Rewired: Understanding the iGeneration and the Way They Learn

by Larry D. Rosen

Look around at today’s youth and you can see how technology has changed their lives. They lie on their beds and study while listening to mp3 players, texting and chatting online with friends, and reading and posting Facebook messages. How does the new, charged-up, multitasking generation respond to traditional textbooks and lectures?  Are we effectively reaching today’s technologically advanced youth?  Rewired is the first book to help educators and parents teach to this new generation’s radically different learning styles and needs.  This book will also help parents learn what to expect from their “techie” children concerning school, homework, and even socialization. In short, it is a book that exposes the impact of generational differences on learning while providing strategies for engaging students at school and at home.

Genres: Education, Nonfiction, Teaching, Technology, Childrens, Parenting, 21st Century

256 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Dr. Rosen is Professor Emeritus and Past Chair of the Psychology Department at California State University, Dominguez Hills. He is a research psychologist, computer educator, keynote speaker and is recognized as an international expert in the “Psychology of Technology”

Reviews

[Richard Derus · Rating 3 out of 5]

The subject of this book...the way the texting generation is being failed by teachers, schools, and bureaucracies that don't know, don't want to know, and can't imagine how these youngsters *actually* absorb information...is one of un-overstatable importance.

You and I, fellow LTer, are not the ones who should be making the educational decisions of this generation. Why not? Because, on average, we're about as likely to say "g'wan, skip the textbooks, don't make 'em buy a copy of To Kill A Mockingbird, do it all on their iPhones!" as we are to suggest Fahrenheit 451 as a model for the future society we want to see.

But let's be realistic: Do we want books qua books to survive? If yes, we'd best make sure that there are people willing to read them. And that means getting the texters to read, probably via KindlNooReadPad. School has always been the biggest breeding ground for accidental readers, the ones whose families have no books, don't read, and don't care. This will still be true as the texting generation gets their American History textbook via KindlNooReadPad. Some few of them will get the idea: Reading gives me a better picture of my world! Maybe if I read other things....

Larry Rosen makes an excellent case for delivering the traditional educational topics in this new, potentially enhanced way. He takes on the issue of trustworthy content on the Net, and offers some ideas as to how to teach critical thinking about what's out there. (I know some adults who could use his training.)

Frankly, I hate the Brave New World. It's out of sync with the lifetime of conditioning that I've got, in some very uncomfortable ways. There were things about that world I absorbed that I think this Brave New World would do well to incorporate, but I am not kidding myself: They probably won't.

But it's here. And even *I* can see the bold Helvetica signs on the walls: Change or become more irrelevant. So I tweet, and I have a Facebook presence, and I'm on here (sort of like the Old World That Passeth on the Internet, this is), and I even have a cellphone with unlimited texting because that way I actually *hear* from my grandkids. Am I happy about it? Not specially. But here it is, and I for one am not willing to sink quietly into invisibility.

Now why in the holy hell can't the SCHOOL BOARD see this, and do even what little I've done to get with the program?!?!

[Adriane Devries · Rating 2 out of 5]

Either Larry D. Rosen, Ph.D., is a genius pied piper of today’s youth, or he has sold his soul to the ever-changing vagaries of the world-dominating technology empire. Rosen is making waves and boatloads of money selling his siren call that urges educators to work with the “new” way kids think, i.e., their constant multitasking of media in the forms of iPods, facebook, and a plethora of online gaming and virtual living websites. His methods demand that we relinquish our old-fashioned notion of library and book learning in favor of virtual learning, with teachers as technology assistants and facilitators of classroom discussion.
Though I wanted to become Amish by the end of the book for fear of the possible consequences of ever-demanding technology on our collective humanity, I admit to finding a few ideas for enlivening classroom time with my own students. However! I disagree that we need to pander to students’ “inability to unitask” by feeding them ever more scintillating exposure to virtual media. Rather than eliminating the linear learning model completely, who not simply replace boring textbooks with more rich and “real” literature that speak to their humanity, as well as build up their fragile attention spans?
To do otherwise, to me, means abdication of their minds and future earnings to the never-ending demands of bigger, faster, and more fashionable devices.

[Penny · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rosen, along with Marc Prensky and Donald Tapscott, is in the "this generation of geniuses is gonna kick our buts and we old fogey teachers better step up and start meeting their demands" camp. The trouble is that in many cases he offers no evidence to back up his claims (they ALL have a kinesthetic learning style? How do you know? And how do you respond to the many education researchers who say the Dunn learning styles are bunk?). In other cases he seems to cite references but they are unpublished/proprietary and you can't look them up yourself.

Realistically, there is probably a grain of truth to what people are saying about the new learners, both on the evangelist side (Prensky, Rosen, Tapscott) and on the alarmist side (Bauerlein, Carr) but the issue is more complex than any of them are acknowledging in their popular press publications, and the only way the question will ever be resolved is through defensible, reproducible empirical research.

[Rae · Rating 2 out of 5]

I get that our children and grandchildren are more digital and mobile than any previous generation. And that we probably should use this fact in our classrooms. But this book doesn't really give much practical advice about how to do that. I also don't entirely agree that because they are "wired" we must completely cater to their technologies in all learning settings. A mix of old and new teaching techniques is probably best.

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just two years later and it is already out of date. Authors who have not spent a lot of time attempting to reach high school students--and getting them to stay on task and not wander off into things which in no way pertain to the assignments, irritate me. In a perfect world, what he proposes WOULD be the answer. Let me know where the perfect high school educator's position is and I'll be right there for an interview.

[Ellen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read this so I could understand my students and teenagers better. Although Rosen makes some very good points, as compared with my personal experience, he exaggerates and overgeneralizes about the teenage population overall.

[Jennifer Collins · Rating 1 out of 5]

While I was looking forward to exploring this book, it quickly became a chore to complete, and if it hadn't been an early reviewer book, I never would have made my way through it. The information that Is worthwhile here is clouded by extreme generalizations, oversights, and a simplistic view of education and students (across generations) which makes me as a teacher (of secondary and college students) cringe. That said, I'll do my best to outline the major problems I found with the book, and hope that others don't blunder into it. If too many people take this book too seriously, I'd shudder to think what would become of public secondary education.

1. First, Rosen's focus on the so-called igeneration is more than a focus based on age. It's based on privilege. Many students included in Rosen's supposed focus-group don't have a computer for their own use or any type of mp3/music device, or even necessarily a cell phone. In fact, I had a few college students this past year who didn't have cell phones. When I looked at Rosen's statistics dealing with teenage technology use, I was confused and flabbergasted. Students who have tvs, video game systems, and personal computers in their bedrooms, and stay up to all hours textmessaging? Not the families I know. This discrepancy can be partly explained by the fact that all of Rosen's research was done through online surveys, so obviously he didn't have access to the students who didn't have computers, let alone free time online. The truth, though, is that the digital divide affects even teenagers. The parents I know can't afford to take off two days of work to wait in line for their teenagers so that they can be the first to have a new game system, and they wouldn't let their teenagers sleep on a sidewalk to get said game system. They take any owned cell phones away at night, specifically because teenagers too need their sleep, and personal computers are generally shared by all students in the family, online time conducted in the living room---a six year old exploring online by himself and shocking his mother with his techno-savvy simply wouldn't happen.

Treating this generation as if they can all afford these technologies--indeed, already know them--is both dangerous and irresponsible. The students who don't have these technologies are the ones who need extra care in schools, and they're precisely the students who would be left behind when an optimistic or ignorant teacher assigned internet based homework that required online access to a game or discussion board.

2. Teenagers don't necessarily know what's best for them, regardless of what they might say. Rosen has a disturbing habit of relying on teenagers to tell him what they think is best, which he then translates into supposed nonfiction research results. He writes that this generation MUST multi-task. Later, he admits that they Can uni-task (contradiction ignored), but don't need to--if they do, they'll realize this and do so. Well, um...no. I have students who openly admit their papers would be stronger if they focused in on the paper and left behind all other distractions for the interim, but they still don't. They KNOW they need to; they just don't. The highschooler who says they can't do their math worksheet because they're too distracted by what a friend across the room is text-messaging them doesn't Need to multi-task. She Wants to multi-task because text-messaging is more fun than math. Rosen treats this as a break-through in inter-generational understanding, when instead it's simply rather absurd. I wish luck to any secondary teachers who encourage text-messaging in their classrooms. Rosen seems to think it's a great idea, irregardless of the length of time added to homework and the errors made, but then, his first priority seems to be keeping students happy.

Similarly, a sincere concern that many parents and teachers experience is whether or not the tiny screens and letters that come with texting, and the constant use of said technology, are unhealthy for eyesight, particularly when combined with reading and answering emails on such tiny screens. Rosen's answer? He quotes a teenager who tells him it doesn't hurt his eyes. He'd have done better to ignore the concern all together. Of course it doesn't hurt the teenager's eyes right now---our question is, how will their eyesight be when they're thirty or forty? What is this generation walking into, and what are the side effects of growing up like this?

3. Rosen is disturbed that students are bored by school. Well, I hate to tell you, but every generation has on some level proclaimed boredom with school. It's that simple. You have to be there, and at 15 or 16, nothing seems less interesting for most teenagers, whether they're growing up and experiencing the world in 1950 or in 2010. Working to make every class interesting to this generation is not only an impossible feat, but a goal that puts aside education in favor of entertainment. School is SUPPOSED to take some work; eliminating the work element might make for a happier generation, but it will also spell a sad state for the future.

4. Rosen isn't describing teachers in this book--he's describing lab assistants. He praises the schools that have their students spend time on educational video games, and notes how excited and engaged the students are. I remember those days, though--yeah, we loved going to the lab to play games, but we learned all there was to learn from a game in our first session, and after that, it was all entertainment. Of course we were enjoying ourselves. And of course we told the teachers it was fun and worthwhile--it was neither, but it was also easy and we got to waste time on the learning clock. My apologies to the optimistic Dr. Rosen, but it's true--teenagers don't always tell the truth or know what's best for them, and if you give them a way to waste time on a video game, however boring it might be in a different setting, they will. In most cases like the one I'm mentioning that Rosen would praise, those computers just turn into babysitters who give teachers a break.

5. Schools cannot afford to keep up with technology. Powerpoints were boring when they made it into secondary education partly because teenagers experienced them in school, but partly because it takes time for schools to buy technology and train teachers--the students are ahead. Rosen's idea that the school system needs to keep ahead (or at least in step with) teenage technological savvy is simply unreasonable, at least in the country's current economical climate.

6. Media literacy is an area taught seriously in other countries, but it's not often taught until college in the United States, and it's not an automatic understanding that teenagers happen onto. They often take the easy route with quick-fixes such as wikipedia and google, and if schoolsystems follow Rosen's recommendations, that will only get worse, with critical thinking and any idea of in depth study going out the window.

In Conclusion, I want to add that I push my students to push themselves, and one of the results is that I regularly have students who thank me for doing so. They accomplish what they didn't think was possible through focus and hardwork--either of which is anathema to Rosen. They are capable of focusing, and they need to get better at it, a fact they know when they're truly honest with themselves. Rosen's ideas would raise a group of students who couldn't understand the nature of hard work, and would would likely fail (miserably) in any real college setting. Besides extending the poverty and digital divides, his philosophy caters to making kids happy, and helping so-called educators make kids happy...not helping anyone learn or teach in a meaningful way. Certainly, there is Some worthwhile information here--however, it's the same teaching and learning information which is presented in any good and current overview of teaching philosophies and practices. In other words, it's basic, and at times just common sense.

So, yes, I was incredibly frustrated and disturbed by this book. Any critical reader will poke various holes in it, and significant ones. Sadly enough, I truly hope that he published this book because he Could, and not because he thought it should be out there making a difference. In my opinion as a teacher and a student who believes in public education And the igeneration, I must humbly submit that this book's overgeneralizations and simplistic view, combined with a privileged focus group, make the book all but worthless for someone wanting serious information.

[Ken · Rating 1 out of 5]

The irony of reading a book about how the Internet makes everything old school like textbooks obsolete will never lose its humor to me.

The text is obviously dated.

I became frustrated with Rosen's position on tech in the classroom. It basically boiled down to, "this is what they do, just allow them to do it and they will like school again." I certainly agree we can loosen some restrictions to meet students where they are, but don't we have a responsibility to show students there are adult ways of handling situations they need to learn?

Take for example Rosen's insistence that social networks are perfect for student interactions because they feel safe behind a screen. That isn't always the best thing. The quiet shy student who is afraid to speak up is certainly more likely to ask her question, but the obnoxious brat will feel even more entitled to flex his internet muscles. Creating a social network to extend the conversation and keep the learning going is wonderful, but it doesn't replace learning how to voice your opinions or questions in a face to face setting.

Tech in the classroom? Yes! The way Dr. Rosen envisioned? No.

Also, if I have any grammatical errors, it's not because I'm writing this at 11 PM after a half bottle of wine. It's because I've embraced what Rosen calls the iGen's "no longer limited to the proper rules of grammar" and I am over our school's needing "correct syntax and proper usage of English words."

[James Lopez · Rating 2 out of 5]

Even in 2010, I think this book would have seemed completely out of touch. In 2015, it was comical. It also has an extra redundant structure, so the core arguments of the book form maybe 50% of it, and the other half is summaries of what he is about to argue and what he just argued.

MySpace was considered a joke by young people starting around 2008, and it was bleeding membership daily. By 2011 it was a ghost town - only one year after this book was published. Today it's 2015, so generation Z is composed of people about 20 years old. Over the past 5 years Facebook has become a place to keep up with grandparents and estranged cousins. In a similar vein, SecondLife has been like 75% porn for over 5 years now. I think my advice to him back then would be to ignore the impact of specific brands of software and focus instead on the utility and applications of the generic stuff.

Therefore, I agree that online communities would be a great way to organize discussion outside of the classroom that can be continued in class. There's literally no end to the type or brand of software a class could use to do this.

His most important point was probably regarding media literacy, which I agree is a huge problem in all demographics.

[Exavidreader]

Although I agree that the new iGeneration's brain is rewired differently and that our education systems need a drastic change, I don't agree with everything that the book says. Yes, we need to adapt in some ways to how kids' these days engage in the world but there are also other things worth cultivating in them, like the need to socialiase in real time, even if it would take longer because "they're not comfortable with it". Nor can we keep dishing out computer programs with rewards like virtual cash or pretty graphics. Furthermore, it doesn't address the real political, economical, structural and psychological challenges that teachers face everyday. So I'm not interested to do more than just browse through the book very quickly.

[Robert]

"Our studies of preteens, teens, and young adults find that they consistently consume media upwards of 20 hours per day! This is no simple task, given that they spend six to seven hours a day at school, eat meals, and sleep. How do they do it? Multitasking. Although everyone multitasks, the Net Generation and the iGeneration perfected it to a science, a way of life. Whether they are just hanging out or studying for an important exam, they are always multitasking. Just peek into the bedroom of any preteen or teen and you will see at least six forms of media engaging their attention at the same time."

Except I couldn't multitask reading this book.

[Donna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Informative, from Jay.

[Stephanie Pounds · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the first chapter of his book ?Rewired,? Dr Larry Rosen poses the question, ?Why do tweens and teens hate school?? It?s not a new question. Teachers, parents, and researchers have been asking it for generations, but according to Rosen, the answers may have changed in recent years. These day tweens and teens, or the iGeneration as Rosen called them, are bored with the pace of school. It?s too slow. In their non-school lives, these kids are actively multitasking?watching TV, chatting on instant messenger, updating Facebook, and doing their homework all at the same time. Contrast that to most school settings where, activities are still presented one-at-a-time and students are forced to pay attention or else. Rosen argues that to increase student learning, teachers should ?not discourage, but rather allow students to multitask? in class and parents should allow them to multitask while doing their homework recognizing that they may need ??unlimited or extra time to complete tasks.? Rosen does a fine job explaining recent research on teens and multitasking (they do a lot of it?a lot more than previous generations), but given the name of the book and Rosen?s assertion early on that ?their minds have changed,? I expected to read more about brain research on teens. Most of the research was behavioral, though, so I?m not sure that they have been ?Rewired? as much as conditioned. Regardless, I accept the notion that they don?t study the same way that their parents, or even their older siblings, did. Throughout the book Rosen offers suggestions to teachers and parents for helping this new generation learn. Much of it is how to incorporate the new technologies that students are already using into the curriculum and how to use them wisely. I especially appreciated the chapter on teaching media literacy. Getting kids, everybody actually, to think critically is more important than ever these days. Too many people accept everything they read or hear as truth. Rosen offers some sound advice in this area. The reason I knocked off a star and a half from my rating has to do with my instructional design background. Most research over the years has shown that media doesn?t really matter as long as the design of a lesson is good. My take away from this book, however, was just allowing the kids to use the new media will keep them from being bored, but I think the key will be when teachers and instructional designers learn the best ways to design lessons using the new technologies.

[Doug Cornelius · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dr. Rosen focuses on the what he calls the “igeneration” of children and teens in elementary school through high school. I also have young kids so I had a personal interest in the subject.

He emphasized that this generation is one that multitasks and has ample access to mobile communications. I grew up at the dawn of able television and video games. This generation is growing up with an amazing amount of connectivity and information access.

He has found that they are used to a “fast, shallow pace of information presentation” and get bored easily.

It is clear that my kids are growing up in different learning environment with access to vast amounts of information. It is clear that new adults coming into the workforce have grown up in a very different information and communications environment. Dr. Rosen offers some insight and help in thinking about their learning needs. I think it’s just sometimes flawed.

More: http://www.compliancebuilding.com/201...

[Lisa Macon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I highly recommend this book to anyone who thinks that they way THEY learned in school 20+ years ago is the best way to educate students today. That being said, for me it was like preaching to the choir. I am glad that I have some juicy quotes now to use in conversation with some of the more traditional professors which whom I work. I would like to get a hold of a box of these and hand them out to some key people and offer to buy them a cup of coffee if they just read it and sit down to discuss it with me.

The only reason I did not award the fifth star is that, even though this is only 2 years old, it is already a little out of date. MySpace is discussed a lot (so 2007) and no mention is made of the newer social networks. I think it needs a new edition that concentrates on Facebook, Twitter, and updates the stats on texting. All in all however, SO glad I read this.

[Wolfman]

This book validated things I have thought and said for years. Ironically, the person who gave me this book to read is a district functionary who is often supportive of policies and people who thwart my efforts when it comes to using recent technologies in my classroom. This is one (like Readicide) that I want lots of other teachers and administrators to read because, even though I disagree with some of the underlying philosophy that just because kids don't like to focus means we shouldn't ask them to, I think he has the right idea: We gotta use technology kids live with to educate them effectively. We can't hide from it, and there is no reason to erect a gauntlet against a threat that doesn't exist, which is what my school district (and many others) have seemingly done.

[April · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good survey of research on this new i-Generation. It's a little too accepting (when my teenager refuses to look at me because he's texting, it's not "another mode of communication," it's rudeness!). But it will certainly reassure concerned mothers that not all is lost just because Little Johnny sits playing videos 8 hours a day every weekend and refuses to engage face-to-face. It makes a good point that socializing for teens now is seldom face-to-face, but instead usually involves texting 1 friend, playing a game w/another, and talking to a 3rd on the phone at the same time. Rosen does talk about how silly it is that schools still use textbooks instead of engaging students on their own turf...the Internet.

[Donna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very thought provoking book. The author makes the case that educational delivery practices need to be completely revamped in light of the new generation of electronic device users. I still find myself resistant to the idea of completely changing the way education is delivered to accommodate kids who do six things at once and have the attention span of a gnat. But it makes me think I am being a dinosaur. I like to think though that just maybe school could be the place where kids actually learn to focus and pay attention. Is that skill really unnecessary in life? I don't know. This book gave me a lot to think about.

[Erica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Food for thought for teachers (and for parents). Dr. Rosen makes the case for using social networks, second life and other virtual sites, and students' mobile devices as primary learning platforms. What he doesn't address are some of the meta-questions that need to be raised, e.g., the kind of human beings we, as teachers and parents, wish to nurture, what social/emotional intelligence is in real time in a non-virtual world, and whether there is any value in developing sustained attention, cognition, and focus on a single activity such as reading a printed book, or practicing a musical instrument.

[Kathy Tracey · Rating 2 out of 5]

First, this could have easily been a 4 star book - but most of the content relating to technology in education is an area where I have some background.
:-) While the information -for me- was not ground breaking or new, it did reaffirm what I say in the field as it relates to the importance of integrating meaningful technology in instruction. If you are new to understanding why technology is so important or how our younger (iGeneration) students think -then this book is definitely worth the time.

[Eugenia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book better than I expected. Rosen really got me to re-evalutate some of my positions on issues surrounding kids and media. Having said that, this book is much more for teachers than for parents. More about using technology in the classroom than how to manage it at home with your kids. I would recommend this book highly for teachers and worth perusing for parents who are ambivalent about the role of technology in their children's lives.

[Ryan Agrimson]

I'm just beginning to read Rewired by Dr. Larry D. Rosen and I predict it will involve building a case for why today's youth need something different from their communities and education due to the constant advancement of household technologies (i.e. iPad, iPhone, iPod, laptops, desktops, mobile phones, social websites).
Rewired by Dr. Larry D. Rosen defines

[Russ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Larry Rosen argues that the students entering today are profoundly affected by the technology on which they have been raised. That makes sense, but he is too dismissive of the fact that there is a great disparity in access to technology in the U.S.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was right on the money - except for the stereotype that older teachers don't use technology. If you are a teacher and you need a little research to back up your innovative use of technology in the classroom, this is the book for you.

[Jilane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting concepts. I was hoping for more concrete plans as to teach my students, not just telling me that I need to change. I think that Rosen did portray students very accurately. Education does need to be different. I just wish I had more to go on.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some great food for thought, and a call to action to change education, not a lot of practical application though.

[Ms. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This explains my boys and students to a tee. This igeneration, as Rosen calls them, is a different type of learner. The reason for school transform becomes apparent.

[Joe Wood · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent look into how children's brains have changed over the years with digital technology and why we need to rethink the way we teach.

[Sally]

Top 3 read listed in the Journal

[Shelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another interesting read about how students today are learning with the mobile environment. Technology changes seem to be affecting the learning methods of our students at younger and younger ages.