Net Gen Life And Learning

Slide 1: NET GEN LIFE AND LEARNING Megan Poore

Slide 2: COVERAGE • Statistics and expectations • ICT proficiency and literacy • Information behaviour • Social networking and gaming • Learning needs • Moral Panic and Digital Faith • Implications

Slide 3: TECHNOLOGY TO WATCH 2007 2008 User-created content Grassroots video Social networking Collaboration webs Mobile phones Mobile broadband Virtual worlds Data mashups New scholarship and Social operating forms of publication systems Educational gaming Collective intelligence Horizon Report (2007) Horizon Report(2008)

Slide 4: SOME STATS: Incoming students Access Mobile 93% Desktop 90% Broadband 73% University of Melbourne (2006)

Slide 5: SOME STATS: Incoming students Computer use Emailing 94% Creating documents 88% Info searching 83% University of Melbourne (2006)

Slide 6: SOME STATS: Incoming students Main activities on computers ‘Overwhelmingly positive’ Study 94% Info Searching 93% Course admin 84% SMS 84% IM 75% University of Melbourne (2006)

Slide 7: STUDENT EXPECTATIONS • International students use more tech • Engineering students more likely to use tech than Arts students • Reasons for use: convenience and control – not learning University of Melbourne (2006)

Slide 8: STUDENT EXPECTATIONS • Preference for using technology • Ubiquitous internet is normal • Cautious about publishing their work for public scrutiny • Tech is not an end in itself • Face-to-face is seen as core JISC (2007)

Slide 9: STUDENT EXPECTATIONS • Uncertain about how to map current learning experience onto uni study • Cannot see how ICT and learning can work together outside of school JISC (2007)

Slide 10: ICT PROFICIENCY 1. Working with info 2. Creating and sharing info 3. Using ICT responsibly MCEETYA (2007)

Slide 11: ICT LITERACY: KEY PROCESSES 1. Accessing info (identification, retrieval) 2. Managing info (organising, storing) 3. Evaluating info (integrity, relevance, usefulness) MCEETYA (2007)

Slide 12: ICT LITERACY: KEY PROCESSES 1. New understandings (creating knowledge, authoring) 2. Communicating with others (sharing; creating products) 3. Using ICT appropriately (critical, reflective, strategy, ethics and legals) MCEETYA (2007)

Slide 13: ICT PROFICIENCY • ‘Challenging but reasonable’ expectation o Year 6: 49% o Year 10: 61% MCEETYA (2007)

Slide 14: ICT PROFICIENCY • Patterns: o Low socio-economic bkgnd o Indigeneity o Remote locality o Gender not an issue MCEETYA (2007)

Slide 15: ICT PROFICIENCY • Findings o Communication is a frequent use BUT o Less use of applications for creating, analysing, transforming information MCEETYA (2007)

Slide 16: CRITICAL CHALLENGE • Skills gap between using media to create and how to create meaningful content Horizon Report, EDUCAUSE (2007: 4-5)

Slide 17: INFORMATION BEHAVIOUR • Fit between search engines and student lifestyles is ‘almost perfect’ • Spend little time evaluating for accuracy, relevance, authority (but this is also pre- web) CIBER(2008)

Slide 18: INFORMATION BEHAVIOUR • No evidence that information literacy is worse than before • Not expert searchers – Youngsters have always had trouble evaluating info • Behaviour is now more public CIBER(2008)

Slide 19: INFORMATION BEHAVIOUR • Increase in full-phrase searching • Satisfied with basic forms of searching • Good parallel processing skills, but sequential for reading? CIBER(2008)

Slide 20: INFORMATION BEHAVIOUR • Fit between search engines and student lifestyles is ‘almost perfect’ CIBER(2008)

Slide 21: INFORMATION BEHAVIOUR • Young people are concerned about the ‘unmanageable scale’ of the Web. • They find it difficult to prioritse and evaluate search results. Green and Hannon (2007: 63)

Slide 22: INFORMATION BEHAVIOUR • Spend little time evaluating for accuracy, relevance, authority (but this is also pre-web) CIBER (2008)

Slide 23: INFORMATION BEHAVIOUR • No evidence that information literacy is worse than before • Not expert searchers – Youngsters have always had trouble evaluating info • Behaviour is now more public CIBER (2008)

Slide 24: INFORMATION BEHAVIOUR: ALL • Older users are catching up fast • All have increasing intolerance for information delay • More people are ‘powerbrowsing’ CIBER (2008)

Slide 25: INFORMATION BEHAVIOUR: ALL • Individual and personality backgrounds more important than generation • Looking for ‘the answer’ rather than particular format • Lots of pre-publishing (blogs, wikis, websites) CIBER (2008)

Slide 26: INFORMATION BEHAVIOUR: ALL • Older users are catching up fast • All have increasing intolerance for information delay • More people are ‘powerbrowsing’ CIBER (2008)

Slide 27: OLDER PEOPLE AND ICTs • Age is important re engagement re ICTs BUT • Attitude and character key to connection (not age, health, income) OFCOM (2006)

Slide 28: OLDER PEOPLE AND ICTs • Tailoring the learning environment is essential to engaging older people OFCOM (2006)

Slide 29: OLDER PEOPLE AND ICTs • Current users: absorbers; self- starters • Non-users: rejecters; disengaged • Those not connected will become increasingly excluded OFCOM (2006)

Slide 30: INFORMAL LEARNING • Social networking • Gaming

Slide 31: SOCIAL NETWORKING • Facebook, My Space • 60% of students talk about education topics online • 50 % talk about schoolwork NSBA (2007)

Slide 32: SOCIAL NETWORKING • Strengthens existing relationships • Facilitates recognisable social interactions • Is a forum for creativity and expression Green and Hannon (2007)

Slide 33: SOCIAL NETWORKING • Younger users are more likely to restrict access or withhold identifying information Pew Internet Project 2007 (21-22)

Slide 34: GAMES ... • Are hard • Are about experience, delayed gratification, exploration, teamwork, reward • Force you to decide, choose, prioritise (weigh evidence, analyse situations, consult long- term goals, decide) Johnson (2006 [2005])

Slide 35: GAMING: PROBING • Probing as scientific method: • Probe the environment • Form hyothesis • Reprobe and check the effect • Rethink based on feedback Johnson (2006 [2005]: 45)

Slide 36: GAMING: TELESCOPING • Means co-ordinating with your ultimate objectives • It’s about order and constructing proper hierarchies • Means long-term planning and present focus Johnson (2006 [2005]: 54-55)

Slide 37: GAMING • It’s not what you’re thinking, but the way you’re thinking that’s important. Johnson (2006 [2005]: 13)

Slide 38: GAMING • Need to be careful of assuming that entertainment improves us only when it carries a healthy message Johnson (2006 [2005]: 13)

Slide 39: GAMERS: 7 HABITS • Everyone can succeed • You gotta play the odds • Learn from the team, not the coach • Kill bosses, trust strategy guides • Watch the map • Can’t see it? Ignore it? • Demand the right team Beck and Wade (2006: xiv - xvii)

Slide 40: LEARNING NEEDS • Dynamic • Experiential • Learning by doing • Problem-solving Pletka (2007)

Slide 41: LEARNING NEEDS • Want to engage and be engaged • Learn through doing Veen and Vrakking (2006)

Slide 42: INFORMAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS • Are personalised • Are visual • Have links to the community • Are rigorous • Use individualised feedback Pletka (2007)

Slide 43: KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS • Must build on what we know is already working with the students • Need strategies that bridge formal and informal learning Green and Hannon (2007: 17)

Slide 44: KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS Informal learning: • Self-motivation • Ownership • Purpose • Peer-to-peer learning Green and Hannon (2007: 17)

Slide 45: KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS • Need to move away from focusing on specific areas of knowledge • Focus instead on ‘soft skills’ of problem-solving, creativity, intelligence, initiative ... Green and Hannon (2007: 22-24)

Slide 46: KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS • BUT ... • Students rank creativity as eighth most important skill for the future • Only 50% of parents say ‘classroom lessons’ are the most important method of learning for their child Green and Hannon (2007: 27)

Slide 47: KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS • Need to look at existing practices, rather than trying to figure out how students should be learning from technology Green and Hannon (2007: 25-26)

Slide 48: THE NEW DIGITAL DIVIDE • Is about access to knowledge, not PCs • It needs to be about relationships and networks: not hardware Green and Hannon (2007: 17, 59-60)

Slide 49: MYTHS: MORAL PANIC • The internet is dangerous for children. (Children self-regulate all the time.) • Junk culture is poisoning young people. (Youth culture always challenges the orthodoxy.) Green and Hannon (2007: 32, 34)

Slide 50: MYTHS: MORAL PANIC • No learning happens online. (Broad range of skills and learning that gives confidence to succeed in other contexts. Children better identify beneficial computer games than can adults.) Green and Hannon (2007: 35-36)

Slide 51: MYTHS: MORAL PANIC • There is a plagiarism epidemic in schools. (This shouldn’t be conflated with new ways of accessing information. We need to teach higher-order skills.) Green and Hannon (2007: 38)

Slide 52: MYTHS: MORAL PANIC • Young people are disengaged and disconnected. (Students use ICTs to engage with cultural and political issues, get mentoring.) Green and Hannon (2007: 39)

Slide 53: MYTHS: MORAL PANIC • This generation is one of passive consumers. (No. Media, gaming, networking communities mean large elements of production, creativity, communication.) Green and Hannon (2007: 39)

Slide 54: MYTHS: DIGITAL FAITH • All gaming is good. (There are different orders of digital activity, and not all activities are equal.) Green and Hannon (2007: 42)

Slide 55: MYTHS: DIGITAL FAITH • All children are cyberkids. (Cannot assume that behaviours from a motivated group with high access is characteristic. There is a gap between ‘everyday communicators’ and ‘digital pioneers’.) Green and Hannon (2007: 42-43)

Slide 56: IMPLICATIONS • Facility does not mean ICT literacy • Need to be careful about assumptions we make MCEETYA (2007)

Slide 57: IMPLICATIONS • Competent or just confident? • How to find the right info, then assess, validate, interpret, analyse, synthesise, critique, evaluate, put in context • The need to apply problem- solving and critical thinking skills Oblinger and Hawkins (2006)

Slide 58: IMPLICATIONS • Renewed emphasis on collaborative learning Horizon Report, EDUCAUSE (2007: 4-5)

Slide 59: IMPLICATIONS • Need to build ICT literacy through “systematic teaching rather than incidental use” • More personalised assessment MCEETYA (2007)

Slide 60: IMPLICATIONS • You need to be ICT literate, too.

Slide 61: LICENCE