Christopher Scanlon hasn't done much research on this. A simple google search would have told him that there has been a lot of work done in Australia on the concept of 'digital natives'. Most notably, Gregor Kennedy from Melbourne Uni has been leading a funded study on this concept - just completed, I think. Here's a link to one abstract: http://www.caudit.edu.au/educauseaustralasia07/papers/Digital%20Natives.pdf and here's one to a very recent article: http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet24/kennedy.html M-H On 21/01/09 12:27 PM, "Robert Ackland" <robert.ackland@anu.edu.au> wrote:
The following article in The Australian newspaper may be of interest to members of this list:
"The natives aren't quite so restless" by Christoper Scanlon http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24939539-25192,00.html
An interesting look at the existence of so-called "digital natives", and implications for teaching technology at universities.
An excerpt from the article:
"Despite the hype about digital natives' technological skills, the reality is that most students don't come to class with technological knowledge pre-installed. The question is, why is there such a divergence between claims about digital natives and the realities of the classroom? The answer is partly a matter of class, commercial interest and confusion."