, surprise, surprise, there are differences between me and my students. Here are a few:
Key Descriptor: Loyal (that's me, the first one) -- Realistic
Notion of Command: Chain of Command -- Don't command, collaborate
Career Goals: Build a legacy -- Build a parallel career
Motivation/Rewards: A job well done -- Make a difference
Job Changing: Carries a stigma -- Mart of the daily routine
Training Attitudes: I learned the hard way, you can to -- Continuous learning is a way of life
Performance Reviews: No news is good news -- Feedback whenever I want
Productivity Measures: Inputs and outputs matter -- outputs and collaboration
Career Pace: Prove yourself with loyalty -- where can I go from here
Work-life Balance: No balance, work until retirement -- Flexibility to balance all activities

WE need to keep our differences in mind. My generation and the next will be your bosses for some time :)

Fron LOTS to HOTS

A researcher named Benjamin Bloom developed a taxonomy of learning (here's a modern day version http://www.odu.edu/educ/roverbau/Bloom/blooms_taxonomy.htm). The ides was to order cognitive activity from easiest--rote--to hardest or most sophisticated, from Lower Order Thinking Skills to Higher Order Thinking Skills. The link will give you some idea of what Bloom had in mind. Learning, he suggested, proceeded from the lower level to the upper level. Don't know about you but I memorized multiplication tables as the first step toward long division.

Well, I came across an ordered set of communication skills that I thought was of interest. In order, from easiest to most sophisticated, mentally:

Texting
Instant messaging
Twittering
Emailing
Chatting
Contributing
Networking
Posting & blogging
Replying
Questioning
Reviewing
Video conferencing/Skyping/Net meeting
Debating
Negotiating
Moderating
Collaborating

Do you have a theory as to why the more popular communication types are among the lowest in cognitive effort?

I wonder, where is your comfort zone? Are you looking forward to moving up the ladder to some of the higher-order skills we will use in this class?