Is It Age or IT: First Steps Toward Understanding the Net Generation

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Diana Oblinger and James Oblinger

"One generation's technology is taken for granted by the next."

- I'm actually surprised that at the time of writing, Oblinger's statistics showed that children spent almost as much time playing outside as they do using screen media [1:58 v 2:01 ]. (2.2) I thought it would be less.
- I think the ability to multitask, a characteristic of the Net Gen is a positive thing and reflects the world of work.
- I hadn't thought before about the increase in ability to use non-text expression. I had just moaned about the decrease in text expression! ..."their text literacy may be less well developed"...(2.5)
- The comments of students surveyed in this report surprise me in their maturity: "Learning is based on motivation, and without teachers that motivation would cease to exist." (2.3)
-I'm not sure some of the differences (between Net Geners and pre-Net Geners) Oblinger talks about are actually differences. eg They learn better through discovery than being told. Wasn't that always the case? See also 'First-Person Learning' later (2.12)and positive correlation if students interact with material (2.13)
or they expect rapid responses. I'm not a Net Gener but I always hated having to wait for my teacher to return homework or exam results. (2.5) See also comment (2.13) "They crave interactivity - an immediate response to their each and every action." I think if you ask the average primary school teacher, you'd get the same comment!
- Is it depressing or exciting to think "For the Net Gen, the Internet is like oxygen; they can't imagine being able to live without it."? (2.9)
- Age or IT? "Individuals who are heavy users of IT tend to have characteristics similar to the Net Gen" "The difference may be in experience." (2.9, 2.10) Duhh!
- "They don't think in terms of technology; they think in terms of the activity the technology enables." (2.10)I hate to use the car analogy again, but I think in terms of the comfort, speed fuel efficiency of my car rather than the components of the engine.
- I'm surprised again to read that "Year after year, face-to-face interactions are ranked by all students in either first or second place." (2.11) Something to keep us from going too far the other way.
- I love the computer-as-door analogy..."device as an entrance to a social space." (2.12)
- What many of us already know "Digital Natives...are bored by most of today's education....the many skills that new technology [has] actually enhanced...which have profound implications for their learning..are almost totally ignore by educators."