There is a growing digital divide between the new generation of “digital natives,” the millennials, and the three other generations in the workplace (Gen Xers, Boomers and Matures). This post will share my top four tips help you learn like a millennial.
You may have read some of our other posts from one of our “don’t miss” conferences, Association Digital Now (these guys are also our partners on the Maryland Business and Accounting Expo). This past April, I participated in a panel presentation tilted, “Tomorrow’s Members: Listening to the Voices of our Future,” with Julie Evans, the CEO of Project Tomorrow, a research group into the way kids in grades K-12 are using technology to learn. Our panel explored the implications of this on our associations and organizations. Here are my takeaways:
The Project Tomorrow research shows the top four technologies for students are:
- Online and computer gaming
- Downloading music
- Communications: instant messaging, texting, e-mail
- Maintaining personal Web sites on MySpace, Facebook, etc.
Here are four tips to help you cross the digital divide:
- Start “gaming” and earn some free CPE by joining us on CPA Island in Second Life. Check out our upcoming events at our CPA Island blog. (There are easy instructions to get you started.) Attend our upcoming event on Oct. 14, Going Private: Insight from a Management and Investor Perspective.
- Dedicate 15 minutes a day using our self-directed learning blog, CPA Learning 2.0 and in nine weeks you will be comfortable with all of the Web 2.0 technologies that are so much a part of the millennial world — blogs, MySpace, Facebook, RSS, Second Life, user-generated content, Flickr and more.
- Get an iPod (or equivalent) and download our ultra-cool CPA Spotlight podcasts in iTunes and keep up with the latest developments in the CPA profession. When on the iTunes store, just select “Podcasts” and search for “CPA Spotlight” and then subscribe. The podcasts will automatically download and come off after you listen to them. Or you can do it “old school” and just click here.
- Subscribe to one of our blogs and post a comment. In addition to CPA Success, we produce the following blogs: New CPAs, Legislative Insider, CPA Island, Second Life Association of CPAs and our Business Learning Blog.
Still not sure about this? Get one of your kids or a millennial in your office to teach you!