Net Generation

Net Generation

1. Students have grown up with technology.

   • 20% began using computers between the ages of 5 and 8
     • Children age six or younger spend an average of two hours each day using screen media
       • Nearly equals the amount of time they spend playing outside
         • Both exceeds the amount of reading time
   • 74% have access at home
   • 61% use the Internet on a typical day.
   • Children of 4 to 6 years old
     • 27% spend over an hour a day at the keyboard.

2. Digitally Literate

   • Are more visually literate than previous generations
     • Express themselves using images
       • Their text literacy may be less well developed than previous cohorts
   • Weave together images, text, and sound in a natural way
   • Move between the real and the virtual is instantaneous
   • More likely to use the Internet for research than the library

3. Connected

   • Constantly connected and always on

4. Immediate

   • Fast response
   • Multitask
   • Move quickly from one activity to another

5. Experiential

   • Prefer to learn by doing rather by being told what to do
   • Learn well through discovery
   • Exploratory style enables them to better retain information and use it in creative and meaningful ways

6. Social

   • Displays a striking openness to diversity, differences, and sharing
   • Exchanges on the Internet are emotionally open

7. Teams.

   • Learn and work in teams.
     • Students help each other

8. Structure

   • Parameters, rules, priorities, and procedures
     • To achieve a goal.

9. Engagement and Experience

   • Inductive discovery or making observations, formu- lating hypotheses, and figuring out the rules.
     • Crave interactivity.
   • Need to be encouraged to stop experiencing and spend time reflecting

10. Visual and Kinesthetic

    • Image-rich environments
    • Doing things

11. Things that Matter

    • Try to make a difference.
      • Science and technology can be used resolve difficult problems

12. Nontraditional Learners

    • Delayed enrollment
    • Attend part-time, for all or part of the academic year
    • Work full time—35 hours or more—while enrolled
    • Financially independent as defined by financial aid
    • Have dependents, other than a spouse, which may include children or others
    • Single parent, having one or more dependent children
    • Lack of school diploma

13. First-Person Learning

    • Learning is participatory
      • Digital resources enable experiential learning
        • Construct their own learning, assembling information, tools, and frameworks from a variety of sources.

14. Asking the Right Questions

    • Who are our learners?
    • How are today’s learners different from (or the same as) faculty/ administrators?
    • What learning activities are most engaging for learners?
    • Are there ways to use IT to make learning more successful?