![\"\"](\"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Digitally-Native.jpg\")
<\/a>From left, Dr. Gary Insch, professor of management at UToledo, and Daniel Pfaltzgraf, visiting instructor of business technology and management at UToledo, co-authored a study suggesting younger generations are not as tech savvy as believed.<\/p><\/div>\n
\u201cThe elements of a digital workplace and technological literacy are more relevant now than ever,\u201d said Daniel Pfaltzgraf, visiting instructor of business technology and management at UToledo and co-author of the study. \u201cTechnology was critical for business success before the coronavirus pandemic, but it has continued to grow exponentially over the last year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many millennials, individuals born between 1981 and 1996, and the Generation Z population, born after 1997, have learned to be great, efficient consumers of technology, such as sending pictures, sharing videos and texting or other short-form communication.<\/p>\n
However, they are far less adept at understanding how to use technology to create useful solutions to their business challenges \u2014 for example, using Outlook to send e-mail, Word to prepare documents, Excel to analyze data and PowerPoint to communicate through presentations.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile students are quite adept at using their cell phones and basic software, they may not be computer fluent,\u201d said Dr. Gary Insch, professor of management at UToledo.<\/p>\n
The other issue is that middle and high school students mostly use Google Chromebooks, Google Docs and Gmail before college.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose students are learning skills that are not relevant in the business world,\u201d Insch said. \u201cMicrosoft Office is one of the most desired skills by hiring managers. Most corporations do not run off Chrome OS, create reports in Google Docs, nor begin boardroom presentations on a Google Slide. In fact, recent research has shown that only 15 companies listed in the S&P 500 are using Google\u2019s productivity suite.\u201d<\/p>\n
The researchers recommend three methods to prepare business students in the classroom to create versus consume and have a less difficult time adjusting to full-time employment:<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0 Build proficiency of business software in an academic setting;<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0 Have educators be the convener, not conveyer, of learning in a digitally focused classroom; and<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0 Apply design thinking in a classroom setting.<\/p>\n
\u201cRegardless of academic discipline, the corporate world is increasingly relying on a suite of tools to enable virtual collaboration and creation in the globalized economy,\u201d Pfaltzgraf said. \u201cThe functions of employees today center around five technological needs as a part of the digital workplace: web conferencing, communication, virtual collaboration, productivity and project management.\u201d<\/p>\n
The COVID-19 pandemic introduced more people to Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Slack, Webex and more, but the researchers say educators can use popular technology such as YouTube to better help students end a semester with a tangible output and a portfolio builder in addition to a letter on a transcript.<\/p>\n
\u201cEducators can utilize the popularity of video-sharing platforms to Generation Z and millennials to unearth knowledge from YouTube, video courses like Lynda.com and educational content found on social media to create a learning experience with students at the center, and later in the semester, have students create a deliverable to be uploaded to one of these tools,\u201d Insch said.<\/p>\n
As the need for innovation and critical thinking are increasingly appearing on job postings and in recruiter pitches, the researchers encourage design thinking to drive innovation and promote critical thinking.<\/p>\n
\u201cIntegrating design thinking into the classroom allows students to become the \u2018problem solver\u2019 of business challenges as they move through the process of listening to pain points, flaring on ideas, building solutions and testing them with people,\u201d Pfaltzgraf said.<\/p>\n
Researchers used as an example a course titled Business Innovation Methods with Design Thinking that was piloted in fall 2020 with a group of 23 multidisciplinary students at UToledo who solved a problem through active participation, ideation and creation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith new tools to learn and new ways to express themselves, creating provides an outlet for students to be more productive and successful in their careers,\u201d Pfaltzgraf said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A new study by UToledo researchers published in the Journal of Applied Business and Economics analyzes the paradox, and outlines methods to bridge the technology gap and better prepare students for the realities of the workplace.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":875,"featured_media":66724,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,32,1,7],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66720"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/875"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66720"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66720\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66740,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66720\/revisions\/66740"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Digitally-Native-150x150.jpg\")
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