The Net Generation—Richardson part 3

Warning—this message is definitely more of a rant

In his book, Richardson spends a little time talking about what Educause, and others, refers to as the Net Generation. Clearly since Richardson is focused on K-12, his audience does fit that category more—at least the middle and upper class school populations. I think many university scholars researching and writing on this subject, again check out Educause’s yearly report on the techyness of college students, also make grandiose statements about the tech savvyness of incoming college students.

Folks…drop by your local community college campus and get a reality check.

So yes…even if they are from the lower class that might have more difficulty accessing various technologies, the K-12 and “traditional” college student are more tech savvy. But I’m getting really tired of these folks making grand claims and missing a huge population that is going to college, returning students (even those still in their late 20s). These students look more like what Prensky (quoted in Richardson) calls “Digital Immigrants.” And whereas some of these Immigrants might be very tech savvy, heck those of us doing all this teaching and technology scholarship stuff have to still consider ourselves digital immigrants, they show “accents” (again, Prensky quoted in Richardson).

So first, we have an “older” student population that does not fit the definition of net generation or digital native. However, I’m not sure these digital natives are as savvy as Richardson, Educause, and others would like us to think. Yeah, they may know how to text message, take and send pictures, and download music and ringtones—all on their cell phones. But that doesn’t mean they are knowledgeable about various web2.0 tools (blogs, wikis, social bookmarking…probably social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook are the only exception). And it doesn’t mean, by any stretch of the imagination, that they are willing, ready, and able to adapt to change. In other words, these digital natives may know how to use their cellphones, but sure as heck are not motivated to “play” in the same way with their blogs and social bookmarking sites as a way to learn them.

So what does this rant mean? It means back to emphasizing the critical responsibility of explaining the what/whys of each technology an instructor uses in a course. In other words, even the techy-savvy need to understand how and why they are using something, and might use it in the future.

January 26 2007 | Posted in Reading