Don Tapscott - on the eight norms of the net gen and our reaction to them
After your DNA, the number one variable determining what your brain is like is how you spend your time when you're young. If you spend 24 hours a week watching television as the baby boomers did, you get a certain kind of brain. If you spend an equivalent amount of time being the active handler of information, the user, the initiator, the reading, collaborating, composing your thoughts and having to remember things, scrutinizing, searching even with video games, developing strategies, then this affects your brain as well. Overall this is a good thing. It's equipping an entire generation with the thought processes and information handling capabilities that will be appropriate for the 21st century.
You say the Net Generation is perceived as being dumber than the previous generation, addicted to the Net, they steal, they're violent, have no shame, are narcissistic and don't give a damn. What's driving these perceptions?
Plato basically had the same criticism of young people as they do today – that they're lazy, don't give a damn, they're rude and don't pay attention to their parents and so on. You combine that with something new – that this is the first time in human history that young people are the authorities on something, on a fundamental change in society. I was an authority on model trains when I was 11. Today, the 11-year-old at the breakfast table is an authority on a digital revolution that's changing business, commerce, government, democracy, entertainment, publishing, science – every institution in society. This is a formula for fear and we fear what we don't understand. And fear gets in the way of doing the right thing. The students know more than the teachers about the most important innovation in learning, arguably ever. The new employees have at their fingertips more powerful tools than what exists in Canada's most sophisticated corporations. And what do we do? We ban them. We ban tools like Facebook at work. In all of our institutions, this fear causes us to do the opposite of what we should be doing. Which is one of the reasons why I wrote the book.
Description of internet users that blur the line between Gen Y and older generations
In K-12, however, on average, there is a large gap in the amount of computers per student in most classrooms. Most K-12 districts do not have use for any learning management system (LMS) to connect students outside the classroom. Technology is being encouraged, but not necessarily being resourced. With the larger gap in the computer to student ratio, there is a smaller gap for students who have mobile phones.
Students are learning using multiple platforms. They use their phones now more for text and productivity than they do for actual phone calling. A mobile phone has become tool. Education is catching up to this idea. Most school districts as well as higher education institutions have what is commonly called an “Acceptable Use Policy” for technology. This is a contract for students and faculty to abide by to keep technology use fair and safe. The majority of school districts have a ban on mobile phones because of the potential distraction they present. Some more progressive districts are moving toward a “Responsible Use Policy”, where teachers use tools students use and teach them how to use them responsibly. What this means is teachers will need to adopt new teaching strategies which leverage these newer technologies. Instead of wasting their energy “fighting their preferred delivery system”, teachers should be “working to ensure that (our) students extract maximum understanding and benefit from the vast amounts of cell-phone-based learning of which they will, no doubt, soon take advantage” (Prensky, 2008).
Q&A about teens and technology
How digital Natives think differently
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An attempt to explain the nature of the 21st century learner. What are their characteristics? How are they different than previous generations? What changes need to occur in education to meet their needs and prepare them for their future?
Updated on Mar 31, 11
Created on May 14, 09
Category: Schools & Education
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