The ‘Net’ Generation
This morning, I read an article about the next generation of students in schools, the ”net generation.” Dan Farber writes:
During a session at the Web 2.0 Summit, author and consultant Don Tapscott shared results from a research project on the Net generation, the first humans to grow up digitally. An estimated 80 million people in the U.S. alone are coming into the workplace and marketplace with a far different set of experiences and skill than previous generations. “Kids are lapping their parents on the info track,” Tapscott said.
We, as educators, are certainly aware of this change. Part of our pilot program with BOCES and Will Richardson is to examine the shift educators must make to meet the demands and ideals of this new student. We need to understand how this generation thinks, how they act, and what they like. According to the same article:
The Net Generation also wants the freedom to schedule. In the survey, 42 percent of those survey watch TV asynchronously, time-shifted viewing.
Relationships and collaboration are part of the Net generation psyche. Hence, the rise of social networks, or ‘n-fluence’ networks, in which the Net generation influences each other and other generations.
Does this mean online classes would be more appealing to the net generation? What do you think?
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